Psychology

We have known for some time the people suffering from schizophrenia and other psychoses smoke more than the general population. The explanation that is usually offered is the so-called “self-medication hypothesis”. This is the idea that people with psychosis smoke to alleviate the symptoms, which may include hearing voices or holding paranoid beliefs, or to counteract the side-effects of antipsychotic medication. But there is another possible explanation which has received scant attention to date: could tobacco smoking actually increase the risk of schizophrenia? If so, how do you…

Bringing reusable bags to the grocery store brings self-identification as an environmentally friendly shopper, but it also influences the things you buy, according to a new paper in the Journal of Marketing. Reusable bags were correlated to organic food - no surprise there - but also junk food.  "Grocery store shoppers who bring their own bags are more likely to purchase organic produce and other healthy food. But those same shoppers often feel virtuous, because they are acting in an environmentally responsible way. That feeling easily persuades them that, because they are being good to…

Being busy with acts of kindness can help people who suffer from social anxiety to mingle more easily, according to a new stud.  Sufferers from social anxiety are more than just a little shy. Dealings with others might make them feel so threatened or anxious that they often actively avoid socializing. Although this protects them from angst and possible embarrassment, they lose out on the support and intimacy gained from having relationships with others. They have fewer friends, feel insecure when interacting with others, and often do not experience emotional intimacy even in close…

When we smell a rose, we might take a deep breath to get the the sweet but subtle floral scent - and in a public bathroom we would wisely do just the opposte. Yet people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) don't make this natural adjustment like other people do, autistic children go right on sniffing in the same way, no matter how pleasant or awful the scent. Researchers writing in a new paper suggest that non-verbal tests related to smell might serve as useful early indicators of ASD. Earlier evidence had indicated that people with autism have impairments in "internal action models," the…

A woman coping with the burden of familial breast cancer can't help but wonder if her young daughter will suffer the same fate. Has she inherited the same disease-causing mutation? Is it better to start working on worst-case scenarios now or wait? What will each do? Genetic tests have improved a lot in the last decade but understanding of risk factors have not. And with at least 34 companies that offer direct to consumer (DTC) DNA testing, some of which return health results, and some of which make unethical claims about treatments, there is concern about how results will be perceived.…

As millions of visually impaired people will tell you, people with full sight often make incorrect assumptions about their capabilities. It's not mean, it's benevolent, but people are uncomfortable with not knowing what is proper decorum and some can make hilarious errors. “If you have a guide dog you can often find people talk to the dog but ignore the owner. Or when crossing the road a sighted person will grab their arm and rush them across," says final year digital design student Harpreet Hakemzadeh from Brunel University London, who has produced a four minute animated short film…

Why play horror-themed videogames designed to shock and scare? As with horror films or novels, they provide a means to indulge in the pleasure of frightening ourselves. Freakish, monstrous characters programmed to challenge and destroy the player gratifies the fear-induced thrill-seeking that drives gamers to immerse themselves in such virtual worlds. Until now there had been no investigation into how the immersive nature of survival horror games frightens us, and how our individual traits can affect the degree to which they scare us. Researchers Teresa Lynch and Nicole Martins from Indiana…

Studies have shown that men find female faces more attractive when women are ovulating, but how they might know - the visual clues that allow this - are unclear. New research research sought to show it might be subtle changes in skin color and that women's faces do increase in redness during ovulation. The scholars found it was so, but the levels of change are just under the detectable range of the human eye. They speculate that facial redness in females was once an involuntary signal for optimal fertility, but has since been "dampened" by evolution - it's best not to look too fertile…

Are some people unable or unwilling to quit?  A popular sociological belief has been that by making smoking uncool or difficult, it will become unpopular and people will quit, and only those unable to quit would remain. If so, products like e-cigarettes or smokeless tobacco make sense as alternatives. Scholars at UC San Francisco, which has prided itself on being both against smoking and some smoking cessation tools, say just the opposite. They analyzed survey data spanning 18 years in the United States and 6 years in the European Union and found that, contrary to the prevailing…

Toddlers have a reputation for being stubborn, selfish, and incapable of sharing. But researchers have found that children as young as three actually will show a surprising level of concern for others and an intuitive sense of restorative justice. Young children prefer to return lost items to their rightful owners, experiments show. If for some reason that isn't an option, young children will still prevent a third party from taking what doesn't belong to them. What's more, both three- and five-year-old children are just as likely to respond to the needs of another individual--even when that…