Current reporting, research and professional developments across Social Psychology, curated for psychologists and behavioral-health professionals.
People who naturally lower their voice when someone nearby does the same may be responding to a combination of social cue detection, vocal accommodation, conversational entrainment and unconscious ...
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 18 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02555-9We developed a method that detects the genetic footprint of partner choice without requiring the input of partners’ genotypes…
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 18 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02545-xSpeaking requires the brain to rapidly convert planned speech into precisely ordered vocal movements. Intracranial recordings reveal…
Psychology suggests adult loneliness is not simply about having fewer relationships. Even socially active people can feel lonely when their connections lack emotional closeness, trust or understanding ...
When we look at the people we love, how clearly do we really see them? This week, we talk with psychologist Edward LeMay about how our fears, desires, and insecurities can shape our perceptions of our partners…
What we expect from our own aging is not merely a notion. In two recent studies, an international research team led by psychologist Christina Ristl from the University of Vienna has shown that our ...
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 17 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02537-xCourellis et al. examine how neurons in the human medial frontal cortex and hippocampus persistently represent context.
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 17 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02541-1Mizrachi et al. show that directing attention to bodily sensations, rather than away, promotes more regulated acute inflammatory…
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 17 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02557-7In this Perspective, Fehr and Wu argue that applying fairness research to markets, organizations and public policy requires solving…
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 17 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02556-8Reconstructing parental haplotypes for up to 440,209 UK and Estonian Biobank participants, the authors estimate genetic assortative…
Apologizing when someone else bumps into you does not necessarily mean you lack confidence or believe everything is your fault. It may simply demonstrate how powerful social learning and ...
A recent National Student Safety Survey found that one in six students attending Australian universities had been sexually harassed and one in 20 had been sexually assaulted since starting university.
Scientists are increasingly relying on powerful data sources and tools that they often cannot fully understand, inspect or verify, according to a new study.
Whether on lunch break or on the clock, many employees scroll through the news and social media during the workday. Researchers found that employees who "doomscroll" at work suffer hidden costs that extend beyond lost…
Ask a teen what they want to be when they grow up, and there's a fair chance being an influencer is on their list.
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 14 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02536-yRobey and Light decompose declines in US imprisonment by race and offence category and find that in most cases, declines in…
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 14 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02512-6Global media gives less cross-border attention to climate-linked hazards (such as floods, storms and droughts) than to geophysical…
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 14 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02547-9Using US household grocery data from 2017–2022, Hu et al. find that lockdowns temporarily shifted purchases towards less processed…
Kids, marriage and commute: A study co-authored by Dr. Mariana Macedo of Constructor University provides new insights into how major life transitions alter how individuals navigate and experience urban environments…
It doesn't take a scientist to figure out that social media can trend toward the negative. But it might take one to figure out why. In a new paper in PNAS, professor of psychology Joshua Conrad Jackson and colleagues…
Alexis Sheffield, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology, recently published a research article about a study exploring factors that contribute to the elevated rates of sexual assault among bisexual women and to…
Is generative artificial intelligence technology a helpful tool or a big problem? Nearly four years after ChatGPT became a household name, most people are either using AI applications or generally aware of what the…
While humans are inherently social beings, they can interact and connect with others in very different ways. For instance, while some people tend to be more altruistic, others are less prone to helping their friends…
Men are less likely than women to seek help after experiencing intimate partner violence, and new research from George Mason University found that the main barriers include viewing it as a private matter, fear of…
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 13 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02546-wDirect recordings from the human brain reveal a hierarchy in planning to speak, with neural activity organizing whole syllables…
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 13 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02548-8Weber et al. show that the normally conserved spatial organization of the digit response maps in primary somatosensory cortex is…
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 13 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02554-wFuchs-Schündeln and Holub show evidence of a homophily bias in scientific grant application review—evaluators are more favourable to…
Why do we keep making the same choices even when better options are available? Researchers found that simply repeating a decision can reshape what we prefer, causing familiar choices to feel better than alternatives…
A study involving more than 58,000 adolescents from 21 countries found that "unstructured free time"—defined as periods without adult supervision or activities guided by educational, cultural or athletic goals—is…
Many people think of negotiation as something reserved for salary talks, car purchases, or business deals: infrequent, high-stake encounters most people would rather avoid. A new study shows that this assumption is…
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