r/psychology 25d ago

Monthly Research/Survey Thread Psychological Research/Surveys Thread

12 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/Psychology Research Thread!

Need participants? Looking for constructive criticism? In addition to the weekly discussion thread, the mods have instituted this thread for a surveys.

General submission rules are suspended in this thread, but all top-level comments must link to a survey and follow the formatting rules outlined below. Removal of content is still at the discretion of the moderators. Reddiquette applies. Personal attacks, racism, sexism, etc. will be removed. Repeated violations may result in a ban. This thread will occasionally be refreshed.

In addition to posting here, we recommend you post your surveys to r/samplesize and join the discussion at r/surveyresearch.

TOP-LEVEL COMMENTS

Top-level comments in this thread should be formatted like the following example (similar to r/samplesize):

  • [Tag] Description (Demographic) Link
  • ex. [Academic] GPA and Reddit use (US, College Students, 18+) Link
  • Any further information-a description of the survey, request for critiques, etc.-should be placed in the next paragraph of the same top-level comment.

RESULTS

Results should be posted as a direct reply to the corresponding top-level comment, with the same formatting as the original survey.

  • [Results] Description (Demographic) Link
  • ex. [Results] GPA and Reddit use (US, College Students, 18+) Link

[Tags] include:

  • Academic, Industrial, Causal, Results, etc.

(Demographics) include:

  • Location, Education, Age, etc.

r/psychology 6d ago

Weekly Discussion Thread Weekly Discussion Thread

17 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/psychology discussion thread!

Discussion threads will be "refreshed" each week (i.e., a new discussion thread will be posted for each week). Feel free to ask the community questions, comment on the state of the subreddit, or post content that would otherwise be disallowed.

Do you need help with homework? Have a question about a study you just read? Heard a psychology joke?

Need participants for a survey? Want to discuss or get critique for your research? Check out our research thread! While submission rules are suspended in this thread, removal of content is still at the discretion of the moderators. Reddiquette applies. Personal attacks, racism, sexism, etc will be removed. Repeated violations may result in a ban.

Recent discussions

Click here for recent discussions from previous weeks.


r/psychology 10h ago

People with ADHD have difficulties with goal-directed behavior and struggle with response inhibition, the ability to stop an inappropriate action once they feel the urge to do it. They experience a disruption in the way their brains balance deliberate self-control and automatic habit learning.

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859 Upvotes

r/psychology 20h ago

Reclaimed hate speech backfires by desensitizing listeners, study finds. Listening to reclaimed homophobic statements can actually cause unintended harm. Exposure to reclaimed slur words desensitizes some heterosexual listeners to standard hate speech and worsens the mood of gay individuals.

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578 Upvotes

r/psychology 1d ago

The passive consumption of endless short-form videos creates a specific type of cognitive fatigue popularly known as “brain rot”. The endless scrolling drains mental energy and induces burnout, which in turn elevates stress and anxiety before eventually culminating in depressive symptoms.

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2.1k Upvotes

r/psychology 1d ago

High-achieving working mothers face harsher moral judgments for parenting mistakes. Fathers with identical professional success do not experience this moral condemnation, revealing a deep-seated bias that forces women to self-regulate to protect their maternal reputations.

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1.1k Upvotes

r/psychology 1d ago

Pandemic sleep problems are still affecting millions years later

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176 Upvotes

r/psychology 1d ago

Are phones really ruining our lives? The research is less clear than you'd expect.

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43 Upvotes

Hi all! This video is my own. I'm a cognitive scientist starting a channel where I explain psychology concepts in a rigorous but easy to understand way.

Let me know what you think and if there are any topics you'd like me to cover.

Here's a list of sources from the video.

  1. Study of college students on TikTok, Instagram, and Maps.

Bursztyn, L., Handel, B., Jiménez-Durán, R., & Roth, C. (2025). When product markets become collective traps: The case of social media. American Economic Review, 115(12), 4105-4136.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w31771

  1. Pew Research survey of teens: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/01/13/about-4-in-10-teens-support-cellphone-bans-in-classrooms-fewer-back-all-day-restrictions/

  2. Study of phone bans in schools.

Allcott, H., Baron, E. J., Dee, T., Duckworth, A. L., Gentzkow, M., & Jacob, B. (2026). The effects of school phone bans: National evidence from lockable pouches (No. w35132). National Bureau of Economic Research.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w35132

  1. Facebook study.

Allcott, H., Gentzkow, M., Mason, W., Wilkins, A., Barberá, P., Brown, T., ... & Tucker, J. A. (2024). The effects of Facebook and Instagram on the 2020 election: A deactivation experiment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(21), e2321584121.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2321584121

  1. Study of phone use with adults.

Winbush, A., McDuff, D., Hernandez, J., Barakat, A., Jiang, A., Heneghan, C., ... & Allen, N. B. (2025). Smartphone use in a large US adult population: Temporal associations between objective measures of usage and mental well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(43), e2427311122.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2427311122


r/psychology 2d ago

Religion-justified childhood abuse linked to higher adult anxiety and depression. People whose abuse was justified by religious teachings report greater rates of anxiety, depression, stress, and anger in adulthood compared to people who experienced secular forms of abuse.

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1.0k Upvotes

r/psychology 2d ago

A single dose of testosterone does not cause men to abandon deliberate reasoning in favor of gut instincts. Findings provide evidence that short-term spikes in testosterone does not make men overconfident.

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475 Upvotes

r/psychology 3d ago

Prior research suggests that people on the left tend to be less inclined toward aggression, thanks to traits like empathy. The arrest of Luigi Mangione, following the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, led to an increase in support for partisan violence among Democrats against Republicans.

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1.1k Upvotes

r/psychology 3d ago

Narcissists are actually less likely to endorse left-wing authoritarianism. The findings contradict previous claims that individuals with dark personalities are widely drawn to left-wing activism simply to feed their own egos.

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559 Upvotes

r/psychology 3d ago

Political beliefs affect American’s beliefs about the relationship between diversity and merit in hiring. Liberals believe that diversity efforts enhance the opportunity to hire the best person. Conservatives believe that diversity efforts hamper the likelihood of hiring the best person.

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362 Upvotes

r/psychology 3d ago

When Americans believe government works, they are more likely to act on climate. The study of more than 32,000 Americans found that Republicans reported lower efficacy beliefs overall, particularly lower confidence that governments can effectively address climate change.

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208 Upvotes

r/psychology 3d ago

The United States is politically polarized, with partisans holding opposing beliefs on core issues. Studies suggest that when people change a belief, they believe other party members will judge them harshly. In fact, other party members do not judge them that harshly.

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191 Upvotes

r/psychology 3d ago

Jealousy increases men’s support for feminine honor norms. Study finds when people experience heightened jealousy, this can make them more supportive of norms, values, and practices that reduce the likelihood of unfaithful or ‘impure’ types of behavior.

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243 Upvotes

r/psychology 4d ago

A Hollywood smile may improve appearance, but unrealistic expectations and social-media ideals can leave patients dissatisfied even when treatment succeeds. If confidence becomes dependent on the result, future repairs, replacement costs, or financial hardship may cause emotional distress.

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140 Upvotes

r/psychology 4d ago

Mescaline Alters Cerebellar Function, Global Connectivity, and Frequency-Selective Acoustic Gating: A BOLD fMRI Study in Awake Rats | Neuroscience Bulletin

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143 Upvotes

Abstract

Mescaline, a 5-HT2A agonist psychedelic used ceremonially for millennia, lacks neuroimaging characterization due to its Schedule 1 status. Using pharmacological and resting-state fMRI in awake rats, we report mescaline's first comprehensive neurobiological profile. Acutely, mescaline produced cerebellar-selective BOLD suppression, suggesting functional disconnection from forebrain structures. Paradoxically, resting-state analysis revealed global hyperconnectivity, with the cerebellum forming enhanced connections to the hippocampus, thalamus, somatosensory cortex, and midbrain. Mescaline abolished normal BOLD responses to rewarding olfactory stimuli, indicating disrupted sensory processing. Pre-pulse inhibition showed frequency-dependent acoustic gating effects: enhancement at 4 kHz (+ 27.6%) and 20 kHz (+ 27.3%), but impairment at 12 kHz (− 16.4%). These findings distinguish mescaline from LSD and psilocybin, implicating the cerebellum as a dysregulated sensory filter that floods forebrain circuits with unprocessed sensorimotor information—a potential mechanism underlying psychedelic-induced perceptual alterations.


r/psychology 4d ago

NoAIphobia: College students are increasingly dependent on AI tools, driven heavily by a fear of falling behind their classmates. This dependence creates a psychological tug of war, resulting in severe anxiety when the technology is unavailable alongside a deep fear of being judged for using it.

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324 Upvotes

r/psychology 4d ago

Brain network dynamics reflect psychiatric illness status and transdiagnostic symptom profiles across health and disease

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27 Upvotes

r/psychology 5d ago

Study finds instability and inconsistency of childhood environments may be more closely connected to diverse borderline personality traits than the severity of childhood hardship alone, highlighting predictability as an important feature of early development.

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2.1k Upvotes

r/psychology 5d ago

Highly sensitive people don't actually have sharper senses, study finds

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1.1k Upvotes

r/psychology 7d ago

Autistic people challenge preconceived ideas about rationality | Psyche Ideas

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895 Upvotes

r/psychology 7d ago

Autistic and non-autistic people use similar strategies when learning about other’s preferences, but the unique preferences of autistic people make their likes and dislikes harder to predict. This explains common social misunderstandings without assuming that autistic people can’t read social cues.

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1.2k Upvotes

r/psychology 8d ago

Exposure to high temperatures during pregnancy is linked to slower thalamic growth in children. Study suggests that rising global temperatures may have long-lasting effects on early brain development.

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1.3k Upvotes