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social behavior

·January 26, 2024·4 min read

Income Gap Influences Friendships in Adolescents

A new study reveals that adolescents from low-income families are less socially integrated in school compared to their higher-income peers, regardless of the school's socioeconomic context. Analyzing data from 4,787 Swedish children in 235 school classes, researchers found that income status significantly impacts friendships, with students from poorer households having fewer friends.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 20, 2024·5 min read

Fair Share or Fair Play: Unraveling Our Brain’s Fairness Mechanisms

Researchers evaluate the neuroscientific aspects of fairness in social settings, examining how we balance personal interests with social norms. Using electric brain stimulation on 60 volunteers, researchers identified key brain regions involved in fairness decisions. The study highlights our innate preference for equal distribution, regardless of whether it puts us at an advantage or disadvantage.

Autism Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 12, 2024·6 min read

Eye-Tracking Unveils Autism’s Distinctive Worldview and Social Focus Shift

Researchers have discovered that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) develop distinct attentional preferences compared to typically developing children, focusing more on non-social stimuli like objects and textures. Using eye-tracking technology on children viewing cartoons, the study found that unlike their peers, ASD children do not exhibit the same developmental trajectory in social attention.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 11, 2024·3 min read

The Broccoli Experiment: How Facial Expressions Impact Food Love

Observing others' facial expressions while eating raw broccoli impacts women's liking but not their desire to eat it. A study examined the effects of positive, neutral, and negative facial expressions during broccoli consumption.

This shows a big face and a lot of people.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 5, 2024·4 min read

Revealing Secrets: People’s Fear of Judgment is Overestimated

New research dispels fears of judgment when sharing secrets. Study shows that when individuals confide their secrets, others perceive them as more charitable and trustworthy.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·December 12, 2023·6 min read

Rejecting Invites: Less Impact on Relationships Than Feared

People often overestimate the negative consequences of declining social invitations. The study involved over 2,000 participants across five experiments. It showed that while individuals who declined invitations feared damaging their relationships, the inviters typically felt less upset than expected.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·November 30, 2023·5 min read

Asch Study Reimagined: Navigating the Labyrinth of Conformity in the Contemporary Mind

A recent study replicates and extends Solomon Asch's famous conformity experiments, revealing intriguing insights about human behavior. The research demonstrates that monetary incentives reduce conformity errors in line-judging tasks, though social influence remains a factor.

This shows a woman sitting alone in a dark room.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 24, 2023·3 min read

Hikikomori: New Tool Sheds Light on Social Isolation Phenomenon

Researchers developed the Hikikomori Diagnostic Evaluation (HiDE), a new assessment tool for identifying pathological social withdrawal or hikikomori. This condition, initially identified in Japan, is characterized by extended physical isolation lasting over six months and is increasingly observed worldwide, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 15, 2023·9 min read

Infant Brain Development and Social Interactions

A new study delves into infant brain development and its impact on social interactions and stress recovery during the first year of life. Through functional MRI scans and interactive tasks with mothers, researchers observe early neural patterns. One study reveals that greater brain network connectivity at 3 months correlates with improved infant-mother dyadic flexibility at 6 months.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 13, 2023·5 min read

The Elusive Link Between Brown Fat and Social Contact

A study exploring the link between brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity and the tendency for physical contact yielded inconclusive results, challenging earlier assumptions. Researchers attempted to replicate a 2012 study using infrared thermography to measure BAT activity, hypothesizing that lower activity might correlate with a greater need for physical contact.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 9, 2023·7 min read

Best Practices Boost Replicability in Social Behavior Studies

A new study yielded a study demonstrating high replicability of findings in the social-behavioral sciences when best practices are applied. The six-year project involved the discovery and replication of 16 novel findings using methods like pre-registration and large sample sizes.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 6, 2023·3 min read

The Cerebellum is Key to Unlocking Social Memory Woes

Researchers made a pivotal discovery about the cerebellum's role in social recognition memory, potentially revolutionizing treatment for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. By modulating cerebellar activity in preclinical models, they found it crucial for retrieving social information, a function often deteriorating in dementia patients.