EurekAlert! News by Subject: Social & Behavior - News by Subject: Social & Behavior

Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Apr-2025 22:08 ET (1-May-2025 02:08 GMT/UTC)

A psychoeducational intervention to empower teenage girls

Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Karen Rudolph is a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Center for Social & Behavioral Science at Illinois. Her latest study sought to investigate whether a single-session intervention could improve teenage girls' emotional responses to stressors. Her paper appears in the Society for Research in Child Development’s journal.

Journal: Child Development
Funder: NIH/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Eyes on the brain at the University of Houston

University of Houston
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A University of Houston psychology researcher is reporting that children with autism focus on faces differently than other children, especially in the early stages of visual processing. His findings may lead to improvement in face processing for those with the neurodevelopmental condition.

Journal: Biological Psychiatry

Study finds readers trust news less when AI is involved, even when they don't understand to what extenst

University of Kansas
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the University of Kansas school of journalism have published two studies in which they surveyed readers on their thoughts about AI in journalism. When provided a sample of bylines stating AI was involved in producing news in some way or not at all, readers regularly stated they trusted the credibility of the news less if AI had a role. Even when they didn't understand exactly what AI contributed, they reported less trust and that "humanness" was an important factor in producing reliable news.

Journal: Communication Reports

Loneliness and social isolation among US older adults

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: This study found that adults ages 50 to 80 commonly reported loneliness and social isolation. While the pandemic disrupted social connections, rates of loneliness and isolation were substantial both before and after the early pandemic. High rates of loneliness and social isolation occurred in several sociodemographic groups, especially those with self-reported fair or poor physical or mental health.

Journal: JAMA

By age six, children think boys are better than girls at computing and engineering, new American Institutes for Research study shows

American Institutes for Research
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Children as young as age 6 develop gender stereotypes about computer science and engineering, viewing boys as more capable than girls, according to new results from an American Institutes for Research (AIR) study. However, math stereotypes are far less gendered, showing that young children do not view all STEM fields as the same. These new findings come from the largest-ever study on children’s gender stereotypes about STEM and verbal abilities, based on data from 145,000 children across 33 nations, synthesizing more than 40 years of research.

Journal: Psychological Bulletin
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Giving a gift? Better late than never, study finds

Ohio State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

If you feel terrible about giving a late gift to a friend for Christmas or their birthday, a new study has good news for you. Researchers found that recipients aren’t nearly as upset about getting a late gift as givers assume they will be.

Journal: Journal of Consumer Psychology

Events of 1973 Chilean coup captured in historical seismograms

Seismological Society of America
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Military vehicles rumbling toward the presidential palace, bombs dropped by the Chilean Air Force, and an eerie quiet descending over Santiago after a curfew imposed by a military junta—a lone seismometer captured all these features of the 1973 Chilean coup d’état.

Journal: Seismological Research Letters