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Individuals with high levels of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism — known as the “dark triad” of personality traits — do not appear to have an impaired ability to empathize, according to new research published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. But these individua…

Neuroscientists from the University of Arizona have potentially identified a neural biomarker of mood vulnerability following sleep loss. Their study found that white matter compactness in three important brain networks is related to resilience to mood degradation during sleep deprivation.

“I have been continually interested in how individuals respond to existential concerns, that is, concerns of inevitable death, meaninglessness, freedom (and consequences) of choice, and inherent isolation,” said study author Peter Helm, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Missour…

“Altruism is considered a defining feature of mankind, but how altruism has become so prevalent has long intrigued and puzzled psychologists and evolutionary biologists,” explained study author Cyril C. Grueter, a senior lecturer at the University of Western Australia.

“Countless lab-bas…

A study published in the journal Scientific Reports provides new insights into the effects of music on thoughts. The research indicates that heroic music tends to evoke more empowering and motivating thoughts, while sad music tends to evoke more relaxing or depressive thoughts.

“While we…

“We have many treatments in psychiatry that are effective — meaning they are able to reduce symptoms — but we know very little about how they work, or how they change brain function to lead to symptom improvement,” said study author Jonathan Posner, the Suzanne Crosby Murphy Associate Professor …

Crying may aid in the regulation of breathing during stressful situations, according to new research published in the journal Emotion. The study sought to better understand the functions of human crying — and whether crying had any physiologically soothing effects.

“We became interested …

A recently published study — which included two controlled experiments — has found that smartphone use can lead to a diminished ability to analyze and reason about the meaning of information. But this effect appears to be transient, according to the new research, which appears in the journal App…

“Currently, more than 30 states have policies in place that permit medicinal cannabis use; many of these cite pain conditions as inclusionary criteria. However, despite expanding use, what we know about ‘how’ and ‘why’ cannabinoids alleviate pain remains poorly understood,” said study author Jul…

“Almost everyone on my mum’s side of the family are musicians and music lovers. My grandad was a drummer in a Dixieland band with all his brothers and later his sons. My brother and I and many of my cousins have also sat in with the band over the years. My dad’s side of the family — not so much!…

“Due to rising societal concerns about pornography use, particularly in young people, most research in the field focuses on potential adverse outcome. We wanted to explore, using longitudinal data, if there is any link between adolescents’ sexual satisfaction and their use of pornography,” said …

“Two reasons brought us to this research: first, there were no neuroimaging studies that explored the neural processing of corruption and, second, corruption in Spain is not having the expected political consequences (voting behavior), even though everyday citizens watch news about corruption,” …

New research indicates that social anxiety disorder is tied to memory processes. Previous research has found that the negativity of memories tends to fade over time. But the new study, which appears in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, suggests the opposite is true among those with social anxi…

“I first became interested in this topic while working on a project looking into the relationship between personality traits and musical preferences. At the time, I was studying evolutionary psychology and became familiar with Satoshi Kanazawa’s Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis,” said study aut…

“Religious traditions advocate compassion and caring for the needy and encourage charitable activities. We were interested in knowing whether religious compassion also translates to greater concern for income inequality and support for government redistribution to reduce it,” said study author G…

People who are intellectually humble tend to score better on a test of general knowledge, according to new research published in The Journal of Positive Psychology. The new findings also provide some insights into the particular traits that could explain the link between intellectual humility an…

Previous research has found a strong link between childhood maltreatment and depression. “Importantly, sleep disturbance may be one critical mechanism through which individuals exposed to maltreatment are vulnerable for recurrent depressive episodes. Indeed, sleep complaints are among the most c…

People who endorse destiny beliefs about relationships tend to think that partners are either compatible or they are not, and that relationships that do not start off well inevitably fail. People who endorse growth beliefs, on the other hand, believe that the ideal relationship develops graduall…

“Throughout my career, I have worked with patients with antisocial behavior problems, many of whom are involved with the criminal justice system. We sometimes focus our efforts on co-occurring disorders such as drug abuse, mood and anxiety disorders. But our lab has been partly interested in bet…

“In the last decade, there has been a renewed scientific interest in the utility of psychedelics. Increasing evidence suggests that psychedelics like psilocybin may have potential therapeutic value for disorders like anxiety, depression, and PTSD,” said Natasha Mason (@NL_Mason), a PhD candidate…

“Social media are so different from traditional types of media. In decades past, audiences had to choose to turn on the TV or open a newspaper to receive political information. Today, we receive that information inadvertently while scrolling through our Facebook and Twitter feeds. What’s more, t…

“Severe depression strikes millions of people each year, and up to one-third of these individuals do not respond to currently available treatments (medications, psychotherapy, brain stimulation),” said Brian James Mickey of the University of Utah, the corresponding author of the study.

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“Many have ridiculed Donald Trump for his use of simple language with low levels of linguistic complexity. The Washington Post, for instance, reported that Trump “speaks like a 5th grader” (here), while other politicians used language as complex as that of 6th-8th grader,” said study author Bert…

A new exploratory study has attempted to systematically measure the psychological changes produced by microdosing — or taking very small amounts of psychedelic substances on a regular basis. The findings, which appear in PLOS One, suggest that microdosing can improve several aspects of psycholog…

New research indicates that corrections have a moderate influence on belief in misinformation. The findings are published in the journal Communication Mono ...