Our partner ’s level of education can have a positive impact on our own health
By Emily Reynolds
There are many factors that impact our health, from our finances to our emotions to the way we work. Education is one such factor, with research suggesting that higher levels of education can lead to better health and even a longer life. But what about the education of your partner?
This is the subject of a new study from an Indiana University team, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour. The researchers find that people’s own health is positively associated with their spouse’s level of education, suggesting that education and other factors such as knowledge, skills and financ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - March 1, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Health Relationships Source Type: blogs
The majority of psychology journal editors are men and based in the US
By Matthew Warren
Journal editors are like science’s gatekeepers: they decide what gets published and what doesn’t, affecting the careers of other academics and influencing the direction that a field takes. You’d hope, then, that journals would do everything they can to establish a diverse editorial board, reflecting a variety of voices, experiences, and identities.
So a new study in Nature Neuroscience makes for disheartening reading. The team finds that the majority of editors in top psychology and neuroscience journals are male and based in the United States: a situation that may be amplifying existing gend...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 25, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Gender Methods Source Type: blogs
People in on-again, off-again relationships experience more psychological distress
By Emily Reynolds
Some romantic relationships slot into place easily: we meet, we get together, and we stay together, at least for a while. Others are far more tumultuous, as we break up and get back together over and over again — often to the frustration and annoyance of those we confide in.
It’s no surprise that such relationships can cause us distress, and this is the subject of a new study, published in Family Relations. It looks at the impact of on-off relationships, finding not only short-term harm but longer-term implications too.
The team gathered data from 545 participants of various sexualities ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 24, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Mental health Relationships Source Type: blogs
The downwards head tilt seems to be a universal signal of dominance
By Emma Young
One of the best-known but also most contentious ideas in psychology has to be that there are “universal” expressions of at least some human emotions. According to this idea, which was pioneered by Paul Ekman, particular patterns of facial muscular movements are reliable indicators of anger, disgust, fear, surprise, happiness, sadness and contempt, no matter where you are in the world. In other words, these expressions are a fundamental part of being human.
The idea of universal emotional expressions has been challenged, however. Some psychologists argue that even within the US or UK, say, f...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 22, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Emotion evolutionary psych Social Source Type: blogs
When we ’re in a good mood, we’re more likely to engage in healthy behaviours
By Emily Reynolds
On some days, waking up and engaging in healthy behaviours is easy — you get up, hit the gym, drink enough water and spend time with friends. On others, even getting out of bed seems like too much effort.
Knowing how to encourage healthy behaviours is therefore pretty useful, and much research has been done on what makes them stick, whether that’s avoiding indulgent friends or paying to remove temptation. And a new study from a Kent State University team, published in Motivation and Emotion, finds that positive mood can also encourage healthy behaviour — at least in the short term.
Ove...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 21, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Emotion Sport Source Type: blogs
People think they ’re less likely to get Covid from friends than from strangers
By Matthew Warren
Social distancing has been a key part of the pandemic response: we all know that our chance of infection is reduced if we minimise the contact we have with others. Yet there are countless stories of people covertly meeting up with friends and family even at the height of lockdown.
Clearly many of those who disregarded the rules did so because of a desire for social interaction and support. But a new study in Humanities & Social Sciences Communications suggests there may be another reason too: we simply underestimate the risk of contracting Covid-19 from friends.
Across a series of fi...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 18, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Coronavirus Social Source Type: blogs
People who apologise a lot are seen as more warm and sincere
By Emma Young
We all know a chronic apologiser (maybe you are one). So begins a fascinating new paper that explores how we judge frequent vs rare apologisers — and how this affects the way that we react to their apologies.
An abundance of work has shown that an apology for bad behaviour makes a big difference to the recipient. “Indeed, some scholars even imbue apologies with transformative and miraculous healing qualities,” note Karina Schumann at the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. However, most research in this field has explored the impact of apologies ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 17, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Relationships Social Source Type: blogs
Psychological interventions focused on our strengths may improve mood faster than those focused on weaknesses
By Emily Reynolds
Therapeutic interventions such as cognitive behavioural therapy or dialectical behavioural therapy often focus on the development of skills, such as ways to identify and actively challenge particular patterns of thought, feeling or behaviour. Indeed, research into CBT has found that the development of such skills can lead to fewer and less distressing symptoms and a reduced risk of relapse.
A new study looks at what happens when these interventions are explicitly framed around our strengths or weaknesses. Writing in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, the team from Ohio State University finds that ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 16, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Emotion The self Therapy Source Type: blogs
Understanding bad character: Research into the Dark Triad, digested
By Emma Young
Twenty years ago, two Canadian psychologists published a paper that instantly captured the imagination of researchers — and reporters. Del Paulhus and Kevin Williams argued that a “Dark Triad” of “overlapping but distinct” toxic traits — subclinical psychopathy, Machiavellianism and narcissism — explained much of what we might otherwise call a “bad” character. Research into the Dark Triad shows no signs of slowing. But the concept is being challenged. And other psychologists are proposing different ways to get to grips with the darker side of human nature…
...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 15, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Feature Personality Source Type: blogs
Aha! moments give a “ring of truth” to completely unrelated statements
By Matthew Warren
Word puzzles are all the rage right now. But if you’ve already done today’s Wordle, here are some anagrams to keep you going until tomorrow:
Reality is only a matter of….. tvesrecipep
Free will is a powerful….. oinliusl
If you managed to solve the anagrams at the end of these statements, you may have experienced a “Eureka” or “Aha!” moment, in which the solution suddenly seemed to appear, perhaps accompanied by a sense of happiness or relief. And if you did, according to a new study in Scientific Reports, you’d be more likely to believe that the statement itself ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 14, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Cognition Creativity Decision making Thought Source Type: blogs
When we see ourselves as mere mortal animals, creative pursuits may help to assuage a fear of death
By Emma Young
How similar do you think humans are to other animals? The answer might reveal more than you think: according to new research, people who perceive themselves as being more similar to other animals are more likely to care about being creative, and to engage with the arts. Why? It’s all to do with how we manage death anxiety, argue Uri Lifshin at Reichman University, Israel, and colleagues, in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
We all know that at some point, sooner or later, we are going to die. It’s not exactly an uplifting thought. According to Terror Management Theory, to assuage deat...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 11, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Creativity The self Source Type: blogs
Study of haunted house visitors reveals how our bodies respond to threat in real-world scenarios
By Emma Young
It’s tricky to investigate fear. An ethics panel would frown on shooting at people (even with pellet guns), or exposing them to simulated suffocation — or drowning. Though we know that scary situations trigger physiological arousal so that we can fight or flee, ethical and practical concerns have made it hard to get at just how that plays out in the real world. Enter a team from the California Institute of Technology, who left the lab in favour of an immersive scary prison attraction in nearby Orange County.
Each of the 17 rooms of the experience feature different threats. These include suffoca...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 10, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Emotion Methods Source Type: blogs
Offenders feel like victims when their victims don ’t forgive them
By Emily Reynolds
Forgiveness is not always easy. Forgiving someone who has wronged you can lead to a decreased likelihood of repeat offending and increased likelihood that the perpetrator will engage in conciliatory behaviour — just some of the reasons restorative justice has become more popular. But victims of transgressions often find it hard to move on.
A study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin looks at what happens when victims don’t forgive and forget — and specifically how this makes offenders feel. The team finds that, if not offered forgiveness, those who have committed transgres...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 9, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Forensic Social Source Type: blogs
Does VR give you motion sickness? Try chewing some gum
By Emma Young
VR headsets are becoming commonplace not only in entertainment and pilot training, but in clinical settings — in helping people to overcome phobias, for example, or to distract burns patients while their dressings are changed. Unfortunately, there’s a common side effect: visually induced motion sickness (VIMS), sometimes also known as “cybersickness”. This limits the use of VR, or means that people have to spend extended periods feeling nauseous while they adapt to it. But according to new research in Experimental Brain Research there’s a very simple way to tackle this problem: chewing f...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 8, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Brain Technology Source Type: blogs
Feelings of awe may motivate us to become our “authentic” selves
By Emma Young
Awe has to be one of the hottest emotions in psychological research. Here at the Digest, we’ve covered all kinds of recent work on everything from the benefits of awe walks to the mixed emotion of threat-awe. Now a new paper argues that awe “awakens self-transcendence”, helping people to get closer to their true, “authentic” self.
Awe is often defined as the feeling you get when you’re in the presence of something vast that challenges your view of the world, and your place in it. The “authentic self” is who you truly are — taking into account your goals, aspiration...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 7, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Emotion The self Source Type: blogs
