Social Psychology

A sweeping new study of world leaders spanning six decades finds that those with wider facial proportions are slightly more likely to initiate military action, particularly during their first few years in office.

A new study reveals that an intense, borderline-pathological obsession with celebrities is strongly linked to vulnerable narcissism and criminal thinking patterns. However, casual celebrity fandom is actually associated with more pro-social, law-abiding attitudes.

Men and women estimate the frequency of sexual objectification differently, with men sometimes guessing higher numbers than women report experiencing. A recent study unpacks this disconnect and explores why different behaviors are perceived so differently.

A new analysis of 1.6 million ICE records indicates that despite massive surges in federal immigration arrests, the proportion of those apprehended with actual criminal convictions has dropped sharply.

A new study analyzing over 100,000 test sessions suggests the popular Implicit Association Test is driven more by a person's conscious effort to avoid mistakes than by their automatic, unconscious prejudices.

Could the behavioral gap between men and women just be a power gap? New research finds that placing people in powerful roles produces psychological changes that almost perfectly mimic traditional gender differences.

Why are traits like narcissism and psychopathy linked to creative success? New research indicates the answer lies in a specific thinking style—one that helps individuals filter out social constraints to focus on novel solutions.

Teenagers who exhibit narcissistic traits might gain a brief boost in social status, but that dominance does not translate into actually being liked. Researchers tracking adolescents found that early boastfulness predicts a distinct drop in later popularity.

Abrupt cuts to federal science funding are threatening the American research workforce. A new survey indicates that early career scientists face severe professional disruptions, pushing many to consider leaving the country or abandoning research entirely.

Getting to know someone can ease loneliness, but new research shows it physically alters brain alignment in surprising ways. When people of different generations make art together, their neural synchronization takes a completely unexpected path.

A recent study in Psychological Science suggests that human beings have a deep-seated need to feel their actions matter. This drive, emerging as early as age four, motivates us to choose effortful tasks over easy ones.

Being actively rejected and being silently ignored both cause social pain, but they trigger different forms of dark creativity. A recent psychological study reveals how specific types of social exclusion shape our desire for creative revenge.

Psychologists have long assumed that people who favor social equality are permanently wired to criticize political institutions. A large new study reveals that as nations achieve greater gender parity, these egalitarians increasingly defend the political status quo.

Getting a smartphone early in childhood may have lasting consequences. A new study links early phone ownership and social media access to worse psychological well-being, disrupted sleep, and strained family relationships in young adulthood.

People with higher levels of shyness tend to perceive others' facial expressions as more intense, but a new study indicates this effect depends heavily on cultural background, occurring among young adults in China but not in Canada.