News by Subject Social & Behavior

A new series of Penn State studies has found that shopper pickiness can go beyond shopping for the "best" option. The researchers define what it means to be "picky" and also developed a scale for measuring shopper pickiness.

A new study examined why early developing 14-year-old adolescents are more likely to drink alcohol compared to those whose pubertal development is on-time or late. The findings show these adolescents are more likely to have peers who drink alcohol and are also given greater permission to drink by their parents.

In a study of men in low and middle income countries, heavy drinking males were more likely to commit violence against their wives and girlfriends (intimate partner violence, or IPV) if they held sexist rather than egalitarian attitudes about women.

First longitudinal study to track violent rumination in over 1,000 teenagers suggests that experiencing different types of victimisation increases likelihood of thinking about hurting or killing people.

Gossip is often considered socially taboo and dismissed for its negative tone, but a Dartmouth study illustrates some of its merits. Gossip facilitates social connection and enables learning about the world indirectly through other people's experiences.

A new study from Michigan State University is one of the first to examine multiple factors that influence young women's disclosure of partner violence that occurred during their first relationships, when they were just under 15 years old, on average.

Astronauts who spend prolonged time alone in space face mental health stressors like loneliness, isolation and more. A University of Houston psychologist developed the Mental Health Checklist, a self-reporting instrument for detecting mental health changes in isolated, confined, extreme environments. She's reporting results that show significant declines in positive emotions.