behavioral-science

As temperatures rise, some creatures pick fights while others struggle to learn. The consequences of these behavioral changes may ripple through ecosystems.

At 9 a.m., writing felt impossible. By 2 p.m., after three hours of errands, chores, and physical movement, it felt almost effortless. The project hadn't changed. My nervous system had. That observation led me down an unexpected rabbit hole into procrastination, threat responses, and behavioral neuroscience. We often categorize the inability to start a critical project as a failure of discipline …

Dr. Salil Shringarpure & Adv. Swamini Mukund Patil ABSTRACT The emergence of digital communication technologies and social networking platforms has transformed human interaction in unprecedented ways. Social media applications have enabled instant communication, information sharing, online education, entertainment, and professional networking. However, alongside these developments, cyberspace…

Schizophrenia is often known as a heritable disorder, but what some fail to realize is that the environment can play a major role in its development.

IntroductionComorbid bipolar disorder (BD) and substance use disorder (SUD) in adolescence is associated with poor clinical outcomes, yet the independent and interactive contributions of impulsivity and emotion dysregulation remain poorly understood.MethodsThis cross-sectional study employed a 2 × 2 factorial design to examine impulsivity, measured with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11, and emo…

ObjectiveStroke in young individuals constitutes a significant familial stressor, with ensuing family risk factors critically influencing recovery. While couples’ collaborative coping strategies play a vital role in enhancing family resilience, the mechanisms underlying this process remain largely unexplored. This study aims to elucidate the impact of familial risk factors and dyadic coping on th…

BackgroundThis study aims to identify different subgroups of alexithymia among vocational college nursing students, explore the critical values and core dimensions of these subgroups, and investigate the potential mechanisms influencing their experiences.MethodBy using the method of convenient sampling, a cross-sectional online survey was conducted among 1,103 vocational college nursing students …

Domestic cats have shown behaviour associated with grief after the loss of a close companion

Octopuses may be even smarter than we thought. Researchers at Dartmouth found that octopuses can learn to use mirrors to locate food hidden behind them—a skill previously seen only in vertebrates like mammals and birds. After training, the animals correctly identified the food’s location about 73% of the time, showing they could use a mirror as a tool rather than simply reacting to a reflection.

Nature Communications, Published online: 05 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-72990-9 Affective polarization is hard to assess where partisan affiliation is weak, and negative identities, multiparty, person-centric politics are common. Here, the authors provide measures around the 2022 elections in Brazil, and provide experimental evidence that affective polarization can be reduced through correc…

The relationship between athletic participation and depressive symptom risk among college students remains complex and contested, with prior research yielding inconsistent findings regarding whether sports involvement serves as a protective correlate or a correlate of psychological vulnerability. Using cross-sectional survey data from 795 undergraduate students at a large public university in the…

Source: Association for Psychological Science Scams are now one of the most common crimes in the world. In the UK, for example, scams accounts for 40% of all reported crimes. A 2024 study by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance reports that about half of the world's population is faced with a scam solicitation at least once a week. And the cost of scams worldwide is thought to be more than $5 trillion a…

BackgroundChildhood emotional abuse (CEA) is a robust risk factor for adolescent anxiety, yet the psychosocial mechanisms linking early emotional maltreatment to later internalizing problems remain insufficiently understood. This study examined whether bullying victimization mediates the association between CEA and anxiety, and whether perceived teacher legitimacy and negative legal emotion joint…

IntroductionThis study compared social camouflaging in adolescents with and without social communication disorder (SCD) and examined whether camouflaging differedby gender.MethodsThe sample comprised 120 adolescents aged 14–18 years from the Mashhad- Marghab region of Fars province, Iran, including 60 adolescents diag-nosed with SCD and 60 adolescents without SCD matched on age, gender, andeducat…

BackgroundAlexithymia, characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing emotions, affects ~10% of the general population. Prevalence is substantially higher in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders.ObjectiveTo systematically map existing research on alexithymia across Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, and dual diagnosis populations, synthesize current knowledge, and iden…

IntroductionSocial media exposure has become a significant influence on adolescents’ body image perceptions, particularly among adolescent athletes who face both performance-related and appearance-related pressures. This study investigated the relationship between social media exposure and body image dissatisfaction, focusing on the mediating role of self-compassion and the moderating role of fea…

BackgroundEquine-assisted therapy (EAT) has received growing attention as a complementary approach associated with behavioral outcomes among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Previous studies have reported changes across behavioral and social domains following equine-assisted programs; however, evidence remains limited regarding the persistence of parent-reported behavioral changes ov…

BackgroundAlthough the mental health benefits of horticultural therapy (HT) are well-established, the influence of intervention duration and the temporal dynamics of effects remain insufficiently explored, lacking evidence for optimal protocol design.MethodsThis study employed a comparative experimental design with a short-duration HT program (4 sessions, n = 12) and a long-duration program (8 se…

Scams are now one of the most common crimes in the world. In the most recent issue of PSPI, real-life accounts are used to illustrate how pervasive and indiscriminate fraud can be.