EurekAlert! News by Subject: Social & Behavior - News by Subject: Social & Behavior

Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 8-Jul-2025 04:10 ET (8-Jul-2025 08:10 GMT/UTC)

10 things research tells us about the global economic elite

Lund University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Who are the people that make up the world’s economic elite – and do they differ between countries? In a new, unique database, an international team of researchers has compiled individual data from 16 countries that together account for a third of the world’s population and more than half of the world’s GDP.

Journal: British Journal of Sociology

VR flight experience reduces fear of heights by action-based prediction of safety

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A research group led by FUJINO Misako and HARUNO Masahiko at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), has demonstrated that experiencing active flight in VR allows individuals to predict that they can transition to a safe state even if they fall from a height, thereby reducing fear responses. This discovery challenges the traditional understanding that fear extinction necessarily requires repeated exposure to fear-inducing stimuli.

In this study, the researchers compared a group of participants who actively experienced low-altitude VR flight (Flight Group) with a control group who passively watched recordings of the flight experience. The Flight Group showed significantly greater reductions in both physiological (skin conductance response, SCR) and subjective (self-reported fear score, SFS) fear responses when walking on a virtual plank at high altitude compared to the Control Group. Furthermore, among the Flight Group participants, those who more strongly felt "I can fly, so falling is not dangerous" exhibited a greater reduction in fear responses.

These results suggest that "action-based prediction" can reduce fear responses without relying on repeated exposure, potentially offering a new approach to fear extinction.

The findings were published online on May 13, 2025, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Chimpanzees use medicinal leaves to perform first aid

Frontiers
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers monitoring chimpanzee communities in the Budongo Forest, Uganda, noticed that individuals were helping each other with wound care and hygiene. Some of the chimpanzees even used fresh, chewed leaves from plants known for their traditional medicinal uses and bioactive properties to treat their own and their companions’ wounds. Remarkably, they helped individuals they were genetically related to and individuals they weren’t, despite the potential risk from being exposed to pathogens. Scientists believe these findings could help us understand the cognitive and social foundations of healthcare.

Journal: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Funder: Clarendon Fund, Keble College, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, University of Algarve

Recognition from colleagues helps employees cope with bad work experiences

University of East Anglia
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Being appreciated by colleagues can help employees cope with negative experiences at work, according to a new study involving the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Researchers found that employees experience ‘embitterment’ - an emotional response to perceived workplace injustice - on days when they are assigned more unreasonable tasks than usual.

This negative emotion not only affects their work but also spills over into their personal lives, leading to an increase in rumination, the repetitive dwelling on negative feelings and their causes. This can result in difficulty detaching from work, ultimately preventing recovery from job-related stress.

Journal: Work & Stress

Half of popular TikToks about “food noise” mention medications, mainly weight-loss drugs, to manage intrusive thoughts about food

European Association for the Study of Obesity
Reports and Proceedings

A new analysis being presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga, Spain (11-14 May), finds that around half of the 100 top TikTok videos about food noise reference the use of medications—mainly the popular anti-obesity drugs glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs)—to manage constant and persistent thoughts about food and eating.

Meeting: European Congress on Obesity (ECO2025)

Researchers delve into incels’ rejection of work and study

McGill University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By analyzing exchanges on online incel forums, McGill University researchers have gained insights into the negative attitudes toward labour force participation held by many young men who identify as incels. The researchers suggest that while some incels struggle with finding and retaining work because of various mental health challenges, for many members of the incel forum the choice not to work, study or train for a job is based on deeply held beliefs, and that these beliefs are often reinforced by other online forum participants.

Journal: Gender Work and Organization

UTA course gives pre-health students clinical edge

University of Texas at Arlington
Business Announcement

A new collaboration at The University of Texas at Arlington is offering pre-health students valuable hands-on experience. This semester, UT Arlington students in SCIE 4304: The Art of Diagnosing Disease in Humans, an advanced science course, participated in an immersive clinical simulation lab at the UTA Smart Hospital. The simulation lab is a joint effort by the College of Science, College of Nursing and Health Innovation and UTA Libraries.

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