Beliefs and intentions link self-control with healthy behaviors, and more scientific findings

Many studies have found that people with high levels of self-control tend to engage in behaviors that support health and avoid behaviors that harm health. Although the underlying processes that link self-control to health behaviors are less clear, research in Health Psychology suggests that our beliefs, perceived control, and intentions may play an important role. Researchers performed a meta-analysis of 174 studies that reported associations among self-control (as a personality characteristic), social cognition, intention, and behaviors associated with health protection and health risk, including diet, physical activity, and alcohol consumption. As expected, high self-control was linked with health-promoting behavior across studies. This link was explained, at least in part, by participants’ beliefs about the value of a particular health behavior, their ability to perform this behavior, and their intention to do so. Although the findings do not provide evidence for causation, the researchers suggest future studies could examine attitudes and perceived control as possible mechanisms for improving health.
DOI: 10.1037/hea0001588opens in new window

Watching sports has been shown to have some social upsides, but research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests it may also have a cognitive downside: zero-sum thinking, or a general mindset that one person’s success comes at the expense of another’s. According to two online studies with 788 and 1,994 participants in the United States, people who were more engaged in sports were more likely to apply zero-sum thinking to topics such as the economy, conflict resolution, and immigration. These correlational findings were supported by two online experiments: Participants who watched a competitive sports clip reported greater zero-sum beliefs and were more likely to adopt a win-lose mentality on a negotiation task than participants who watched an instructional sports clip. Additional data collected over the Indian Premier League cricket season indicated that participants’ zero-sum beliefs fluctuated in line with their sports watching, peaking ahead of high-stakes games. Though the study didn’t include the real-world consequences of this type of thinking, zero-sum thinking has been shown to get in the way of more collaborative and collective approaches to problem-solving.
DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000520opens in new window

Social connections are known to boost health and healthy aging, but few studies have examined the additive impact of different types of social connections and resources. In a study published in American Psychologist, researchers examined cumulative social advantage as a construct encompassing social resources across various domains, including one’s early parent-child relationship quality, religious and faith-based support, connection to local community, and extended support networks. Data from more than 6,614 participants in the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study indicated that people with higher levels of cumulative social advantage tended to have fewer health conditions, fewer challenges with daily living, and were less likely to die during the study period. The findings were consistent regardless of participants’ sex, race, or level of education. Longitudinal studies can help clarify whether cumulative social advantage accrues across the life span, leading to better health outcomes over time.
DOI: 10.1037/amp0001513opens in new window

Sometimes we hear a new word before we see it written or vice versa; other times, we may hear and read a new word at the same time. Does the order of exposure matter for learning? To find out, researchers asked participants who had no familiarity with the Chinese language to study written and spoken forms of Chinese words. Two exploratory experiments indicated an advantage of hearing the word first: Participants were better at remembering how to write new words when they encountered the spoken form before the written form in their training sessions. A third preregistered experiment suggested that the advantage of hearing a word first did not apply when participants were asked to simply recognize the correct written form rather than write it themselves. The findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, suggest that presentational timing may matter more for recall memory—writing out the correct word—than for recognition memory because recall is a more cognitively demanding task. According to the researchers, the findings could inform teaching approaches for language learners.
DOI: 10.1037/xge0001915opens in new window

Racial and cultural stereotypes may affect how foreign someone is perceived to be, influencing whether they are seen as a good job candidate, according to research in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. In one online experiment, 1,039 White American participants read a job ad that included two stereotypically American characteristics: familiarity with American customs and strong English skills. They then evaluated three applicant résumés. Their evaluations indicated that applicants with stereotypically Asian American last names and stereotypically Latino American last names were seen as less hireable for the role than applicants with stereotypically Black American last names, which was partly explained by the fact that participants saw the Asian and Latino names as more culturally foreign. However, additional online experiments indicated that job context mattered: Participants saw applicants with stereotypically Asian American last names as more hireable than other applicants of color when the job required technical skills in computer programming. Based on these findings and an archival analysis of employment discrimination cases in the United States, the researchers conclude that stereotypes about foreignness may contribute to racial discrimination in job-related contexts.
DOI: 10.1037/xge0001902opens in new window

The question of whether published research is replicable—whether independent efforts to repeat a study produce similar findings—has gained considerable attention in recent years. In this large-scale study, researchers from many labs applied this question to the social and behavioral sciences, attempting to replicate 274 findings published in 54 journals across business, economics, education, political science, psychology, and sociology. The study, published in Nature, was conducted as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence (SCORE) program. Overall, the replications yielded statistically significant results in line with the original research for 55.1% of the findings. The median effect size was markedly lower for the replication attempts than for the original findings. Critically, 13 different methods for evaluating whether a replication attempt was successful provided different estimates. The researchers note that there is no single, objectively correct approach to determine whether a finding is replicable. Clarifying the factors and decisions that affect research reliability allows advancing the theory about research credibility and supporting the decision-making process for translating research insights into practice, they conclude.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-10078-yopens in new window

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tend to have certain clinical features in common, but they also show quite a bit of variability in their functioning and symptoms. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry suggests this variability may reflect distinct subtypes of ADHD marked by differences in brain structure. Comparing structural brain imaging data from 446 children with ADHD and 708 children without ADHD, researchers found noticeable differences in brain network structure between the two groups. Importantly, the brain differences associated with ADHD tended to cluster with clinical symptoms according to one of three profiles, or biotypes. Two of these biotypes—“predominantly hyperactive/impulsive” and “predominantly inattentive”—aligned with common clinical profiles for ADHD. The third biotype, “combined,” indicated a more extreme clinical profile marked by severe symptoms and emotional dysregulation. Data from an independent group of 554 children with ADHD provided support for the three biotypes. Additional studies that link these biotypes to neurochemical and functional differences could clarify underlying brain mechanisms and potentially inform treatment approaches for people with ADHD, the researchers conclude.
DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2026.0001opens in new window

Adults of all ages are using dating apps these days, but are they using them for the same reasons? Researchers surveyed 301 dating app users ranging in age from 18 to 86 years old, asking them to rate the extent to which they used the apps for social approval, relationship seeking, sexual experience, socializing, and entertainment. Participants also rated aspects of their well-being. The findings, published in Psychology and Aging, suggest that dating app users’ motivations varied with age. Specifically, the older a participant was, the more likely they were to use them for socializing and the less likely they were to use dating apps for sexual experience, relationship seeking, and social approval. Using dating apps for social approval was linked with higher levels of loneliness, but only among older adults. According to the researchers, apps that emphasize meaningful interactions and connections may align with older adults’ social motivations while also supporting aspects of their well-being.
DOI: 10.1037/pag0000985opens in new window

Cannabis is known to have short-term effects on memory and other aspects of cognition, but data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study suggest it may also influence the cognitive development trajectories of children and teens. The research, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, examined data from 11,036 children who enrolled in the ABCD Study at age 9 or 10 and completed follow-up measures over the next 10 years. These measures included assessments gauging memory, inhibitory control, visuospatial processing, and processing speed. Although participants who reported using cannabis tended to have slightly higher cognitive performance in late childhood relative to their cannabis-free peers, they also showed relatively less improvement in cognitive performance over time. This pattern remained even after the researchers accounted for family history, mental health conditions, and other potential confounds. Hair sample data from 645 participants indicated a link between THC exposure and worse episodic memory. While additional studies are needed to understand whether timing, frequency, and type of cannabis use matter, these findings suggest interventions to delay cannabis use may benefit children’s cognitive development.
DOI: 10.1038/s41386-026-02395-1opens in new window

Globally, women seeking jobs are less likely than their male counterparts to be referred by their professional networks for positions in male-dominated fields. But a series of studies in the Journal of Applied Psychology highlights a simple strategy that might help increase the number of women referred: prompting job candidates to refer others for employment. In one field study, researchers examined referrals from 5,946 people who applied for positions at the Indian office of a global advisory and research firm. After completing their own application, applicants saw a form where they could voluntarily refer others for the many open positions at the company. Receiving a prompt to list four referrals instead of two increased the overall number of women who were referred, as did explicitly encouraging applicants to refer women. The findings also revealed a potential downside: Being prompted to list a higher number of referrals made people less likely to refer anyone. Further studies are needed to clarify the benefits, and trade-offs, of setting referral targets.
DOI: 10.1037/apl0001373opens in new window

Longitudinal data from Norwegian fathers shed light on how different paternal risk and protective factors contribute to infants’ early emotional and behavioral development. For the study, 864 fathers-to-be completed measures of various risk factors that could impact child development, including depressive symptoms, alcohol intake, pregnancy-related anxiety, life stress, and not planning to live with the child’s mother. When the participants’ infants were 12 months old, the researchers used self- report and observational measures to capture a potential protective factor—the fathers’ caregiving warmth. Analyses indicated that fathers with higher levels of risk factors tended to have infants with higher levels of social and emotional symptoms, both externalizing and internalizing, at 18 months. Fathers with more caregiving warmth tended to have infants with lower externalizing symptoms, such as impulsiveness and aggression, at 18 months. However, caregiving warmth did not moderate the impact of paternal risk, suggesting caregiving warmth has a positive influence but does not buffer other negative influences. The findings, published in Developmental Psychology, highlight the importance of including fathers in research on early child development.
DOI: 10.1037/dev0002191opens in new window

Psychedelic drugs are receiving increasing public and scientific attention, but the brain mechanisms that drive psychedelic effects are not well understood. To clarify conflicting findings from previous studies, researchers synthesized 11 independent resting-state fMRI data sets, representing acute psychedelic effects, for five psychedelic drugs: psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), mescaline, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and ayahuasca. Across drugs and data sets, psychedelics were associated with increased connectivity between transmodal networks that support cognitive processing (e.g., default mode, frontoparietal, and limbic networks) and unimodal networks that support sensorimotor processing (visual and somatomotor networks). Subcortical regions (including the caudate and putamen) and the cerebellum were also linked with altered connectivity with sensorimotor networks. The findings, published in Nature Medicine, suggest different psychedelics may have some similar effects, reconfiguring how large-scale brain networks interact. According to the researchers, these findings provide a foundation for more comprehensive neuroimaging studies, helping to advance a more integrated understanding of how psychedelics alter brain function.
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-026-04287-9opens in new window

Italian and Spanish are closely related languages, but does that mean Italian speakers and Spanish speakers truly understand each other? Maybe not as much as they think, according to research in Psychological Science. In two online studies, 116 native Italian speakers and 296 native Mandarin speakers listened to sentences with ambiguous meanings. The sentences were recorded in either Spanish or the Northern Jiangsu Chinese dialect, languages the participants had never learned. For each ambiguous sentence, they saw a translation in their native language and selected one of four possible meanings. While Spanish speakers were more likely to overestimate their understanding of Italian than the Northern Jiangsu dialect, the findings were reversed for Mandarin speakers. Analyses indicated that language closeness led participants to report more confidence in their choices, which, in turn, led them to overestimate how much they understood the speaker’s intent. According to the researchers, the studies underscore the importance of examining calibration, or how adept listeners are at knowing when they understand and when they do not, in communications-related studies.
DOI: 10.1177/09567976261435965opens in new window

Increased negative emotions like hopelessness and sadness are hallmarks of depression, but a study in Clinical Psychological Science suggests depression may also be linked with dampening, or downplaying positive feelings. For the study, researchers examined cross-sectional data from a sample of 4,015 participants and longitudinal data from a sample of 1,457 participants. Overall, they found that features of dampening were most strongly linked with key depressive symptoms like negative self-perceptions, pessimistic outlook, and pervasive negative emotions. Longitudinal analyses indicated that two future-oriented aspects of dampening—believing “these [positive] feelings won’t last” and “my streak of luck is going to end soon”—were most predictive of later depressive symptoms. While additional studies with clinical samples are needed to confirm these findings, the researchers suggest that dampening may be another possible point of intervention for people with depression.
DOI: 10.1177/21677026251413535opens in new window

There are many ways to greet someone: You could nod, bow, wave, shake their hand, or make some other form of acknowledgment. None of these greetings is inherently correct, so how do we learn the appropriate social convention for different situations? Research in PNAS suggests a simple threshold mechanism may come into play. The findings suggest that people glean information about each other up to a threshold; once the threshold for sufficient information is met, they develop a stabilized convention. In one experiment, 800 participants played a game in which they had to guess which color would match their partner’s preferences over several rounds. While the partner’s choices skewed toward a certain color, indicating an overarching convention, the choices did show some variation. The researchers found that a threshold model best captured participants’ color guesses across successive rounds, outperforming other potential theoretical models. Noting the constraints of the experimental task, the researchers suggest these findings provide a theoretical foundation for investigating norms and social conventions in more complex real-world contexts.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2508061123opens in new window

We may gravitate toward conversations on topics that interest us, but a series of experiments suggests we could be missing out on the enjoyment to be had from talking about something we expect to be boring. Before a conversation, participants either chose or were assigned a topic, then estimated how interesting the conversation would be, how much they would enjoy it, and how likely they would want another one. They also rated their actual experience afterward. The findings, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, revealed a gap between these pre- and post-conversation ratings: Participants consistently underestimated the appeal of boring conversations, regardless of whether they happened virtually or in person, with a friend or a stranger, or involved a topic they chose versus one chosen for them. The researchers suggest that people overlook social dynamics that are enjoyable but hard to anticipate.
DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000521opens in new window