Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 3-Nov-2025 08:11 ET (3-Nov-2025 13:11 GMT/UTC)

2-Oct-2025

Death toll from drugs has more than doubled worldwide over past three decades

Frontiers
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers used new statistical methods to analyze public data on the global health burden due to drug addiction. They showed that drug-related mortality has increased 2.2-fold between 1990 and 2021, especially in high-income countries, despite a 6% reduction in cases after correcting for population growth. This surge in the public health burden from drugs was greatest in the US, and likely due to the combination of opioids and cocaine and worsening social and healthcare conditions for drug users.

Journal

Frontiers in Psychiatry

2-Oct-2025

Identifying factors affecting word processing during second-language English reading at different processing stages

University of Tsukuba
Peer-Reviewed Publication

During English reading, readers may occasionally struggle with particular words or feel the need to reread them. Researchers at University of Tsukuba analyzed eye-tracking data to determine whether word length, frequency, or predictability plays the most important role in word processing during second-language English reading.

Journal

Studies in Second Language Acquisition

1-Oct-2025

Can AI persuade you to go vegan—or harm yourself?

University of British Columbia
Reports and Proceedings

UBC research shows AI chatbots can be more persuasive than humans—raising concerns about manipulation, mental health risks and the need for safeguards.

1-Oct-2025

People with self-diagnosed ADHD report more negative self-image and more internalized stigma than clinically diagnosed individuals, and are more likely to seek social validation, per analysis of 450,000 ADHD sub-reddit posts

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

People with self-diagnosed ADHD report more negative self-image and more internalized stigma than clinically diagnosed individuals, and are more likely to seek social validation, per analysis of 450,000 ADHD sub-reddit posts

Journal

PLOS One

1-Oct-2025

Education appears to have a long-lasting protective effect in cognitive aging, even at 90+ years, according to a small, long-term cohort study

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Education appears to have a long-lasting protective effect in cognitive aging, even at 90+ years, according to a small, long-term cohort study

Journal

PLOS One

1-Oct-2025

Why women live longer than men

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An international team led by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, together with 15 co-authors worldwide, conducted the most comprehensive analysis of sex differences in lifespan across mammals and birds to date. Their findings provide novel insight into one of biology’s long-standing puzzles: why males and females age differently.

Journal

Science Advances

Funder

National Institute on Aging, Hungarian Research Network, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, National Scientific Research Fund, National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary, HU-RIZONT Hungary

1-Oct-2025

Loneliness in U.S. adults linked with amount, frequency of social media use

Oregon State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and similar platforms are apparently no antidote for the global loneliness epidemic, according to Oregon State University research that linked increases in social media use with a greater likelihood of feeling alone.

Journal

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Funder

NIH/National Institutes of Health