New research however shows that stock market analysts generally give a collective "meh" around the time of Fed meetings when it comes to forecasting how much stocks will trade for in the future, called a price target. Despite dozens of Fed meetings between 2000 and 2020 where interest rates were either raised or lowered, researchers at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management found that price targets among analysts working at investment houses and brokerages were only adjusted for 18.5 percent of companies in the two weeks before and after Fed meetings. As a result, those targets -- which investors use when deciding to buy or sell stocks -- lose accuracy after a Fed meeting, either overpredicting future stock prices when rates rise or underpredicting them when rates drop. 

Good conversation between two people involves “pink noise,” according to new research. This term refers to fluctuations in semantic similarities – alignments in speech patterns and word choice – across time scales during a chat. Kathryn O’Nell and colleagues’ study showed that tête-à-têtes are more enjoyable when there is more pink noise. Moreover, they found that a large language model added pink noise into generated scripts when asked to make them enjoyable. Many theories of speech view conversation as a linear means-to-an-end. This perspective does not consider pink noise, nor its purpose. O’Nell et al. elaborate on what pink noise looks like: “[Speakers] remain aligned for a while, diverge as one introduces something new, then realign as the other picks it up and develops it further.” The team searched for pink noise in two preexisting two-person conversation datasets, analyzing its presence alongside information about how much each pair liked chatting. Pink noise corresponded with enjoyment. It also appeared in conversations from speed-dating encounters and two-host podcasts. Then, the authors prompted a large language model (Claude Sonnet 3.7) to produce both enjoyable and unenjoyable conversational scripts, finding that Claude injected more pink noise into the enjoyable scripts. This outcome, the scientists suggest, may come from the LLM’s ingestion of human-authored text.

A rapidly growing online trend known as “looksmaxxing” may expose some boys and young men to significant physical and mental health risks, according to a new Commentary published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. 

As grocery prices continue to rise, a study by researchers at Penn State found that in addition to increased spending, the price hikes are associated with higher risk of food insufficiency and worse mental health conditions.

About the Study: Results of this survey study of more than 30,000 US adults found that about one-quarter of respondents endorsed childhood vaccination or acetaminophen use during pregnancy as autism risk factors. These beliefs were more common among individuals with certain sociodemographic characteristics and political affiliations, whereas greater trust in scientific and medical institutions was associated with lower rates of endorsement. Results of this survey study suggest that non–evidence-based beliefs about autism risk were prevalent among US adults and were strongly associated with sociodemographic differences and political affiliation. Limiting public health impact of such non–evidence-based information will likely require targeted interventions that recognize the heterogeneity of such beliefs.