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Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 13-May-2026 13:15 ET (13-May-2026 17:15 GMT/UTC)

TBI survivors turn to psychedelics for symptom relief

University of Victoria
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study from the University of Victoria (UVic) has identified a segment of traumatic brain injury survivors who are using psychedelics to self-medicate for cognitive, mood and somatic symptoms such as headaches.

We may be born with 2 complex cognitive functions already established

Ohio State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study is the first to show that two of our most sophisticated cognitive functions, using and understanding language and being able to sense how other people feel, have distinct origins in the brain in young children – matching what we know about the adult brain. The findings suggest that these separate but related ways of processing complex concepts, both uniquely human skills, do not originate from overlapping brain areas and grow more distinct as the mind matures, which challenges prior theories. Instead, our brains appear to have evolved with discrete architecture and wiring enabling these different kinds of thinking.

Journal: Communications Biology

Are you addicted to your AI chatbot? It might be by design

University of British Columbia
Peer-Reviewed Publication

AI chatbots can grant almost any request—a celebrity in love with you, a research assistant, a book character sprung to life—instantly and with little effort. New research presented at the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems suggests that this genie-like quality is fuelling AI addiction, and that chatbot design could be partly to blame.

Medical scientists apply the strictest ethics – at least in theory

Linköping University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Medical scientists are stricter while natural, social and humanities scientists are more permissive. The attitude to ethically problematic ways of conducting research differs clearly between disciplines, according to a study from Linköping University, Sweden.

Journal: Research Policy

Medicaid expansion helped enrollees’ long-term financial health, study finds

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study shows that enrollees in Michigan's Medicaid expansion program had large drops in medical debt in collections and in rates of sub-prime credit scores

Journal: JAMA Network Open
Funder: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

Scientists esteemed by public, with vaccine scientists seen as similar to scientists in general

Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Reports and Proceedings

An Annenberg Public Policy Center survey finds that nearly 7 in 10 Americans trust vaccine scientists a moderate or greater amount to act in the best interests of “people like you."

Scrapped inheritance tax linked to stronger growth in private firms with heirs, Swedish study shows

Stockholm School of Economics
Reports and Proceedings

After Sweden removed inheritance and gift taxes in 2005, private firms with potential family successors grew faster, invested more, and paid higher corporate taxes than firms without natural heirs, according to a new white paper from the Stockholm School of Economics. The study adds empirical evidence in a policy debate often dominated by ideology and comes as several European countries debate inheritance tax reforms.

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