When people think about addiction, they usually think about alcohol, drugs or gambling-related problems, but a major international study suggests some everyday behaviours, including excessive gaming, binge eating and compulsive sexual behaviour, can share many of the same characteristics as recognised addictions.

In teacher education worldwide, the gap between theory and practice has long been a persistent challenge. A new study from China proposes a compelling solution: service learning that engages pre-service teachers in meeting real societal needs while reflecting deeply on their teaching. This approach, grounded in activity theory and Chinese philosophical traditions, reframes practice and reflection not as separate activities, but as a dialectical unity.

Daniel Kruger, research associate professor in the School of Public Health and Health Professions at the University at Buffalo, launched a study with Paul Gillis-Smith, program lead at the Center for the Study of World Religious Studies at Harvard Divinity School, in which they surveyed almost 600 self-identified psychedelic users. Their findings, which showed that participants agreed with 18 of 19 pieces of Lisa Bieberman’s advice on best practices for LSD and other psychedliecs use, were published in the Aug. 12 edition of the journal Psychedelics.

A new study examines how urban heat affects people in various ways. By combining climate, remote sensing and demographic data with social media activity, the researchers from Geolingual studies were able to determine a threshold beyond which heat becomes an important theme in public discourse.

Two new studies suggest that smiling and other positive interactions with caregivers help shape infants’ emotional development.

As more and more people turn to LLMs for advice on interpersonal matters, the ethical foundations behind the tools’ replies increasingly have the power to shape individual lives and, at scale, the social fabric itself. Alexandre S. Pires and colleagues explored the social norms of 21 LLMs by asking them to judge fictional people as “good” or “bad” after learning how the people made a range of interpersonal decisions.