DATE: August 10, 2025 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Dementia rates vary sharply across U.S. regions

URL: https://www.psypost.org/dementia-rates-vary-sharply-across-u-s-regions/

A study of older U.S. veterans found that dementia incidence was lowest in the Mid-Atlantic region (11.2 cases per 1,000 person-years) and highest in the Southeast (14.0 cases per 1,000 person-years). The paper was published in JAMA Neurology.

Dementia is a broad term for a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking, and social abilities severely enough to interfere with daily life. It is most commonly caused by Alzheimer’s disease, but other types include vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, and frontotemporal dementia. Dementia is progressive, meaning symptoms worsen over time.

Early signs can include forgetfulness, difficulty finding words, and trouble with problem-solving or planning. As the condition advances, individuals may struggle to recognize familiar people, perform routine tasks, or regulate emotions. Although aging is the greatest risk factor, dementia is not a normal part of aging. Genetics, cardiovascular health, head injuries, and lifestyle factors also contribute to risk. Research suggests that maintaining physical activity, cognitive engagement, and a healthy diet may help reduce the likelihood of developing dementia.

Study author Christina S. Dintica and colleagues sought to investigate whether dementia incidence varies across U.S. regions. They focused on older veterans enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States.

The analysis included 1,268,599 veterans aged 65 years or older who received care at VHA medical centers between October 1999 and September 2021. This group represented a randomly selected sample of about 5% of older veterans who used VHA services during those years. The average age was 73.9 years, and 2% were women.

To be included, participants had to have known zip code information so that researchers could determine their geographic location. Those without a zip code were excluded. Dementia diagnoses were identified using medical records.

Based on their zip codes, participants were classified into one of 10 U.S. regions, each composed of 4 to 7 states: Southeast (Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi); Southwest (Arizona, California, Hawai‘i, and Nevada); South Atlantic (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida); South (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas); Rocky Mountains (Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming); Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington); Northeast (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New York); Midwest (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska); Mid-Atlantic (Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and New Jersey); and Great Lakes (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin).

The lowest dementia incidence was observed in the Mid-Atlantic (11.2 per 1,000 person-years) and the highest in the Southeast (14.0 per 1,000 person-years). Compared with the Mid-Atlantic, dementia risk was 25% higher in the Southeast, 23% higher in both the Northwest and Rocky Mountains, 18% higher in the South, and 12% higher in the Midwest and South Atlantic. In the remaining regions, rates were less than 10% higher than in the Mid-Atlantic.

“Among older adults in the VHA, dementia incidence varied significantly across US regions, independent of key covariates. These findings highlight the need for targeted health care planning, public health interventions, and policy development,” the study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the regional variation in dementia incidence rates. However, it should be noted that the design of the study does not allow any causal inferences to be derived from the results. While the study reported differences between geographical regions, the specific factors underlying these regional variations remain unknown.

The paper, “Regional Differences in Dementia Incidence Among US Veterans,” was authored by Christina S. Dintica, Amber L. Bahorik, Feng Xia, John Boscardin, and Kristine Yaffe.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/dementia-rates-vary-sharply-across-u-s-regions/

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DATE: August 10, 2025 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Intellectual humility is linked to less political and religious polarization across the board

URL: https://www.psypost.org/intellectual-humility-is-linked-to-less-political-and-religious-polarization-across-the-board/

A new study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology indicates that people who score higher in intellectual humility tend to show less political and religious polarization — regardless of whether they are Republican, Democrat, Christian, or atheist. This link held across different measures, including both self-reported attitudes and behavioral indicators of hostility toward ideological outgroups, and often remained significant even after accounting for the strength of a person’s beliefs.

Intellectual humility refers to the recognition that one’s knowledge and understanding are limited. It involves a willingness to revise one’s views when presented with new evidence, the ability to separate personal identity from beliefs, and a respect for the perspectives of others. While it does not require abandoning one’s convictions, it emphasizes openness, curiosity, and a readiness to acknowledge that one could be wrong. Past research has tied intellectual humility to less ideological rigidity, more tolerance for opposing views, and a greater willingness to engage constructively with people who hold different beliefs.

In the United States, political and religious divisions are deeply intertwined, with each often reinforcing the other. Political polarization — particularly the “affective” kind, which combines disagreement with active dislike of the other side — has reached historically high levels. Religious polarization, though less studied, is also significant, contributing to mistrust and prejudice.

Because intellectual humility aligns closely with interventions shown to reduce polarization — such as promoting accurate perceptions of the outgroup and encouraging respectful intergroup contact — the researchers wanted to know whether its effects would be consistent across both political and religious divides. They also sought to determine whether these patterns held regardless of the specific group identities involved.

“Previous studies found that intellectual humility was related to less political and religious polarization, but these two forms of polarization were assessed independently in relation to intellectual humility,” said study author Shauna Bowes, an incoming assistant professor of psychology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

“Political and religious polarization are often deeply intertwined. Moreover, if intellectual humility is powerful for understanding less polarization, then it should be related to less polarization across belief domains and identities. Thus, I simultaneously examined religious and political polarization in relation to intellectual humility.”

The researchers recruited participants through an online panel, first screening 1,000 people to identify those who identified as either Christian or atheist and as either Republican or Democrat. This yielded a final sample of 473 adults, predominantly White and evenly split between men and women, with 44% identifying as Republican and 56% as Democrat. Most participants were Christian (76%), with the remainder identifying as atheist.

Participants completed several measures. Intellectual humility was assessed using the Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale, which captures four dimensions: independence of intellect and ego, openness to revising one’s viewpoint, respect for others’ viewpoints, and lack of intellectual overconfidence.

Polarization was measured in two ways. First, participants rated their attitudes toward their political and religious outgroups on items related to social contact, favorability, emotional warmth, and prejudice. Second, in a behavioral task, participants were asked to assign tangram puzzles of varying difficulty to an outgroup member, with the opportunity to make the task either easier or harder for the other person, and reported their motives for doing so.

The study also included measures of variables that often predict polarization, such as intolerance of uncertainty, distress intolerance, moralization of political beliefs, and the degree to which participants’ political and religious beliefs were central to their identity. Belief strength — how strongly participants held and felt certain about their political or religious views — was included as a control variable in some analyses.

Across the board, higher intellectual humility was linked to lower levels of political and religious polarization. This was true for both self-reported attitudes and the behavioral measure of hostility toward outgroups. The relationships tended to be consistent across different dimensions of intellectual humility, although openness to revising one’s viewpoint was generally the weakest predictor, especially in the behavioral task.

“It was interesting to see that the results did not vary across methods of assessment,” Bowes told PsyPost. “That is, we used self-report and experimental measures of polarization. Intellectual humility was related to less polarization for the self-report measures and the experimental measures of polarization. These findings provide additional support for the robustness of the relationship, as it is not solely driven by shared method variance (i.e., that everything is self-reported).”

When the researchers compared political and religious domains directly, they found almost no differences in how strongly intellectual humility related to polarization. In other words, the quality of being intellectually humble seemed to work similarly in both contexts.

The relationships also held across group identities. Republicans and Democrats showed similar patterns, as did Christians and atheists. Notably, this symmetry between Christians and atheists is striking given the lack of middle ground between their worldviews, suggesting that intellectual humility may reduce animosity even across deeply opposed existential positions.

Most of these effects remained significant even after controlling for belief strength. This suggests that the link between intellectual humility and reduced polarization is not simply a byproduct of holding weaker convictions. On average, intellectual humility explained an additional 3% to 5% of the variance in polarization beyond what could be accounted for by belief strength alone.

However, the study found little evidence that intellectual humility buffered against other traits and tendencies known to increase polarization, such as intolerance of uncertainty or distress intolerance. The few protective effects observed were linked to the ability to separate one’s ego from one’s beliefs, which appeared to weaken the connection between strong identity-based beliefs and polarization.

“Across belief domains and identities, intellectual humility is related to less polarization,” Bowes explained. “As such, intellectual humility may help people be less prone to polarization across the board. That said, intellectual humility likely contributes to less polarization in concert with other processes, such as a low need for closure, as intellectual humility did not invariably statistically protect against variables that predict more polarization.”

As with all research, there are some limitations to consider. The study focused only on two political identities (Republican and Democrat) and two religious identities (Christian and atheist), leaving out many other important identity groups. Political and religious identities also overlapped considerably in the sample — for example, most Republicans identified as Christian — which limited the ability to explore combinations such as Republican atheists or Democratic Christians in depth.

“We can only draw conclusions about intellectual humility and polarization in the context of (1) Republicans and Democrats and (2) Christians and atheists,” Bowes noted. “Additional research is needed to clarify the generalizability of our results when examining other political, religious, and irreligious identities.”

The researchers suggest that future work should investigate intellectual humility in other political and religious groups, examine more diverse irreligious identities, and explore how interventions might foster intellectual humility over time. They also highlight the need to determine whether increasing intellectual humility can causally reduce polarization, rather than simply being associated with it.

“I would be eager to conduct more causal and applied research,” Bowes said. “Regarding causal research, it will be important to establish that intellectual humility precedes less polarization and causes less polarization. Regarding applied research, which is linked with causal research, I would be excited to look at whether increasing or cultivating intellectual humility reduces polarization.”

The study, “How intellectual humility relates to political and religious polarization,” was authored by Shauna M. Bowes and Arber Tasimi.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/intellectual-humility-is-linked-to-less-political-and-religious-polarization-across-the-board/

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DATE: August 10, 2025 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Physically active individuals tend to have slightly better cognitive abilities on average

URL: https://www.psypost.org/physically-active-individuals-tend-to-have-slightly-better-cognitive-abilities-on-average/

A meta-analysis of studies exploring the relationship between physical activity and cognitive performance found a small positive association between the two. The strongest effects were observed for moderate-to-vigorous outdoor physical activity. The paper was published in the Psychological Bulletin.

Research indicates that physical activity can benefit cognitive performance across the lifespan. Regular exercise improves blood flow to the brain, supporting the delivery of oxygen and nutrients essential for brain function. It also stimulates the release of neurotrophic factors such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which promote neuronal growth and connectivity. Both aerobic and resistance training have been linked to improvements in memory, attention, and executive functioning.

In children, physical activity tends to be associated with better academic achievement and concentration. Among adults, it may help slow age-related cognitive decline and reduce the risk of neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. Acute bouts of exercise can temporarily enhance mood and mental clarity. These cognitive benefits are thought to result from a combination of biological and psychological mechanisms. Exercise can also reduce stress and improve sleep, both of which support cognitive functioning.

Lead author Myrto F. Mavilidi and colleagues aimed to integrate findings from existing studies on the link between physical activity and cognition, while also examining how this relationship might depend on contextual factors such as the physical and social environment, delivery mode (e.g., face-to-face, remote, virtual reality), delivery style, and life domain. They also distinguished between the effects of single, acute bouts of activity and regular, long-term physical activity.

The researchers searched ERIC (ProQuest), APA PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus for studies presenting original data on physical activity interventions. They focused on experimental designs involving random assignment or randomized crossover designs, with cognitive outcomes including executive functioning, memory, attention, or intelligence.

They examined exercise intensity, duration, type, and cognitive demand (for example, repetitive motor exercises versus complex sports or skill-based activities). They also considered participant age, adherence to the intervention, study design, and any special participant characteristics.

The initial search yielded 16,515 records. After screening, 239 studies met inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. These studies were published between 1989 and 2023, involved a total of 48,625 participants, and covered a mean age range from 4 to 85 years.

Results showed that regular physical activity had a small positive effect on cognition. Studies examining single bouts of physical activity also found small positive effects. These effects did not appear to vary substantially by physical or social environment, or by life domain in which the activity took place.

For acute exercise studies, light, moderate, and moderate-to-vigorous intensity activities all produced small positive effects, whereas vigorous or near-maximal activity showed negligible effects. Regarding activity type, the largest effects in chronic interventions were observed for holistic movement practices and martial arts, followed by motor–cognitive activities such as sports games—both of which tend to be more cognitively demanding. Outdoor activities also tended to yield stronger effects.

“The current review found that several facets of the physical activity context, including physical and social environment, domain, and delivery mode do not moderate the effects of physical activity on cognition individually. Instead, the outdoor physical environment seems to amplify the beneficial effect of physical activity of specific doses and features. Our findings show promise that providing people of all ages with opportunities to be active in natural outdoor environments can be conducive to enhanced cognitive functioning,” the study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the effects of physical activity on cognition. However, study authors note that results were substantially influenced by individual studies reporting much stronger results compared to other studies. They note that effects would be much smaller if only 6 studies with strong results were removed from the dataset.

The paper, “How Physical Activity Context Relates to Cognition Across the Lifespan: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” was authored by Myrto F. Mavilidi, Spyridoula Vazou, David R. Lubans, Katie Robinson, Andrew J. Woods, Valentin Benzing, Sofia Anzeneder, Katherine B. Owen, Celia Álvarez-Bueno, Levi Wade, Jade Burley, George Thomas, Anthony D. Okely, and Caterina Pesce.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/physically-active-individuals-tend-to-have-slightly-better-cognitive-abilities-on-average/

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DATE: August 10, 2025 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Sleep may amplify negative memory bias in anxious youth

URL: https://www.psypost.org/sleep-may-amplify-negative-memory-bias-in-anxious-youth/

New research published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry indicates that sleep may amplify the tendency for anxious children and young adolescents to overgeneralize negative experiences. In a controlled experiment, higher anxiety was linked to a greater chance of mistaking new but similar negative images for ones seen before—but only after a night’s sleep.

The study was motivated by growing evidence that sleep shapes emotional memory. During sleep, the brain tends to reactivate and consolidate recent experiences, with emotionally charged material often receiving priority over neutral content. That bias can be adaptive, helping people learn from significant events. In anxiety, however, this same machinery may tilt toward negative material, feeding what researchers call negative overgeneralization—when a memory of one unpleasant event carries over to similar, harmless situations.

Because late childhood and early adolescence are marked by heightened emotional responses, changing sleep patterns, and rising rates of anxiety, the team examined whether anxiety interacts with sleep to change how emotional memories are recognized and generalized during this period.

“Our interest was sparked by a growing recognition that sleep plays a pivotal role in cognitive processes like memory consolidation, especially during critical neurodevelopmental periods such as early adolescence,” said study author Liga Eihentale, a doctoral student at Florida International University and member of the REMEDY research group.

“Anxiety disorders often emerge during this time, and understanding sleep-dependent memory processes—such as overgeneralization—could shed light on early mechanisms driving psychopathology. By bridging cognitive neuroscience with clinical science, we aimed to explore how sleep interacts with anxiety to influence negative overgeneralization.”

The researchers studied 34 participants between 9 and 14 years old, recruited from both clinical settings and the community to capture a broad range of anxiety severity. Anxiety was assessed with a clinician-rated measure. Participants were randomly assigned to either a sleep condition or a wake condition. Everyone completed an emotional memory similarity task. In the first phase, they viewed 145 images—negative, neutral, and positive—and rated each one’s emotional tone. They were not told there would be a later test.

After a 10- to 12-hour interval, which included overnight sleep for one group and a daytime period of wakefulness for the other, participants took a surprise recognition test. That test included exact repeats of some images, new but similar “lure” images, and entirely new images. The main outcome was how often a participant labeled a similar-but-new negative image as “old,” adjusted for any general tendency to say “old.”

Among children and young adolescents who slept, higher anxiety was linked to greater generalization of negative images—that is, a stronger tendency to believe that new but similar negative pictures had been seen before. This relationship did not appear in the wake group. The three-way interplay between anxiety, emotional tone, and condition was statistically significant for negative images, but not for neutral images. Positive images showed a weaker and less consistent pattern.

Exploratory comparisons suggested that the effect was most pronounced at higher anxiety levels. Participants with high anxiety generalized negative memories substantially more after sleep than those with low anxiety. At the other end of the spectrum, participants with low anxiety sometimes generalized negative memories more after daytime wakefulness than after sleep, which hints that sleep may reduce negative generalization in less anxious individuals.

“The key message is that sleep plays an active role in shaping memory and our perception of the world, particularly in emotionally vulnerable youth,” Eihentale told PsyPost. “Specifically, children and adolescents with higher levels of anxiety tend to overgeneralize negative experiences more after sleep compared to wakefulness, meaning they are more likely to extend negative associations to similar but non-threatening situations, which can perpetuate anxiety.”

“Our findings underscore sleep’s key role in emotional memory processing during a sensitive developmental stage and point to the need for a deeper understanding of what is happening during sleep (i.e., sleep neurophysiology) in anxious youth to drive aberrant memory consolidation processes.”

These findings align with theories proposing that sleep strengthens emotional memories and extend that idea to a pattern that may be maladaptive in anxiety. The data indicate that sleep-related memory consolidation could be one pathway through which negative overgeneralization takes hold in anxious children and young adolescents. That interpretation fits with broader work suggesting that the brain extracts the “gist” of experiences during sleep and integrates that gist into existing knowledge, which can be helpful in many situations but may become problematic when negative themes become dominant.

This line of research also points toward potential clinical applications. If sleep can strengthen memory traces, it might be possible to guide that process toward more adaptive outcomes. Some experimental approaches cue specific memories during sleep to change how they are stored, and there is interest in testing whether such techniques could help reduce negative overgeneralization by reinforcing neutral or positive interpretations. The present findings indicate that such strategies might be especially relevant for children and young adolescents who show heightened anxiety.

But anxiety severity did not meaningfully change recognition accuracy for negative images in either condition.

“We were surprised to find that anxiety severity did not interact with sleep to predict recognition accuracy of negative images,” Eihentale said. “Emotional reactivity, which is often heightened in individuals with anxiety, is typically associated with better recognition of negative memories after sleep. However, in our clinical sample, this relationship did not hold—possibly due to differences in memory processing in clinical versus non-clinical populations. Perhaps more affirming, we found that at low levels of anxiety, sleep appeared to reduce negative generalization—highlighting a potential therapeutic effect of sleep in dampening the emotional intensity of negative memories in non-anxious youth.”

The authors noted some limitations.

“Our sample size was relatively small, which limits the statistical power and generalizability of the findings,” Eihentale noted. “We also relied on actigraphy and sleep diaries to assess sleep, which, while ecologically valid, do not capture the detailed neural processes—such as slow-wave activity and sleep spindles—that are integral to memory consolidation. Additionally, circadian factors and emotional arousal were not fully controlled or directly measured, which could have influenced memory encoding and retrieval. These limitations underscore the importance of replication using larger samples and more comprehensive, multimodal assessments of sleep.”

Future studies could examine the sleep stages and brain rhythms most closely tied to emotional memory generalization, include larger and more diverse samples, and use image sets that are matched for arousal as well as content. It would also be useful to follow children and young adolescents over time to see whether sleep-related generalization of negative memories predicts later anxiety symptoms, or whether shifting sleep habits changes the tendency to generalize.

“Our long-term goal is to map how sleep-related memory mechanisms contribute to the onset and persistence of anxiety in early adolescence,” Eihentale explained. “This includes investigating specific features of sleep microarchitecture—such as slow-wave activity and spindles—that are critical for memory formation and long-term storage. By identifying when and how overgeneralization becomes maladaptive, we aim to inform targeted sleep-based interventions that can disrupt these processes early and reduce the risk of chronic anxiety disorders.”

The study, “Anxiety severity in peri-adolescents is associated with greater generalization of negative memories following a period of sleep relative to wake,” was authored by Liga Eihentale, Adam Kimbler, Nathan A. Sollenberger, Logan R. Cummings, Carlos E. Yeguez, Guadalupe C. Patriarca, Jeremy W. Pettit, Dana L. McMakin, and Aaron T. Mattfeld.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/sleep-may-amplify-negative-memory-bias-in-anxious-youth/

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DATE: August 10, 2025 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: People with narcissistic tendencies report more ostracism and are more often excluded

URL: https://www.psypost.org/people-with-narcissistic-tendencies-report-more-ostracism-and-are-more-often-excluded/

Narcissistic individuals report feeling excluded more often in everyday life, and this link is driven by both how they perceive social situations and how others react to them, according to research published in the Journal of Personality & Social Psychology.

Ostracism (being excluded or ignored) is a psychologically painful experience with well-documented negative consequences. This study examines the role of narcissism, a personality trait marked by self-centeredness, entitlement, and a strong desire for admiration. The authors focus on grandiose narcissism in particular, which combines assertive self-enhancement (admiration) with antagonistic tendencies (rivalry). While previous research has shown that narcissists often react aggressively to exclusion, this study explored whether they may also be more likely to be excluded in the first place.

Christiane M. Büttner and colleagues explored this possibility by proposing three mechanisms linking narcissism to ostracism: (1) narcissists may be overly sensitive to exclusion cues and thus perceive more ostracism (negative perceptions), (2) their behavior may prompt others to actually exclude them (target behavior), and (3) repeated experiences of exclusion may reinforce narcissistic traits over time (reverse causality).

By combining large-scale surveys, daily diary data, experiments, and a 14-year longitudinal study across 77,000+ participants, this research provides an unusually comprehensive picture of this dynamic.

Study 1 relied on a nationally representative German panel survey in which 1,592 adults completed a brief narcissism questionnaire (NARQ-S), which includes items reflecting admiration (e.g., “Being a very special person gives me a lot of strength”) and rivalry (e.g., “Most people are somehow losers”). They rated how often they felt ostracized over the past two months. Participants also reported their self-esteem, which allowed the researchers to examine whether narcissism predicted ostracism independently of general self-worth.

Study 2 used an experience sampling approach to capture more fine-grained, real-world data. Nearly 500 U.S.-based participants completed a longer narcissism scale (the extended NARQ), a rejection sensitivity measure, and reported daily instances of exclusion over a 14-day period using a mobile app. They also estimated, at the end of the study, how often they had felt excluded, providing insight into whether narcissistic individuals overestimate exclusion.

In real-time reports, both admiration and rivalry facets correlated with more daily exclusion experiences, with admiration reaching statistical significance. Rivalry was more strongly linked to retrospective recall of ostracism. Narcissists also tended to slightly overestimate how many exclusion episodes they had experienced during the study period, suggesting a modest perceptual bias.

However, narcissism was not linked to the belief that one is excluded more than others, indicating that the distortion lies in recalling one’s own experience rather than making social comparisons.

Studies 3a, 3b, and 3c used the Cyberball paradigm, where participants experienced either clear (complete) or partial exclusion, and judged their inclusion level. These experiments tested whether narcissists were more likely to perceive ostracism in scenarios with clear versus partial exclusion. Study 4 shifted to ambiguous, everyday social scenarios to test whether narcissists interpret subtle cues as ostracism.

The final three studies examined the role of narcissistic behavior in eliciting exclusion from others. In Study 5, participants were given written profiles of potential teammates that varied in how narcissistic the described individuals were, and then asked how willing they would be to include or exclude these people.

In Study 6, a similar design was used, but this time participants watched short video clips of people displaying narcissistic traits and inferred their personalities. In both studies, participants were less inclined to include individuals described or perceived as narcissistic, especially those displaying high levels of narcissistic rivalry.

Finally, Study 7 leveraged 14 years of longitudinal data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, allowing the authors to track the long-term relationship between narcissism and ostracism.

Across the studies, a consistent pattern emerged: individuals with higher levels of narcissism, especially the antagonistic, rivalry-oriented type, reported being ostracized more frequently than those lower in narcissism. In Study 1, this link held even after accounting for self-esteem, suggesting the effect was not just about feeling insecure.

The rivalry facet of narcissism, which involves hostility and competitiveness, was particularly predictive of higher reported exclusion. Admiration, which reflects a more charming and self-enhancing style of narcissism, had a weaker association with ostracism in retrospective recall but was linked to more ostracism in daily life.

Study 2 confirmed this pattern using real-time data; participants higher in narcissism reported more daily experiences of exclusion, with admiration showing a significant association in the moment and rivalry more strongly linked to remembered ostracism. Narcissists also tended to slightly overestimate how many exclusion episodes they had experienced during the study, though the effect was modest.

Studies 3a–3c found that narcissistic individuals were not more likely to perceive clear, unambiguous acts of exclusion, but Study 4 confirmed that they were significantly more likely to interpret ambiguous situations as ostracism. This supports the idea that narcissists are hyper-vigilant to social threats when cues are subtle or open to interpretation.

Meanwhile, Studies 5 and 6 demonstrated that narcissists may also be more likely to be actually excluded by others. When participants were told about a hypothetical group member with narcissistic traits, or inferred those traits from videos, they were less inclined to include that person in a team, especially when the individual displayed high levels of narcissistic rivalry.

Finally, Study 7 revealed a bidirectional relationship over time: narcissism predicted future increases in ostracism, and being ostracized also predicted increases in narcissistic traits one year later. This suggests a feedback loop in which narcissism and exclusion reinforce each other throughout a person’s life.

Together, the findings illustrate that narcissists are not only more prone to perceive exclusion, especially in ambiguous situations, but may also behave in ways that lead others to socially reject them. Over time, these experiences appear to contribute to the further development of narcissistic traits, creating a self-perpetuating cycle.

The authors note that narcissism was examined in non-clinical student, community, and representative samples, so the findings may not fully generalize to individuals with clinically diagnosed narcissistic personality disorder.

The research, “Narcissists’ Experience of Ostracism,” was authored by Christiane M. Büttner, Selma C. Rudert, Elianne A. Albath, Chris G. Sibley, and Rainer Greifeneder.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/people-with-narcissistic-tendencies-report-more-ostracism-and-are-more-often-excluded/

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DATE: August 10, 2025 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Sense of personal victimhood linked to conspiracy thinking in large international study

URL: https://www.psypost.org/sense-of-victimhood-linked-to-conspiracy-thinking-in-large-international-study/

People who are quick to see themselves as victims of unfair treatment may be more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, according to a massive international study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology. The research links a stable personality trait called “victim justice sensitivity” to greater endorsement of conspiracy narratives about climate change, vaccines, and other topics.

The work was led by Daniel Toribio-Flórez of the University of Kent in collaboration with an international team of more than 70 researchers from institutions across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. Previous studies have often focused on collective victimhood — the belief that one’s group has been historically harmed — as a driver of conspiratorial thinking. But the authors argued that conspiracy theories also tend to revolve around the idea of being wronged personally.

“Many conspiracy theories are rooted in the idea that one’s group has been unfairly treated or targeted by a powerful group acting malevolently in secret,” said Toribio-Flórez, a postdoctoral research associate and member of the CONSPIRACY_FX project.

“Because of this, past research has mostly focused on how conspiracy beliefs are related to collective victimhood-that is, when people feel their social group, community, or country has been wronged or harmed by another group. However, within a specific social context, individuals differ in their tendency to perceive and react as victims of injustice, independently of their group identity.”

“We were curious whether people who show this individual tendency to see themselves as victims are also prone to believe in conspiracy theories. To investigate this, we collaborated with a multinational team of researchers and collected data from 15 countries. This allowed us to examine whether the patterns we observed held up across different cultural and societal contexts, an important step in assessing the generalizability of our findings.”

The first phase of the research was a secondary analysis of two surveys originally conducted in Germany. These surveys had explored how personality traits shape trust in science, but they also contained relevant measures for the present investigation. In total, the combined sample included 743 participants: 370 drawn from the general public and a student population, and 373 drawn entirely from a student population. The age range was broad, spanning from teenagers to older adults, and women made up the majority of both samples.

Participants completed a 10-item scale designed to measure victim justice sensitivity — the degree to which a person tends to notice, feel angered by, and react to situations in which they believe they are personally treated unfairly. They also completed a validated five-item measure of conspiracy mentality, which captures a general tendency to suspect that important events are shaped by hidden plots. In the second German sample, the researchers also had access to other relevant traits such as dispositional mistrust, intolerance of ambiguity, and need for control, along with political orientation.

The analysis revealed a small to moderate positive correlation between victim justice sensitivity and conspiracy mentality in both samples. In the first sample, the association was statistically significant, albeit weaker, while in the second it was stronger and remained significant even after controlling for other traits and political orientation.

This indicated that the relationship between feeling like a victim and endorsing conspiratorial thinking was not simply explained by a general distrustful outlook or a desire for certainty and control. However, because both samples were from Germany, the authors noted that the findings could not yet be assumed to apply universally.

To address this, the researchers conducted a second study which expanded the scope considerably. As part of the Trust in Science and Science-Related Populism (TISP) ManyLabs project, the researchers collected responses from nearly 15,000 people in 15 different countries, including Australia, Austria, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, the United States, and Costa Rica. The samples were designed to reflect national distributions of age, gender, and education level.

This large-scale online survey measured victim justice sensitivity using a short two-item scale from the Justice Sensitivity Inventory (“It makes me angry when others are undeservingly better off than me” and “It worries me when I have to work hard for things that come easily to others”).

Participants also completed three separate measures of conspiracy belief: a general statement about authorities often hiding the truth, a climate change conspiracy statement claiming that global warming is a hoax orchestrated by scientists, and a vaccine conspiracy statement alleging that scientists conceal vaccine dangers. These were rated on scales indicating the degree of agreement.

The researchers analyzed the data using multilevel models, which allowed them to separate individual-level effects from possible country-level influences. Across the pooled data, victim justice sensitivity was consistently linked to greater endorsement of conspiracy beliefs within countries. The effect was strongest for general conspiracy belief, slightly weaker for vaccine conspiracies, and weakest for climate change conspiracies. Even after adjusting for demographic factors, political orientation, and religiosity, the link remained statistically significant for general and vaccine-related conspiracies.

“According to our data, people’s individual tendency to perceive and react as victims of injustice is positively, though weakly, related to belief in conspiracy theories, even when controlling for indicators of collective victimhood or exposure to collective violence,” Toribio-Flórez told PsyPost. “In other words, people who tend to see themselves as victims are a bit more likely to endorse conspiracy beliefs, regardless of how victimized others feel in their country or of the level of collective violence their country has recently suffered.”

The strength of the relationship varied across nations. In countries such as the United States, New Zealand, and Australia, the association between victim justice sensitivity and conspiracy beliefs was notably stronger. In others, including Costa Rica, Chile, and Colombia, it was minimal or non-existent for some conspiracy measures.

The researchers explored whether country-level factors — such as wealth, income inequality, personal freedoms, corruption perceptions, institutional trust, or cultural orientation toward individualism versus collectivism — explained these differences. They also considered historical exposure to violence, such as armed conflicts or political repression. None of these indicators consistently moderated the association. The one tentative exception was that the relationship appeared stronger in more individualistic societies, but this pattern did not replicate across all cultural indices tested.

“While we observed this pattern in most countries, the strength of the relationship between individual victimhood and conspiracy beliefs varied,” Toribio-Flórez said. “We explored whether economic, sociopolitical, cultural, or historical factors might explain these differences, but we didn’t find clear answers. So we still don’t fully understand why the connection is stronger in some contexts than in others.”

The study, like all research, includes some caveats. The studies were correlational, meaning they cannot determine whether victim justice sensitivity leads to conspiracy belief or vice versa — or whether the relationship is bidirectional.

“We cannot say for certain whether an individual’s tendency to feel like a victim makes people more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, or if it’s the other way around,” Toribio-Flórez explained. “While some studies suggest that conspiracy beliefs might increase individual perceptions of victimhood, more experimental work is needed to understand the direction and nature of this relationship.”

“I hope it encourages other researchers to examine victimhood at both the personal and group levels when studying conspiracy beliefs. While group identity has often been the focus, our findings suggest that an individual sense of victimhood also plays a meaningful role.”

“I would like to highlight the growing international collaboration in the social sciences and other research fields,” Toribio-Flórez added. “More and more, researchers are teaming up across countries to get a broader, more accurate picture of human behavior across different contexts. In this case, the Trust in Science and Science-Related Populism (TISP) ManyLabs project, led by Dr. Viktoria Cologna and Dr. Niels G. Mede, provided the platform that made this research project possible.”

The study, “Victims of Conspiracies? An Examination of the Relationship Between Conspiracy Beliefs and Dispositional Individual Victimhood,” was authored Daniel Toribio-Flórez, Marlene S. Altenmüller, Karen M. Douglas, Mario Gollwitzer, Indro Adinugroho, Mark Alfano, Denisa Apriliawati, Flavio Azevedo, Cornelia Betsch, Olga Białobrzeska, Amélie Bret, André Calero Valdez, Viktoria Cologna, Gabriela Czarnek, Sylvain Delouvée, Kimberly C. Doell, Simone Dohle, Dmitrii Dubrov, Małgorzata Dzimińska, Christian T. Elbaek, Matthew Facciani, Antoinette Fage-Butler, Marinus Ferreira, Malte Friese, Simon Fuglsang, Albina Gallyamova, Patricia Garrido-Vásquez, Mauricio E. Garrido Vásquez, Oliver Genschow, Omid Ghasemi, Theofilos Gkinopoulos, Claudia González Brambila, Hazel Clare Gordon, Dmitry Grigoryev, Alma Cristal Hernández-Mondragón, Tao Jin, Sebastian Jungkunz, Dominika Jurgiel, John R. Kerr, Lilian Kojan, Elizaveta Komyaginskaya, Claus Lamm, Jean-Baptiste Légal, Neil Levy, Mathew D. Marques, Sabrina J. Mayer, Niels G. Mede, Taciano L. Milfont, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Jonas P. Nitschke, Mariola Paruzel-Czachura, Michal Parzuchowski, Ekaterina Pronizius, Katarzyna Pypno-Blajda, Gabriel Gaudencio Rêgo, Robert M. Ross, Philipp Schmid, Samantha K. Stanley, Stylianos Syropoulos, Ewa Szumowska, Claudia Teran-Escobar, Boryana Todorova, Iris Vilares, Izabela Warwas, Marcel Weber, Mareike Westfal, and Adrian Dominik Wojcik.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/sense-of-victimhood-linked-to-conspiracy-thinking-in-large-international-study/

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DATE: August 09, 2025 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Antidepressant vortioxetine linked to greater cognitive and mood improvements in Alzheimer’s patients

URL: https://www.psypost.org/antidepressant-vortioxetine-linked-to-greater-cognitive-and-mood-improvements-in-alzheimers-patients/

A new study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease suggests that vortioxetine, an antidepressant with a unique multimodal mechanism, may offer greater benefits for both mood and cognitive function in people with Alzheimer’s disease who also experience depressive symptoms, compared to other commonly prescribed antidepressants. Over the course of a year, patients taking vortioxetine showed larger improvements in measures of memory, attention, and reasoning, as well as a greater reduction in depressive symptoms, than those taking escitalopram, paroxetine, or bupropion.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects memory, thinking, and behavior. It is the most common cause of dementia in older adults, gradually impairing a person’s ability to carry out daily activities. Alongside cognitive decline, many people with Alzheimer’s also experience neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and apathy. Depression in Alzheimer’s is common and can intensify the difficulties posed by memory loss and disorientation, while also worsening quality of life for both patients and caregivers.

The high prevalence of depression in Alzheimer’s has led to increased prescribing of antidepressants in this population. Yet research on how these drugs affect cognitive function has been limited and sometimes conflicting. Certain antidepressants may worsen cognition due to side effects on neurotransmitter systems, while others could potentially support brain function.

Vortioxetine is of particular interest because, beyond its action on serotonin receptors, it also influences other neurotransmitter systems involved in learning and memory. Previous studies in people with depression and in those with mild cognitive impairment have hinted at cognitive benefits, but few have directly compared vortioxetine to multiple other antidepressants in patients with Alzheimer’s.

To address this gap, researchers Eduardo Cumbo and Daniela Migliore conducted a 12-month randomized, open-label study at the Neurodegenerative Disorders Unit in Caltanissetta, Italy. The analysis focused on 108 outpatients with mild Alzheimer’s disease and depressive symptoms. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either vortioxetine (n=36) or one of three other antidepressants—escitalopram, paroxetine, or bupropion (n=72 in total)—while continuing standard Alzheimer’s treatments such as cholinesterase inhibitors or memantine. Patients were assessed at the start of the study, after six months, and after twelve months.

Cognitive function was measured using several established tests. The Mini-Mental State Examination evaluated overall cognitive ability, including memory, orientation, and language. The Attentive Matrices test measured selective attention, while the Coloured Progressive Matrices assessed nonverbal reasoning and problem-solving. The Digit Span task tested verbal working memory. Depression severity was measured with the Hamilton Depression Scale and the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia.

By the end of the study, patients in all groups showed some improvement on cognitive tests, but gains were generally largest and most consistent in the vortioxetine group. On the Mini-Mental State Examination, vortioxetine-treated patients improved by nearly three points, a statistically significant change. They also showed significant gains in selective attention and nonverbal reasoning, while patients on other antidepressants tended to improve less, and in some cases, not significantly. Working memory scores improved slightly in the vortioxetine group but did not reach statistical significance.

When comparing groups directly, vortioxetine outperformed the other antidepressants on most cognitive measures. The difference was particularly notable when compared to paroxetine, which has anticholinergic properties that can impair cognition in older adults. Escitalopram and bupropion showed moderate improvements on some attention measures, but not to the same extent as vortioxetine.

The study also found that depressive symptoms decreased in all groups over the 12-month period, but the reduction was more pronounced in patients taking vortioxetine. On both depression scales, the vortioxetine group’s scores dropped by about seven points from baseline—an improvement considered clinically meaningful. Between-group comparisons showed that vortioxetine’s effect on depressive symptoms was statistically superior to that of the other antidepressants.

Side effects were relatively uncommon and generally mild. Nausea and headache were the most frequently reported with vortioxetine, occurring in about 8% of patients. Two participants—one on paroxetine and one on bupropion—discontinued treatment due to side effects. No serious adverse events or deaths occurred during the study.

The researchers note some limitations. The trial was conducted at a single site with a modest sample size, which may limit how well the findings apply to the wider Alzheimer’s population. It was also open-label, meaning patients and doctors knew which treatment was being given, which could introduce bias.

Importantly, only patients with mild Alzheimer’s were included, so the results may not extend to those with more advanced disease. The study also could not determine whether the observed cognitive improvements were due directly to vortioxetine’s pharmacological effects or indirectly through relief of depressive symptoms.

Despite these caveats, the findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that vortioxetine may have cognitive benefits beyond its antidepressant effects. The authors suggest that larger, longer-term, and double-blind studies are needed to confirm these results and to clarify how vortioxetine’s effects on neurotransmitter systems might influence both mood and cognition in people with Alzheimer’s.

If future research confirms these findings, vortioxetine could be considered a particularly useful option for Alzheimer’s patients who experience depression—addressing not only mood symptoms but also potentially helping to preserve certain cognitive functions.

The study, “Differential effects of antidepressants on cognition in Alzheimer’s disease with depression: A sub-group analysis of an open-label, observational study,” was authored by Eduardo Cumbo and Daniela Migliore.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/antidepressant-vortioxetine-linked-to-greater-cognitive-and-mood-improvements-in-alzheimers-patients/

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DATE: August 09, 2025 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Neuroticism is linked to more frequent nightmares in adults

URL: https://www.psypost.org/neuroticism-is-linked-to-more-frequent-nightmares-in-adults/

People who score higher on neuroticism are more likely to experience frequent nightmares, according to research published in Dreaming.

Nightmares—vivid, emotionally intense dreams that often lead to waking—are quite rare, comprising about 3% of dreams on average. Yet for some individuals, they occur far more frequently and with significant emotional distress. Persistent nightmares can worsen mental health outcomes, increasing the risk of PTSD, suicidal ideation, and impaired daily functioning.

Past research has suggested that personality traits may play a role in who is more vulnerable to nightmares, but findings have been inconsistent, particularly regarding which of the Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) are most associated with nightmare frequency and distress.

Aurore Roland and Zosia Goossens conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to clarify these associations.

To identify relevant studies, the authors conducted a systematic search across four major scientific databases, including PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science, using a comprehensive set of search terms related to nightmares and the Big Five personality traits. To be included, studies had to examine adult participants, measure the Big Five traits using a validated questionnaire, and assess nightmare frequency or distress. Studies without full text, non-English publications, conference abstracts, and studies using alternative personality frameworks were excluded.

Ten studies met the inclusion criteria, all of which were rated as having a low risk of bias using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tool. Participant samples varied widely, including university students and general population adults, with sample sizes ranging from 117 to 2,492 individuals. Most studies used the NEO-FFI or BFI to measure personality traits and relied on either single-item or short-form scales to assess nightmare frequency and distress.

Due to differences in available data, the authors were able to conduct meta-analyses only for nightmare frequency in relation to openness (reflective of traits like imagination and creativity) and neuroticism (tendency to experience more frequent and intense negative emotions). Nightmare distress could not be meta-analyzed due to inconsistent reporting formats and insufficient correlational data.

The meta-analysis revealed a small but significant association between openness and nightmare frequency (Fischer’s z = .06). This suggests that while individuals high in openness may experience slightly more nightmares, the effect is minimal and likely not clinically meaningful. The result was consistent across different statistical models, including sensitivity analyses with and without regression-based data.

In contrast, the association between neuroticism and nightmare frequency was stronger (z = .30), indicating a small-to-moderate effect. People higher in neuroticism were significantly more likely to report frequent nightmares. Importantly, this result remained robust even when the authors excluded studies that reported only regression-based estimates, although the strength of the association did decrease slightly when such studies were included.

These findings underscore neuroticism as an important personality-based risk factor for frequent nightmares, highlighting the role of emotional instability in sleep-related distress.

One limitation is the small number of eligible studies, which limited the scope of meta-analyses and prevented analysis of other traits like agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion.

The research, “Nightmares and the Big Five Personality Traits: A Systematic Review and Three-Level Meta-Analysis,” was authored by Aurore Roland and Zosia Goossens.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/neuroticism-is-linked-to-more-frequent-nightmares-in-adults/

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DATE: August 09, 2025 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Female survivors of childhood trauma more likely to suffer from eating disorders as young adults

URL: https://www.psypost.org/female-survivors-of-childhood-trauma-more-likely-to-suffer-from-eating-disorders-as-young-adults/

A study in Italy reported that female survivors of childhood trauma were more likely to experience failures in mentalizing and had a higher risk of developing eating disorders. Failures in mentalizing may mediate the association between childhood trauma and eating disorders. The research was published in Development and Psychopathology.

Childhood trauma refers to deeply distressing or disturbing experiences that occur during childhood and overwhelm a child’s ability to cope. These experiences can include physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, neglect, witnessing violence, or losing a caregiver. Trauma during critical developmental periods can have lasting effects on brain development, emotional regulation, and stress response systems.

Children who experience trauma may develop anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, or behavioral issues. Psychological trauma can also impair cognitive functions such as attention, memory, and executive functioning. Early trauma increases the risk of health problems later in life, including substance abuse, chronic illness, and relationship difficulties. The effects vary depending on the severity and duration of the trauma and the support the child receives. Protective factors, such as strong caregiver relationships and early intervention, can buffer some of the negative impacts.

Study author Gianluca Santoro sought to investigate the relationship between childhood trauma, failures in mentalizing (observed as uncertainty about mental states), and the risk of eating disorders among young adult females. The researchers hypothesized that childhood trauma is positively associated with uncertainty about mental states and the risk of eating disorders. They also proposed that uncertainty about mental states mediates the relationship between childhood trauma and the risk of eating disorders.

The study included 409 Caucasian young adult females, with an average age of 23 years. Most participants had either a middle school or high school diploma. All were unmarried, but 91% reported being in a romantic relationship.

Participants completed assessments of childhood trauma (the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire – Short Form), difficulties in mentalizing abilities (the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire), and symptoms and psychological features related to eating disorders (the Eating Disorder Inventory-3). Difficulties in mentalizing refer to challenges in understanding and interpreting one’s own and others’ mental states. This can manifest as uncertainty about thoughts and feelings or excessive certainty that oversimplifies complex mental processes.

Results indicated that participants with a higher body mass index tended to report more symptoms of eating disorders. Greater severity of eating disorder symptoms was also linked to increased uncertainty about mental states.

The researchers tested a statistical model proposing that childhood trauma increases uncertainty about mental states (i.e., difficulties in mentalizing), which in turn increases the risk of eating disorders (i.e., eating disorder symptoms). The findings indicated that such a mediation pathway is possible, but it does not fully explain the link between childhood trauma and eating disorder risk.

“These findings suggest that ED [eating disorder] symptoms might result from unprocessed and painful feelings embedded in child abuse and neglect. Clinical interventions focused at improving mentalizing abilities might reduce the ED risk among young adult females who have been exposed to childhood trauma,” the study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the links between childhood trauma and eating disorders. However, it should be noted that all data in this study came from self-reports leaving room for reporting bias to have affected the results. Additionally, the design of the study does not allow any causal inferences to be derived from the results.

The paper, “Childhood trauma and eating disorder risk among young adult females: The mediating role of mentalization,” was authored by Gianluca Santoro, Marco Cannavò, Adriano Schimmenti, and Nadia Barberis.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/female-survivors-of-childhood-trauma-more-likely-to-suffer-from-eating-disorders-as-young-adults/

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DATE: August 09, 2025 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Psychedelic benefits may partially depend on your personality, new research suggests

URL: https://www.psypost.org/psychedelic-benefits-may-partially-depend-on-your-personality-new-research-suggests/

A psychedelic trip that leaves one person feeling transformed could leave another feeling unsettled — and personality may be part of the reason. In the Journal of Psychedelic Studies, researchers report that openness predicted positive, mystical experiences, while neuroticism was linked to more challenging and negative outcomes.

Psychedelic substances such as psilocybin (found in certain “magic” mushrooms), LSD, and DMT are known for producing profound alterations in perception, thought, and emotion. They act primarily on the brain’s serotonergic system and have been used in both ceremonial and experimental contexts for centuries. In recent years, scientific interest in these compounds has grown due to their potential to enhance well-being and treat mental health conditions, with some studies suggesting that a single experience can have lasting positive effects on quality of life.

The current study examined these experiences through the lens of the Big Five personality model — one of the most widely accepted frameworks in psychology. The Big Five describes personality across five broad dimensions: openness (curiosity and preference for novelty), conscientiousness (organization and reliability), extraversion (sociability and energy), agreeableness (cooperativeness and empathy), and neuroticism (tendency toward negative emotions).

While prior research has shown that psychedelic experiences can be deeply meaningful, people often respond in very different ways. Some find the experience transformative and life-enhancing; others encounter intense anxiety or distress. The study’s authors aimed to understand whether personality traits could help explain this variation. They also sought to assess both the quality of these experiences — whether they were mystical, challenging, or both — and their long-term consequences, whether positive or negative.

This individual differences perspective is often missing from psychedelic research, which tends to focus on average outcomes. By incorporating personality, the researchers hoped to provide a more nuanced picture of who might benefit most from psychedelic use and who might be more vulnerable to adverse effects.

“At Lund University, south Sweden, we have the national leading center of personality research, and applying individual differences in personality traits to one of the most phenomenologically interesting experiences a human being arguably can have is of course in the interest of psychological research. We also have several parallel projects, such as one of the first randomized controlled trials on anorexia and psilocybin, and the first doctoral project on psychedelic effects on adolescents compared to adults,” explained Petri J. Kajonius, an associate professor of personality psychology and assessment.

Because psychedelic use is prohibited in Sweden, the researchers recruited participants through an anonymous online survey shared on social media. The 400 respondents, one-third of whom were women, had an average age of about 34 years. Most had used LSD or psilocybin, and many reported taking these substances with a personal growth motive, often in natural settings and sometimes with a “trip sitter” present.

Participants were asked to recall the single most impactful psychedelic experience they had ever had, which typically occurred in their early twenties. They rated the significance of this experience compared to other life events, the degree to which it was challenging or mystical, and its lasting positive and negative effects. They also completed a 30-item questionnaire assessing their standing on the Big Five traits.

The researchers measured “challenging” qualities through reports of fear, difficulty, and threat during the experience, while “mystical” qualities were assessed through feelings of ego dissolution and a sense of unity. Positive and negative life consequences were gauged through changes in areas such as self-concept, relationships, anxiety, and mood.

The vast majority of participants rated their psychedelic experience as highly significant: 82% placed it among the top ten most meaningful events in their lives, 56% among the top five, and 11% as the single most significant.

Participants described their “most meaningful” psychedelic experience as both demanding and otherworldly. On the study’s 0–5 scales, the experience was rated moderately challenging (3.14) and even more mystical (3.63). Long-term fallout leaned strongly positive: negative aftereffects were minimal (0.14), while positive life changes were high (4.26).

Openness was the trait most consistently tied to beneficial outcomes. Higher openness related to stronger mystical qualities during the experience and to greater positive life effects afterward. When the sample was split at the mean, those high in openness had nearly double the odds of reporting substantial positive changes. Openness also showed a small link with reporting the experience as more challenging, suggesting that open individuals may engage more deeply and come away seeing more upside.

“The Big Five trait Openness seems to be a very strong predictor for many outcomes before, during, and after a psychedelic experience,” Kajonius told PsyPost. “This result is furthermore likely underestimated, seeing the low internal consistency in the psychometrics.”

Neuroticism showed the opposite trend. It was modestly associated with reporting negative consequences and with reporting fewer positive outcomes. Expressed as odds, higher neuroticism corresponded to a 56% increase in the likelihood of negative aftereffects. Although these effects were small, they suggest that people prone to anxiety and emotional volatility are more likely to experience lingering downsides and less likely to report broad, lasting benefits.

“The most important takeaway is perhaps that individuals do not see the world similarly, and that individual differences in Big Five traits is one avenue of exploring and understanding this fact,” Kajonius said. “Applying this to a psychedelic experience would, according to our hypothesis, yield some patterns from personality — which it arguably did indeed show.”

Other traits played a smaller role. Conscientiousness showed a modest positive association with beneficial life changes. Extraversion and agreeableness had only minor links with positive outcomes, and none of the traits related strongly to negative consequences beyond neuroticism’s modest effect.

The findings suggest that personality plays a meaningful role in how people experience and respond to psychedelics. For those exploring the therapeutic use of psychedelics, these insights could help tailor experiences to the individual, maximizing potential benefits while minimizing risks.

“Our study again gives evidence that not only dose and context matter, but also the person, the psychological constitution of the individual taking the psychedelic substance,” Kajonius told PsyPost. “This is of course well known within psychiatry, but for some reason this hasn’t been as evident in nascent research on psychedelics. For instance, neurotic persons should take extra caution, while open-minded persons tend to explore and grow in their personality in regard to psychedelics.”

As with all research, there are limitations to consider. The sample was self-selected, likely skewing toward individuals with especially meaningful or positive psychedelic experiences. As Kajonius noted, the sample “is very, very skewed towards psychonauts.”

Another complication is that psychedelic experiences themselves may alter personality traits, making it difficult to determine whether the traits influenced the experience or were shaped by it. Some research has suggested that psychedelic use can lead to lasting increases in openness and decreases in neuroticism.

Future studies could address these issues by using larger, more diverse samples, assessing personality before and after psychedelic use, and including people who have had less positive or more neutral experiences. Controlled experimental designs, though challenging with these substances, would also help clarify cause-and-effect relationships.

The study, “Big Five personality and the psychedelic experience: An initial report,” was authored by Petri J. Kajonius, David Sjöström, and Emma Claesdotter-Knutsson.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/psychedelic-benefits-may-partially-depend-on-your-personality-new-research-suggests/

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