Psychological Science

Political Differences

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 15:29:49 GMT

APS Research Topic covers issues related to voting, political traits, cognition, and biases.

Under the Cortex: How Depression and Stress Could Dampen Efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccines

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:40:01 GMT

Health behaviors and emotional stressors can alter the body’s ability to develop an immune response to vaccines, including—potentially—the new COVID-19 vaccines. Simple interventions, including exercising and getting a good night’s sleep in the 24 hours before vaccination, may maximize the vaccine’s initial effectiveness. We interview Annelise Madison of The Ohio State University about a recently accepted paper in Perspectives on Psychological Science explaining the mind-body connection and the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Best Evidence for How to Overcome COVID Vaccine Fears

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 19:11:56 GMT

Operation Warp Speed has certainly lived up to its name. The arrival of the first coronavirus vaccines less than a year after the pandemic began blew away the previous development record of four years, which was held by the mumps vaccine. Now social scientists and public health communications pros must clear another hurdle: ensuring that enough people actually roll up their sleeves and give the shots a shot—two doses per person for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines that won emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in mid-December. Somewhere between 60 and 90 percent of adults and children must be vaccinated or have antibodies resulting from infection in order to arrive at the safe harbor known as herd immunity, where the whole community is protected.

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Research shows that some surprisingly simple interventions can make a difference. The one with the biggest proved impact, Milkman says, is to make the desired action—in this case, vaccination—the default. A 2010 study at Rutgers University showed that informing people that a dose of flu vaccine was waiting for them at a specified time and place (although the appointment could be changed) boosted their vaccination rate by 36 percent, compared with a control group that was e-mailed a Web link to schedule their own appointment. In other words, opt out works better than opt in.

Another effective tactic is sending relentless reminders. Milkman points to a 2019 study involving 1,104 patients with tuberculosis in Kenya. Its goal was to get more people to complete their drug treatment regimen. About half of the participants were assigned to a control group. The others got daily text messages reminding them to take their meds. If they did not respond in the affirmative, they got two more text reminders that day and, if that failed, phone calls. The strategy was, “basically, just nagging the heck out of them,” as Milkman puts it. Nearly 96 percent of patients in the nagged group were treated successfully, compared with about 87 percent of the control group.

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Depression and Stress Could Dampen Efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccines: Interventions and Health ...

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 19:07:02 GMT

Summary: Health behaviors and emotional stressors can alter the body’s ability to develop an immune response to vaccines, including—potentially—the new COVID-19 vaccines. Simple interventions, including exercising and getting a good night’s sleep in the 24 hours before vaccination, may maximize the vaccine’s initial effectiveness.

Decades of research show that depression, stress, loneliness, and poor health behaviors can weaken the body’s immune system and lower the effectiveness of certain vaccines. A new report accepted for publication in Perspectives on Psychological Science suggests that the same may be true for the new COVID-19 vaccines that are in development and the early stages of global distribution. Fortunately, it may be possible to reduce these negative effects with simple steps like exercise and sleep.

Vaccines are among the safest and most effective advances in medical history, protecting society from a wide range of otherwise devastating diseases, including smallpox and polio. The key to their success, however, is ensuring that a critical percentage of the population is effectively vaccinated to achieve so-called herd immunity.

Even though rigorous testing has shown that the COVID-19 vaccines approved for distribution in the United States are highly effective at producing a robust immune response, not everyone will immediately gain their full benefit. Environmental factors, as well as an individual’s genetics and physical and mental health, can weaken the body’s immune system, slowing the response to a vaccine.

This is particularly troubling as the novel coronavirus continues to rage across the world, trigging a concurrent mental health crisis as people deal with isolation, economic stressors, and uncertainty about the future. These challenges are the same factors that have been previously shown to weaken vaccine efficacy, particularly among the elderly.

“In addition to the physical toll of COVID-19, the pandemic has an equally troubling mental health component, causing anxiety and depression, among many other related problems. Emotional stressors like these can affect a person’s immune system, impairing their ability to ward off infections,” said Annelise Madison, a researcher at The Ohio State University and lead author on the paper. “Our new study sheds light on vaccine efficacy and how health behaviors and emotional stressors can alter the body’s ability to develop an immune response. The trouble is that the pandemic in and of itself could be amplifying these risk factors.”

Vaccines work by challenging the immune system. Within hours of a vaccination, there is an innate, general immune response on the cellular level as the body begins to recognize a potential biological threat. This frontline response by the immune system is eventually aided by the production of antibodies, which target specific pathogens. It is the continued production of antibodies that helps to determine how effective a vaccine is at conferring long-term protection.

“The thing that excites me is that some of these factors are modifiable. It’s possible to do some simple things to maximize the vaccine’s initial effectiveness.”
Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, The Ohio State University

“In our research, we focus most heavily on the antibody response, though it is just one facet of the adaptive immune system’s response,” said Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, director of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at The Ohio State University and senior author on the paper.

The good news, according to the researchers, is that the COVID-19 vaccines already in circulation are approximately 95% effective. Even so, these psychological and behavioral factors can lengthen the amount of time it takes to develop immunity and can shorten the duration of immunity.

“The thing that excites me is that some of these factors are modifiable,” said Kiecolt-Glaser. “It’s possible to do some simple things to maximize the vaccine’s initial effectiveness.”

Based on prior research, one strategy the researchers suggest is to engage in vigorous exercise and get a good night’s sleep in the 24 hours before vaccination so that your immune system is operating at peak performance. This may help ensure that the best and strongest immune response happens as quickly as possible.

“Prior research suggests that psychological and behavioral interventions can improve vaccine responsiveness. Even shorter-term interventions can be effective,” said Madison. “Therefore, now is the time to identify those at risk for a poor immune response and intervene on these risk factors.”

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Reference: Madison, A. A., Shrout, M. R., Renna, M. E., Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (2021). Psychological and behavioral predictors of vaccine efficacy: Considerations for COVID-19. Advance: Social Sciences & Humanities.

Additional information in APS Research Topic on Vaccination.

How to Manage Your New-Year Expectations

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 18:43:21 GMT

Ah, New Year’s Eve is fast approaching, and it’s finally time to leave the wreckage of 2020 behind. Except for many people, it seems as if not much will change except the year on the calendar, making the new year feel about as much of a refresh as a frozen browser. There isn’t even another date you can count down to. If you’re wondering how to emotionally prepare for the groundhog-day months ahead — and maybe even find some joy in the coming season — here’s some advice.

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Why People Latch on to Conspiracy Theories, According to Science

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 18:19:42 GMT

Insurgents swarmed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to create chaos and defy legislators who had gathered to certify electoral votes. The presidential election, they say, was stolen—a belief encouraged by a powerful and trusted leader.

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But the idea that the election was rigged is, by definition, a conspiracy theory—an explanation for events that relies on the assertion that powerful people are dishonestly manipulating society. In reality, dozens of lawsuits espousing accusations of voter fraud have been thrown out by state and federal courts.

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Experts say that the majority of people do not easily fall for falsehoods. But when misinformation offers simple, casual explanations for otherwise random events, “it helps restore a sense of agency and control for many people,” says Sander van der Linden, a social psychologist at the University of Cambridge.

The misinformation constantly swirling around us is now set against the backdrop of the pandemic, an unemployment crisis, mass demonstrations against police violence and racial injustice, and a deeply polarizing presidential election. During times of turmoil, the explanations provided by conspiracy theories and other falsehoods can be even more appealing—though not impossible to discourage or resist.

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Strengthening Contact Tracing Through Psychological Science

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 18:46:55 GMT

A single person infected with COVID-19 can unknowingly set off an outbreak simply by going about their normal day-to-day activities. Efficient contact tracing is one of the few weapons against the spread of the virus, along with social distancing and mask-wearing, at least until a higher percentage of the population is vaccinated.  

In a recent article in Perspectives on Psychological Science, APS Board member Maryanne Garry (University of Waikato, New Zealand) and colleagues explored the impact of human memory on the efficacy of contact tracing and the challenges of making it more efficient.  

“Contact tracing’s ability to prevent further transmission is only as effective as the quality of the information that people provide.”

Maryanne Garry (University of Waikato, New Zealand) and colleagues.

Contact tracing is a process by which public health officials identify people (contacts) who have been exposed to a person infected with a pathogen or other hazard. By ensuring that people at risk for infection don’t come into contact with others and targeting treatment toward those most likely to be infected, contact tracing can interrupt transmission among people and slow the spread of an infection, Garry and colleagues explained, citing Eames and Keeling (2003). 

However, “contact tracing’s ability to prevent further transmission is only as effective as the quality of the information that people provide,” the researchers noted. That’s where the human-memory element enters. Infected persons must provide contact tracers with complete and accurate information about their contacts and activities both before and after they realized they were sick. Because of contact tracing’s reliance on memory, contact tracers face the same five challenges as people who interview witnesses, Garry and colleagues explained. Witnesses are known to: 

unwittingly omit information (e.g., common daily activities that do not stand out in memory), 
be imprecise (e.g., because it is difficult to recall distance and time with precision), 
make mistakes (because recalling information is a reconstructive process prone to errors—e.g., false memories), 
have vulnerabilities (e.g., the infectious patients identified by health authorities are often sick), and 
sometimes be reluctant to report what they recall (e.g., because they fear punitive consequences).

One way to improve the effectiveness of contact tracing is to treat infected people like important witnesses to the spread of a virus and use an approach informed by research on memory and witness interviewing, Garry and colleagues noted. “[Interviewing] protocols typically provide a structured yet flexible combination of psychologically informed techniques and, broadly speaking, significantly increase the amount of information elicited with little meaningful cost to accuracy.”  

Conducting an effective interview, they noted, includes: 

developing a good rapport with the witness; 
managing the witness’s expectations about their role in the interview, to help overcome reluctance to report information; 
asking questions and providing instructions that promote detail and accuracy—for example, using a questioning strategy that does not steer witnesses toward any particular response but helps them mentally place themselves in past encounters with contacts; and
using retrieval-support techniques (e.g., incorporating a timeline or an event history calendar).

Using these research-based principles, along with technological solutions such as contact-tracing apps, can help reduce the spread of COVID-19. However, “tackling COVID-19 requires an understanding about not only memory but also human behavior itself,” Garry and colleagues wrote. This includes an understanding of how people understand risk, make decisions under uncertainty, and come to believe and spread claims that are not true. Psychological science can help by providing rigorous scientific research into these areas and improving the way science is communicated.  

References

Eames, K. T. D., & Keeling, M. J. (2003). Contact tracing and disease control. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 270(1533), 2565–2571. 

Garry, M., Hope, L., Zajac, R., Verrall, A. J., & Robertson, J. M. (2020). Contact tracing: A memory task with consequences for public health. Perspectives on Psychological Science. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620978205 

Worried About Your Toddler Right Now? Take a Deep Breath

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 17:31:57 GMT

As Ashlyn Atigre prepared to take her healthy son to the pediatrician for his 3-year-old well visit recently, a nagging concern was on her mind.

“I want to talk about the social impact of the pandemic with the doctor,” said the Tampa, Florida, mother. “I’m an introvert but clearly need people. And I’m seeing his shyness increase and wondering if it’s Covid, if I’m just seeing my genes or if it’s because he’s almost three and at a new (stage) in life.”

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While these worries are valid, they’re unlikely to bear longtime consequences on normally developing toddlers, said Amy Learmonth, a professor of psychology at William Paterson University of New Jersey.”Toddlers’ whole goal in life is to keep their caregiver close, which is why they do so many of the unattractive things they do,” Learmonth said. “So in some ways, the necessities of the pandemic have given them exactly what they want.”

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Under the Cortex: 2020 Year in Review

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 14:33:47 GMT

What happens when APS Media Relations director Charles Blue chats with APS Senior Science Writer Ludmila Nunes? A fun discussion on 2020’s most interesting research, that’s what!

Many of the major news stories of 2020 were closely tied to understanding human behavior, including efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, understand political divides and social conflicts, and address enduring racial disparities and inequality.

You can read the entire story here.

Statement on Riot at U.S. Congress

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 18:04:49 GMT

On January 6, 2021, the world witnessed a mob fueled by misinformation and anger storm the United States Capitol Building to subvert the electoral process and the peaceful transfer of power in the United States. These horrific events have tragically resulted in the loss of life, injuries to law enforcement officers, the destruction of property, and damage to U.S. democracy.

“These events are a sad reflection of increased political polarization and the willful propagation of misinformation and conspiracy theories,” said Robert Gropp, executive director of the Association for Psychological Science (APS). “We must endeavor to break the cycles of vitriol, hatred, and mistrust that have taken root in the United States and in other countries around the world.”

Psychological science research provides insights to help us combat misinformation campaigns and the spread of conspiracy theories, as well as foster effective communication. APS has compiled resources related to these topics that we are pleased to make available to the public on our website.

The APS Board of Directors and staff members have been considering additional ways that APS and its members can advance research and the application of existing psychological science knowledge to promote greater civil engagement in political discourse. More details about these efforts will be announced in the future.

Related APS Resources: Conspiracy Theories, Myths and Misinformation, and Public Distrust

January/February Observer

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 14:44:17 GMT

Psychological scientists have long studied bias, from explicit and implicit attitudes to stereotypes and structural inequality. Now they’re working to apply those findings within the field itself. More

NIH Seeks Research Proposals on Vaccine Hesitancy, Uptake, and Implementation

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 18:31:21 GMT

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued a notice of special interest for research strategies and interventions that can help in addressing the problem of vaccine hesitancy in populations and communities that experience health disparities. NIH notes that there are disparities in uptake and acceptance of vaccines in adults from racial and ethnic minority populations, and further research is needed to understand what role misinformation, distrust, and vaccine hesitancy play in the process. NIH notes that applications on urgent vaccination topics like SARS-CoV-2 are encouraged.

The solicitation notes key questions that can be addressed, including (but not limited to):

What interventions and strategies are most effective to increase the reach, access, acceptance, and vaccine completion among populations that experience health disparities?
How can evidence-based interventions that have reduced vaccine hesitancy and increased both access and uptake of other vaccinations (e.g., influenza and HPV) be adapted and/or adopted to increase the uptake of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine?
How can social media, digital marketing, and other innovative technologies (such as smart phone applications) be integrated into vaccine promotion interventions to identify and address the sources of misinformation regarding vaccination?
How can vaccine-related communications on coronavirus, HPV, influenza, and other vaccines be generated and promoted by clinicians and healthcare systems to be community and culturally appropriate?
What are effective culturally specific and/or community competent approaches for reducing barriers and increasing the vaccination uptake and completion?
What service delivery or organizational level policies are effective in facilitating broad vaccination uptake and reducing barriers such as stigma, distrust, fear, discrimination, and exposure to misinformation?
What are effective dissemination and implementation strategies related to vaccination in clinical and community settings?
What rapid data collection methods (e.g., rapid ethnographic assessments) can be used to identify and prioritize vaccine interventions in communities?

NIH’s call for research on these topics expires January 8, 2022.

For more information, view the Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Research to Address Vaccine Hesitancy, Uptake, and Implementation among Populations that Experience Health Disparities here.

Under the Cortex: The Challenges of Military Veterans in Their Transition to the Workplace

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 16:16:15 GMT

Long-standing structural features of the military have created a culture and society that is dramatically different and disconnected from civilian society. Thus, veterans transitioning to civilian society face a number of challenges related to fulfilling basic psychological needs. To explore this issue in detail APS’s Charles Blue interviews Steven Shepherd and David Sherman about their recently published paper in Perspectives on Psychological Science: “The Challenges of Military Veterans in Their Transition to the Workplace: A Call for Integrating Basic and Applied Psychological Science.”

This One Simple Trick Can Make Your New Year’s Resolution More Likely to Stick

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 21:22:31 GMT

Want to replace your television habit with exercise? “I want to start running” could work better than “I want to quit watching TV so much.”

How we phrase our New Year’s resolution could give us a slight edge as to whether or not we’ll stick to the new habit, according to a study published Wednesday in the open-access journal PLOS One.

Frame your resolution in the positive, as something you’re committing to doing may work better than framing your goal around quitting a bad habit or avoiding a particular greasy food.

Researchers at Stockholm University and Linköping University in Sweden analyzed resolutions made by 1,066 people. The team divided participants into three groups — people who got no support, limited support and extended support — and checked in each month throughout the year to see how well the subjects were staying true to their resolutions.

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This Year, Try Downsizing Your Resolutions

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 18:25:36 GMT

After the unpredictable, torrid year we’ve had, the idea of making New Year’s resolutions for 2021 might seem a tad overwhelming.

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Just because it’s the first of January doesn’t mean you will automatically feel motivated to start a new habit.

“You’re not going to sustain a behavior change unless you have internal motivation,” said Sara L. Dolan, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

So when making New Year’s resolutions, consider what changes you’d like to make, but also why you want to make them, Dr. Dolan advised. What makes you feel committed to reaching your goal?

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Don’t Let The Pandemic Winter Get You Down: 9 Creative Ways To Socialize Safely

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 21:22:11 GMT

With COVID-19 cases still soaring across the U.S., it can be tempting to just ride the winter out on the couch, binging on Netflix. But psychologists say it’s important in 2021 for us all to keep up human contact.

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Under the Cortex: Primatology and Psychology, Shedding Light on Culture and Behavior

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 14:47:44 GMT

Frans de Waal is a Dutch/American biologist and primatologist known for his work on the behavior and social intelligence of primates. His latest research concerns empathy and cooperation, inequity aversion and social cognition in chimpanzees, bonobos, and other species.

In a discussion with APS’s Charles Blue, Frans explores the connection between primatology and psychology and how they intersect on issues of culture and behavior. This discussions relates to the APS President Shinobu Kitayama‘s (professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition) column in the January-February 2021 Observer.

A Smile at a Wedding and a Cheer at a Soccer Game Are Alike the World Over

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 21:23:07 GMT

In the 19th century, French clinician Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne posited that humans universally use their facial muscles to make at least 60 discrete expressions, each reflecting one of 60 specific emotions. Charles Darwin, who greeted that number with some skepticism, was invested in exploring the universality of facial expressions as evidence of humanity’s common evolutionary history. He ended up writing a book about human expressions, leaning heavily toward the idea that at least some were common across all cultures.

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New Research in Psychological Science

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 14:00:00 GMT

Susceptibility to Being Lured Away by a Stranger: A Real-World Field Test of Selective Trust in Early Childhood
Qinggong Li, Wenyu Zhang, Gail D. Heyman, Brian J. Compton, and Kang Lee

Children aged 3 to 6 years old were tested in their preschool playground. While the child was alone, a stranger (confederate researcher) engaged them in a conversation, ultimately trying to lure them away from the school grounds. About half of the children were willing to leave with the stranger. More children trusted a female stranger than a male stranger. Older children especially were more willing to leave if the female stranger provided some accurate information (e.g., the child’s mother’s name). When the stranger was a man, children were reluctant to leave regardless of the information accuracy.

Prosocial Influence and Opportunistic Conformity in Adolescents and Young Adults
Gabriele Chierchia, Blanca Piera Pi-Sunyer, and Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

Social influence can be both a vulnerability and an opportunity to boost prosocial behaviors. Participants between 11 and 35 years old received 50 tokens (with real monetary value) and decided how many, if any, they wished to donate to different charities. After making their decisions, participants were informed of others’ decisions and allowed to revise their donations. Older participants were least likely to revise their donations after learning about others’ donations. Contrary to previous research findings, adults were as likely to conform to selfish others and to prosocial others, just like adolescents.

Linking Detail to Temporal Structure in Naturalistic-Event Recall
Nicholas B. Diamond and Brian Levine

What is the temporal organization that accompanies memories of real-world experiences? Younger and older adults went on an audio-guided art tour and, 2 days or 1 week after, freely recalled their experience. Participants recalled the temporal structure of the event, grouping items they saw in sequence (contiguity) and beginning their recall by remembering the first items and progressing forward to the last items (forward asymmetry). Further, older adults had a more temporally disorganized memory. Moreover, the more participants’ recall followed the temporal structure of the experience, the more detailed the recollection.

The Truth Is Out There: Accuracy in Recall of Verifiable Real-World Events
Nicholas B. Diamond, Michael J. Armson, and Brian Levine

Although memory detail fades with age and time, memories about real-world experiences (that did not occur in the lab) can be very accurate, this study indicates. Younger and older adults went through the real-world experiences of a mask-fitting procedure and an audio-guided art tour and later freely recalled the most they could about the event. Older participants and those tested after a longer period of time recalled fewer details than younger participants and those tested closely after the event. However, the details recalled were very accurate across age and time (93–95%). This level of accuracy is much higher than scientists estimated in a survey.

Keeping an Eye on Effort: A Pupillometric Investigation of Effort and Effortlessness in Visual Word Recognition
Adi Shechter and David L. Share

Pseudowords (i.e., letter strings that can be read and sound like words but aren’t actual words) are more difficult to read than familiar words, as indicated by increases and other changes in pupil dilation. In four experiments, Shechter and Share used pupillary measures to examine the cognitive effort involved in reading pseudowords aloud and silently, among adults and fourth to sixth graders. Reading pseudowords required more effort than reading familiar words, a finding that aligns with data from previous studies showing that reading pseudowords takes longer and is more prone to errors than reading actual words.

Personality Changes Predict Early Career Outcomes: Discovery and Replication in 12-Year Longitudinal Studies
Kevin A. Hoff, Sif Einarsdóttir, Chu Chu, Daniel A. Briley, and James Rounds

Personality changes from adolescence to adulthood appear to impact early career outcomes. Hoff and colleagues measured personality traits over 12 years (ages 17 to 29 years) in Icelandic youth and found that participants reported higher career satisfaction when they experienced growth in emotional stability, conscientiousness, or extraversion. Participants also reported higher income when they experienced growth of emotional stability and higher job satisfaction when they experienced growth in extraversion. These findings suggest that policy actions that help young people develop personality-based skills might improve human well-being.

Delayed Judgments of Learning Are Associated With Activation of Information From Past Experiences: A Neurobiological Examination
Timothy D. Kelley, Debbie A. McNeely, Michael J. Serra, and Tyler Davis

This study provides neuroimaging evidence indicating that people retrieve information about past experience and use it as a basis for their judgments of learning (i.e., predictions about how well they will remember information in the future). Kelley and colleagues collected functional MRI measures while participants learned pairs of items (e.g., an object and a face) and provided judgments of learning immediately after either studying a pair or a delay. The researchers found that brain activation patterns associated with past experience were heightened when participants were providing delayed judgments but not when they were making immediate judgments.

Breakthroughs and Discoveries in Psychological Science: 2020 Year in Review

Tue, 29 Dec 2020 19:17:34 GMT

A wealth of research published by the Association for Psychological Science (APS) addresses these and other important topics. The following is a selection of some of APS’s most newsworthy research and highly cited publications from 2020. These stories emphasize the importance of peer-reviewed psychological research and its impact on society.

Top 10 APS News Releases of 2020, Metrics Provided by Newswise

Romance, Scent, and Sleep: The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of: Research published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that the scent of a romantic partner can improve your quality of sleep. This is true regardless of whether you are consciously aware that the scent is even present.

Violent Video Games and Aggression: The Connection Is Dubious, at Best: The coronavirus pandemic put a damper on many traditional summertime activities for kids, giving them more opportunity to socialize with friends virtually through online gaming. But many hours of extra screen time worried some parents, especially in light of a 2015 report linking violent video games with aggressive behavior in children. A reanalysis of previous findings published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science found no clear link between video game violence and aggression in children.

Stemming the Spread of Misinformation on Social Media: The dangers of COVID-19 could worsen if misinformation on social media continues to spread unchecked, according to research published in Psychological Science. Though there is no practical way to fully stem the tide of harmful misinformation on social media, certain tactics could help improve the quality of information that people share online about this deadly disease.

Psychological Science and COVID-19: Conspiracy Theories: Why are conspiracy theories so popular? Who believes them? Why do people believe them? What are some of the consequences of conspiracy theories, and can such theories be harmful? These questions are explored by Karen Douglas, professor of social psychology at the University of Kent, UK, whose research focuses on beliefs in conspiracy theories.

Pandemic Effects on Marriage and Relationships: Beyond its economic toll, COVID-19 is also having a negative impact on many relationships. Expert commentary from Paula Pietromonaco, professor emerita at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, explores this facet of the pandemic and how interactions in marital and other close relationships shape each partner’s emotional and physical health.

Trigger Warnings Fail to Help and May Even Harm: A study published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science shines light on the value and potential harm of trigger warnings, the term used to alert readers or viewers to potentially unsettling content. This research suggests that trigger warnings offer little to no help in avoiding painful memories and can even be harmful for the survivors of past emotional trauma.

Contracting COVID-19: Lifestyle and Social Connections May Play a Role: Research published in Psychological Science indicates that unhealthy lifestyle choices, including smoking and lack of exercise, along with emotional stressors like social isolation and interpersonal conflicts are important risk factors for developing upper respiratory infections. It is possible these same factors also increase the risk of contracting COVID-19.

Does Bedtime Media Use Harm Children’s Sleep? Only If They Struggle to Self-Regulate Behavior: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, one concern for many parents has been the impact of additional TV or computer screen time on their children and their already disrupted sleep habits. A study published in Psychological Science found that media use in the hour preceding bedtime impacts the sleep only of children who struggle to self-regulate their behavior.

Health and Happiness Depend on Each Other, Psychological Science Says: This research adds to the growing body of evidence that happiness not only feels good, but it is also good for your physical health. Research published in Psychological Science shows that both online and in-person psychological interventions—tactics specifically designed to boost subjective well-being—have positive effects on self-reported physical health.

Claiming Journalism Is ‘Fake News’ May Satisfy a Personal Need for an Orderly World: Research published in Psychological Science reveals that the degree to which people level accusations of fake news against news outlets is at least partially associated with a personal need for an orderly and structured environment.

Top 10 APS Journal Articles Base on Altmetric Scores

Aging in an Era of Fake News: Older adults appear to be particularly susceptible to misinformation (e.g., they shared the most fake news during the 2016 U.S. election). In Current Directions in Psychological Science, researchers suggest that social changes in late adulthood, including difficulty in detecting lies and less emphasis on accuracy when communicating, might be partly responsible for susceptibility to misinformation. Moreover, older adults are less experienced with social media and may struggle to evaluate the veracity of content. Interventions that take into account older adults’ social changes and digital literacy might help to reduce their susceptibility to fake news.

Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Across 45 Countries: A Large-Scale Replication: Research published in Psychological Science seems to support the popular perception that men are more likely to prefer attractive young mates, and women are more likely to prefer older mates with financial prospects. These sex differences were universal across the 45 countries surveyed. In countries where gender equality was higher, both sexes appeared to have mates closer to their own age. Contrary to older studies, this study found that gender equality did not predict other differences in mate preferences, such as financial prospects. Also, different countries’ rates of communicable and infectious diseases did not predict sex differences or preferences.

What Is the Test-Retest Reliability of Common Task-Functional MRI Measures? New Empirical Evidence and a Meta-Analysis: The reliability of measuring brain activity using task functional MRI (fMRI) for predicting disease risk and outcomes appears to be low. In Psychological Science, researchers present a meta-analysis of prior research and an analysis of test-retest reliability of brain activity in certain regions across 11 common fMRI tasks. The authors found that reliability across studies was low, and test-retest studies did not reliably show activity in the same areas of interest for the same tasks. These findings suggest that current task-fMRI measures are not suitable for predicting clinical outcomes or studying individual differences.

Racial Inequality in Psychological Research: Trends of the Past and Recommendations for the Future: Systematic inequality exists within psychological research. This is the conclusion researchers published in Perspectives on Psychological Science after querying more than 26,000 articles published between 1974 and 2018 in top-tier psychology journals. Most publications are edited by White editors, and the few publications that highlight race were written by White authors and had few participants of color. These findings suggest the need to diversify editing, writing, and participation in psychological science. To this end, the researchers provide a set of actionable recommendations for journals and authors. 

Your Brain Is Not an Onion With a Tiny Reptile Inside: A paper in Current Directions in Psychological Science describes a model of neural evolution that challenges the widespread misconception that as vertebrate animals evolved, they added “newer” brain structures to the “older” existing ones, enabling them to have more complex psychological functions (e.g., language). Neurobiologists have long discredited this misconception that the reptile brain is still part of the human brain, which just added more layers. The authors provide examples of how this inaccurate view of brain evolution has impeded progress in psychology.

The Emotional Path to Action: Empathy Promotes Physical Distancing and Wearing of Face Masks During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Empathy for people most vulnerable to COVID-19 appears to motivate wearing face masks and practicing social distancing, according to an article published in Psychological Science. Participants who showed more empathy for the most vulnerable to the virus were more likely to report social-distancing practices. In two experiments, inducing empathy resulted in higher motivation to wear face masks and to practice social distancing than simply informing participants about the importance of these practices, in particular for those most vulnerable to the virus. 

Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: Experimental Evidence for a Scalable Accuracy-Nudge Intervention: Nudging people to think about the accuracy of news headlines might be a simple way to improve their choices about what to share on social media. When directly asked about the accuracy of COVID-19-related news, participants in a study published in Psychological Science were better at discriminating between true and false than when asked simply to decide whether to share it. Similarly, having participants judge the accuracy of non-COVID-19-related headlines increased their discernment about the accuracy of COVID-19-related articles and the quality of their subsequent intentions to share them. 

How Firm Are the Foundations of Mind-Set Theory? The Claims Appear Stronger Than the Evidence: Mind-set theory proposes that the beliefs one has about whether attributes are malleable (growth mind-set) or unchangeable (fixed mind-set) influence one’s motivation, type of goals, persistence, and resilience. Contrary to what the mind-set theory would predict, researchers publishing in Psychological Science tested 438 students and found weak associations (<.20) between mind-set, goal orientation, response to challenge, belief in effort, cognitive ability, and intelligence. The researchers suggest that these results may indicate that some claims about mind-set might be overstated.

The Future of Women in Psychological Science: A team of researchers analyzed 10 topics relevant for women’s professional prospects in psychological science: career advancement; financial compensation; service assignment and practices; lifestyle roles and work–family conflict; gender biases; prevalence and perceptions of positions of power; intersectionality; harassment and incivility; agency, self-esteem, and self-promotion; and lack of belonging. In Perspectives on Psychological Science, the authors discuss empirical evidence for each of these issues and clarify gender gaps and positive change in the hope that a better understanding of these issues will spark conversation and help to mitigate remaining gender differences in the field.

Can Bad Be Good? The Attraction of a Darker Self: We prefer fictional villains who are similar to us, according to research in Psychological Science. Researchers explored data from an online platform that allows users to become “fans” of characters and take a quiz to evaluate their similarity with them. Individuals preferred villains who were similar to themselves. A series of laboratory studies also found an association between similarity of negative traits, when the villain was fictional but not when the villain was a real person, and attraction to the villain.