emotion

A new study challenges the idea that autism impairs empathy. While both groups read emotions similarly overall, autistic individuals are actually more accurate than non-autistic people at tracking the emotional valence of other autistic adults.

A new study finds you don't need to lift heavy to see mental health benefits. Researchers discovered that both standard and low-intensity strength training significantly reduced depressive symptoms in young women experiencing high levels of anxiety.

You don't have to run fast to reap the cognitive rewards of jogging. A new study found that just 10 minutes of super-slow running enhances mood and executive function.

You finish a lecture, a meeting, a conversation with someone you care about. And what do you do? You reach for your phone. You stick in your earbuds. You fire up a podcast, a playlist or whatever algorithmic feed is currently consuming your life. It feels productive. It feels like filling empty time. But here’s what may be happening: you have interrupted your brain mid-sentence. On supporting sci…

Neuropsychopharmacology, Published online: 11 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41386-026-02548-2 Forgiveness and transgression-related rumination in perimenopausal depression: a testable socio-affective hypothesis

Being actively rejected and being silently ignored both cause social pain, but they trigger different forms of dark creativity. A recent psychological study reveals how specific types of social exclusion shape our desire for creative revenge.

_bioRxiv_. forthcomingMoral cognition is a complex process, which recruits a wide range of mechanisms. It is not clear whether any of them reliably reflects moral content in the stimulus. We set out to test whether a specific mechanism of moral content representation and/or detection exists, and where it is, if it exists. To that end we used uni- and multi-variate analyses, including inter-subjec…

Scientific Reports, Published online: 11 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-66715-7 Attentional biases in depression depend on social comparison priming and information valence in an eye-tracking study

Short-term coffee aroma exposure was followed by reductions in several negative mood measures and an increase in an EEG-derived relaxation index in 20 healthy young adults. Heart rate and HRV did not change significantly, and the uncontrolled study cannot establish that coffee aroma caused the observed responses.

The evidence is real and more specific than the phrase. Touch lowered two measured stress responses where conversation did not, and when the handholding study was repeated with 110 people, being married rather than friends made no measurable difference.

Adults who experienced emotional abuse in childhood often battle destructive thought patterns like rumination and emotional avoidance. A new study suggests that chronic shame serves as the psychological bridge linking early maltreatment to these harmful habits.

A new study tracks how daily stress and bedtime worry impact sleep. Researchers found that racing thoughts predict nighttime wakefulness, especially for individuals with high sleep reactivity, while physical symptoms like elevated heart rate play a smaller role.

It might be good for the birds—and you The post What Bird Feeding Has to Do with Happiness appeared first on Nautilus .

Recognizing why we feel overwhelmed, identifying how it manifests, and actively practicing evidence-based coping mechanisms can help protect our mental well-being and emotional regulation.

A steady stream of overnight social media notifications can disrupt a teenager’s sleep and lead to depression, lower

Distance isn't always a sign that something is wrong. For some people, creating distance is a way of managing intimacy, vulnerability, and emotions.

A growing body of evidence shows that exercise improves mood and cognitive function. However, much of this evidence comes from cycling, which allows researchers to precisely control exercise intensity in the laboratory.

Some guilt survives everything the person could learn. A mother forced to choose which of two children to save, a soldier who followed an order that killed civilians, a driver who could not have stopped in time: each knows there was no better option, and the guilt stays. Philosophers have read this as evidence that the person really did wrong, or as a mistake that reflection should correct. This …