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Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Jun-2026 05:16 ET (21-Jun-2026 09:16 GMT/UTC)

For couples, one affectionate communicator can help both partners feel relationship satisfaction

Oregon State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

If you really like holding hands and saying “I love you” but your partner doesn’t, your relationship is still probably better off than if both of you had modest interest in expressing affection.

Journal: Communication Studies
Funder: Sam Houston State University Department of Communications, University of Arizona Department of Communication

Key to human intelligence lies in how brain networks work together

University of Notre Dame
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Modern neuroscience understands the brain as a set of specialized systems. Aspects of brain function such as attention, perception, memory, language and thought have been mapped onto distinct brain networks, and each has been examined largely in isolation. While this approach has yielded major advances, it has left unresolved one of the most basic facts about human cognition: its overall unity as an integrated system. Now, researchers at the University of Notre Dame have conducted a neuroimaging study to investigate how the brain is organized and how that integrated system gives rise to intelligence.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, Department of Defense, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Study links salty drinking water to higher blood pressure, especially in coastal areas

Florida International University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Salt is usually something people are warned to limit in food, not drinking water. But a global analysis suggests sodium in tap water may be an overlooked contributor to high blood pressure, particularly in coastal regions.

The study, published in BMJ Global Health, found that higher salinity in drinking water was associated with higher blood pressure and an increased risk of hypertension.

Journal: BMJ Global Health

Context matters: Looking at role in fishery sustainability could serve as a foundation to improve fisheries worldwide

University of Rhode Island
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Governance arrangements that fit social-ecological context help support fishery sustainability, according to Mateja Nenadović in the University of Rhode Island's Department of Marine Affairs. Nenadović’s fieldwork has taken him across Northern and Central America and the Caribbean. He recently published a new paper that he says could serve as a foundation to improve sustainable fisheries worldwide.

Journal: Fish and Fisheries

Nepal’s green success story has a hidden social gap, Notre Dame research shows

University of Notre Dame
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In recent years, Nepal has been heralded as a global leader in community-based forest conservation. By handing over nearly a third of its nationally owned forest to local villagers in the 1980s, the country reversed years of deforestation and effectively doubled its forest cover. However, a new study from the University of Notre Dame suggests these environmental successes may exclude Nepal’s most vulnerable groups from their accompanying economic benefits.

Journal: Nature Sustainability

Racism packs a punch for those enduring it over a lifetime

Washington University in St. Louis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis find evidence that elevated stress exposure and its inflammatory correlates may contribute to Black-White racial disparities in mortality risk.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Discrimination linked to diminished immune system function

New York University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

People who commonly experience everyday discrimination are more likely to have higher levels of “exhausted” white blood cells, suggesting that the chronic stress of discrimination may hamper the immune system, according to a new study by NYU School of Global Public Health researchers.

Journal: Brain Behavior & Immunity - Health