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Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 29-Oct-2026 06:16 ET (29-Oct-2026 10:16 GMT/UTC)

The reinforcement effect of social media likes in depression

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In this study, depressive psychopathology was associated with a greater tendency to be reinforced by a type of social reward on Twitter, in contrast to typical laboratory-based findings of blunted reinforcement learning in depression. These findings suggest potential mechanisms linking social media use to worse mental health or vice versa, and emphasize the importance of studying real-world behavior.

Journal: JAMA Psychiatry

Researchers may have discovered how parenting behavior evolved in ants

Rockefeller University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Parental care appears to have evolved in ants by repurposing ancient neural circuits rather than inventing entirely new brain systems. Because the same family of neuropeptides regulates caregiving in ants and mammals, evolution may have relied on a common molecular blueprint for social behavior. The findings establish ants as a powerful new model for studying how parenting came to be. Moreover, because the researchers found that caregiving behaviors change over an ant’s lifetime, their findings also contribute insights into how healthy aging naturally reshapes the brain and behavior.

Journal: Nature

Study explores social media's role in tornado disaster communication

University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Peer-Reviewed Publication

When a powerful EF-4 tornado tore through Rolling Fork, Mississippi, on March 24, 2023, social media became a critical tool for sharing weather warnings, damage reports and recovery information. But a new study from University of Nebraska–Lincoln media scholar Cory Armstrong found that the same disaster also exposed persistent communication gaps facing rural and underserved communities.

Journal: News Research Journal

Virtual patients, real-world training

University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science
Grant and Award Announcement

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, New York University and Penn’s Linguistic Data Consortium have received a two-year, $4 million grant from the Wellcome Trust to develop STELLAR, an AI-powered platform for training mental health clinicians through controllable virtual patient simulations. The project will create “digital twin” patients whose psychiatric symptoms can be adjusted, allowing trainees to practice clinical interviews that better reflect the complexity of real mental health care.

Funder: Wellcome Trust

Social media influencers who match racial, ethnic identity of their audiences have a bigger—and unhealthy—impact

New York University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study by a team of psychology and health researchers finds that racial and ethnic minority youth reported paying more attention to influencers who looked like them and shared their racial identity. Moreover, this heightened visual interest was associated with stronger engagement with social media posts and a stronger preference for unhealthy foods.

Journal: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

The use of robots increases productivity in SMEs, but does not boost exports

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A UOC study based on data from nearly 5,000 manufacturing firms concludes that robotization improves efficiency, especially that of smaller and less innovative companies

Journal: Journal of the Knowledge Economy

‘iOrnithology’: Photos and videos posted online are transforming bird research

University of Cape Town - Faculty of Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Every year, millions of photographs and videos of birds are uploaded to online platforms by birdwatchers, photographers, and tourists across the world. A new study shows that scientists are increasingly harnessing this vast digital archive to conduct ornithological research — and that the approach is now transforming what is possible in the field of ornithology.

Journal: Ibis