Psychology

Source: Science Daily - Top SocietyMost people believe climate change is real, but not everyone takes action. To find effective ways to promote environmental protection, researchers held an "intervention tournament" in 2024 with 7,624 U.S. adults. The results, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggested that interventions targeting future thinking—such as writing a letter for a child to read in the future—are the most effective ways to motivate...

Source: Canadian Broadcasting Company - Top Stories NewsCanada has its first-ever minister of artificial intelligence in newly elected Toronto Centre MP Evan Solomon. So, what exactly does that job entail? Solomon will likely have a massive job touching nearly every aspect of the economy, with national security considerations as well, according to a spokesperson from the prime minister's office. The prime minister, Mark Carney, has called for sweeping use of AI to create the "economy of the future."

Source: CBS News - World NewsA memorial to long-ignored gay victims of the Nazi regime and to all LGBTQ+ people persecuted throughout history was unveiled Saturday in Paris. The monument, a massive steel star, is located at the heart of Paris in public gardens near the Bastille Plaza. It aims to fulfill a duty to remember and to fight discrimination, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said. The Nazi regime sent an estimated 5,000-15,000 people to concentration camps because they were...

Source: Google NewsA large U.S. study suggests that Takotsubo cardiomyopathy—also known as broken heart syndrome—continues to carry a high risk of death and severe complications, with no improvement in outcomes from 2016 to 2020. Often triggered by extreme emotional or physical stress, the condition mimics a heart attack and mainly affects older women, though men experience more than twice the mortality rate. The results appear in the Journal of the American...

Source: ScienceOver half the 1,500 research grants that the National Science Foundation has ended in the past month under orders from President Donald Trump's administration were efforts to bring groups historically underrepresented in science into the mainstream. Ending those grants reversed decades of work on what the agency calls the "missing millions": women, racial and ethnic minorities, veterans, and low-income and rural students. But that's not the only...

Source: CBS News - U.S. NewsThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Japan-based company Fujirebio to begin marketing its blood test for helping doctors diagnose Alzheimer's disease in patients 55 and older. The test works by measuring two kinds of proteins that are associated with whether the brain has built up amyloid plaques, which research has linked to Alzheimer's disease. The FDA called its approval an "important step for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis."

Source: BBC News - AfricaPresident Donald Trump has given members of South Africa's Afrikaner community refugee status, alleging that a genocide is taking place there. Nearly 60 of them have arrived in the U.S. after being granted asylum. The South African government allowed the U.S. embassy to consider their applications inside the country, and let the group board a chartered flight from the largest airport in Africa—not scenes normally associated with refugees...

Source: BBC News - AmericasNew York University (NYU) has withheld the diploma of a student who used his graduation speech to accuse the U.S. of supporting "genocide" in Gaza. Undergraduate Logan Rozos told the crowd on Wednesday that he condemned the "atrocities currently happening in Palestine," drawing cheers and some boos. An NYU spokesperson accused Mr. Rozos of lying about what he had planned to say in the address in order to "express his personal and one-sided...

Source: United Press International - Health NewsADHD stimulant medications don't increase children's risk of psychosis, a new study suggests. Analyses of stimulant prescriptions among nearly 8,400 kids with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder found no evidence that the drugs caused psychosis, researchers reported Monday in the journal Pediatrics. For the study, researchers tracked the health of children participating in an adolescent brain development study in the United States.

Source: Science Daily - Top HealthAs kids spend more time on screens, a new U.S. survey conducted by Ipsos for The Kids Mental Health Foundation has identified parents' greatest fears for their children concerning screen time. The top three fears parents have about their child and screen time are: privacy and safety concerns (47%), exposure to misinformation (36%) and not socializing in person (34%). Fewer parents ranked concerns about body image and schoolwork high on their...

Source: Science Daily - Top NewsAI is advancing at such speed that moral questions, once the province of science fiction, are suddenly real and pressing, a new study concludes. The study finds that generative AI meets all three of the philosophical conditions of free will: the ability to have goal-directed agency, make genuine choices, and have control over its actions. This milestone marks a critical point in human history, as AI renders judgments in life or death situations.

Source: United Press International - Health NewsA United Nations global audit on the well-being of children finds that COVID-19 severely affected the classroom performance and mental and physical health of many children in wealthy countries. Comparing 2018 data with 2022 data, a UNICEF report issued Tuesday concluded that the pandemic and shutdowns worsened existing trends with children under-performing at school, becoming overweight and obese, and generally being less happy.

Source: Google NewsThe first group of White South Africans granted refugee status by Donald Trump's administration has arrived in the U.S., stirring controversy in South Africa as President Trump declared the Afrikaners victims of a "genocide." The Afrikaners, a minority descended from mainly Dutch colonists, were met at Dulles international airport outside Washington, DC, by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, with many given U.S. flags to wave.

Source: Google News - HealthA large new study shows that consuming high amounts of ultra-processed foods may be linked to early indicators of Parkinson's disease. The research, published in the journal Neurology, tracked over 42,000 adults for up to 26 years, finding that those eating 11 or more daily servings of ultra-processed foods were 2.5 times more likely to show multiple early Parkinson's symptoms. These signs included sleep issues, reduced sense of smell,...

Source: PBS ScienceThe U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will no longer track the cost of climate change-fueled weather disasters, including floods, heat waves, and wildfires. It is the latest example of the White House limiting government resources on climate change. NOAA falls under the U.S. Department of Commerce and is tasked with daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings, and climate monitoring. It is also parent to the National...

Source: United Press International - Health NewsThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday an aggressive artificial intelligence adoption timeline, as well as a new AI tool to help scientists spend less time on repetitive tasks that slow the review process. The announcement came in statement about "an aggressive timeline to scale use of artificial intelligence internally across all FDA centers by June 30, 2025, following the completion of a new generative AI pilot for scientific...

Source: United Press International - Health NewsThe Pentagon has ordered senior military leaders to pull and review library books from educational institutions that address diversity, anti-racism or gender issues. The Department of Defense on Friday issued a six-page memo "to identify library materials that may conflict with our core mission. The Department's instructional materials should be mission-focused and not promote divisive concepts and gender ideology."

Source: Science Daily - Top HealthHeartbeats exhibit variation as they adjust to tiny changes in the body and environment. Researchers have applied a new way to measure the complexity of pulse rates, using data collected through wearable pulse oximetry devices. The new method, published in Journal of the American Heart Association, provides a more detailed peek into heart health than traditional measures, uncovering a link between reduced complexity and future cognitive decline.

Source: CBS News - World NewsPope Leo XIV laid out the vision of his papacy Saturday, identifying artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity and vowing to continue core priorities of Pope Francis. In his first formal audience with the cardinals who elected him two days ago, Leo repeatedly cited Francis and the former pope's 2013 mission statement, committing the Catholic Church to be a more inclusive church that looks out for the "least and...

Source: United Press International - Health NewsThe Pentagon will begin immediately removing 1,000 transgender service members from the military, according to a memo issued Thursday, after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration's ban on transgender soldiers. The memo states that service members who suffer from gender dysphoria or have a history with the condition may choose to separate from the military voluntarily in the next month or two, after which the military will...

Source: BBC News - UK NewsThere are biological reasons why certain mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, are common in adolescence. For example, emotional reactions are intensified by hormones and changes to the internal body clock that affects sleep patterns. So, when should teens and parents regard emotions and behavior as normal, and when should they consider seeking professional help? Mental health experts weigh in with useful advice.

Source: United Press International - Health NewsThe Trump administration launched a review into recently alleged anti-Semitic activity at the University of Washington and its affiliated campuses. Government officials announced the probe a day after roughly 30 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at the school's Seattle campus when they occupied an engineering building and demanded the university sever its ties with Boeing, which donated $10 million for the building in 2022.

Source: Science DailyClimate research suggests that millions of today's young people will live through unprecedented lifetime exposure to heatwaves, crop failures, river floods, droughts, wildfires, and tropical storms under current climate policies. If global temperatures rise by 3.5 C by 2100, 92% of children born in 2020 will experience unprecedented heatwave exposure. Meeting the Paris Agreement's 1.5 C target could protect millions of them from this risk.

Source: Google News - HealthNew research reveals a gap between people's stated desire to know their Alzheimer's disease risk and their real-life decisions when results are actually offered. In a study published in JAMA Network Open, only 60% of participants chose to learn their estimated risk when given the chance, despite 81% expressing prior interest. The main reasons for declining to know included concerns about anxiety, burden on family, and the lack of effective...

Source: Science Daily - Top HealthResearchers have found that Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) can help rewire the brain's response to natural healthy pleasure, leading to improved mood, greater attention to positive experiences, and reduced opioid cravings. The findings, published on April 30, 2025 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest that this evidence-based therapy may be a promising tool in the fight against opioid use disorder.

Source: Science Daily - Top SocietyLarge language models are at the forefront of artificial intelligence and have been widely used for conversational interactions. However, assessing the personality of a given model remains challenging. Now, researchers in Hong Kong have developed an AI-driven assessment system, the Language Model Linguistic Personality Assessment (LMLPA), to measure the personality traits of AI models through linguistic analysis.

Source: APA PsycPORT™: Psychology NewswireThe Trump administration has ordered the National Institutes of Health to study the physical and mental health effects of gender transitions, according to an internal NIH memo. The memo is from acting NIH Director Mark Memoli and says the NIH must study the impact of "social transition and/or chemical and surgical mutilation" among children who transition. The White House also wants studies on "regret" and "detransition" among people who have...

Source: Google News - HealthThe Trump administration has agreed not to freeze funds to Maine schools—a win for a state that was targeted by the president over its support of transgender rights. In a settlement disclosed Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would not withhold funds for a child nutrition program that reportedly helps feed 172,000 children. The USDA had suspended those dollars after Maine refused to ban trans girls from participating in girls'...

Source: CBS News - U.S. NewsAfter the Trump administration dismissed nearly 400 scientists who compile the nation's major quadrennial report on the impacts of climate change, two scientific groups—the American Geophysical Union and American Meteorological Society—announced a plan to publish a "first of its kind" special collection focused on the subject to ensure the scientists' work can be accessed.

Source: APA PsycPORT™: Psychology NewswireThe Trump administration wants to cut funding for specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth on the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, according to a leaked proposal reviewed by NPR. While anyone in a mental health crisis can call or text 988 and be connected to a counselor, the line has specially trained counselors, often with similar life experiences, for high risk groups like veterans and LGBTQ+ youth. Last year, roughly 40% of LGBTQ youth...