From the article: New research published in Behavioral Sciences investigates the role emotional regulation strategies may play in preventing post-traumatic stress disorder after pet loss. The findings indicate that those who engage in adaptive strategies tend to have increased attachment to their pet and decreased pain after their passing.

Pets have been a component of the human experience for thousands of years. However, we have only recently begun studying these unique relationships’ physiological and psychological consequences. According to the research team, 67% of Americans own pets, while the pet industry in China has increased by 2000% in the last ten years.

From the article: In the study, 112 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 40 took part. Their guilt was measured at the beginning using questionnaires including the state shame and guilt scale (SSGS). This questionnaire asks people whether they feel remorse or bad about something they’ve done. Next, the participants did an exercise intended to make them feel more guilty. The exercise involved writing a story about a time they had treated someone they loved unfairly.

The participants were then divided into three groups. One group received a “deceptive placebo”: a blue pill they were told was a real drug. Specifically, they were told that the pill contained phytopharmacon, a substance designed to reduce the feeling of guilt by making whoever took it feel calmer.

Another group received an “open-label placebo” – the same blue pill, but this group was told it was a placebo. They were told that placebos benefit many people through mind-body self-healing mechanisms.

The third group did not receive any treatment at all. This was the “control” group.

After getting the treatment, the guilty feelings were measured using the same questionnaires to see whether the deceptive placebo or open-label placebo was more effective than no treatment.

From the article: A new paper published in Science describes the chemistry behind a novel lithium-air battery, an innovative design which could potentially provide way more energy density than traditional li-ion battery technology. It could serve as a real breakthrough for the battery market and a possible revolution for transportation and heavy-duty vehicles such as airplanes, trains and even submarines.

The new battery can sustain more than 1,000 recharge cycles with just a small five percent drop in energy efficiency and zero impact on coulombic efficiency. This means that all the initial battery material was still active, with no irreversible side reactions during the charge/recharge cycles.

The design conceived by researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology uses a solid electrolyte based on a ceramic-polyethylene oxide composite, which is safer and more efficient compared to liquid electrolytes. Ceramic and polymer materials used as solid electrolytes have their own downsides when used separately but when combined, they can provide both the high ionic conductivity of ceramic and the high stability of the polymer.

From the article: As many as 15 million people live in areas that could be flooded by a natural dam failing at a glacial lake, according to the first global analysis of the hazard.

Tom Robinson at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and his colleagues identified glacial lakes in satellite imagery. They then determined the number of people living within 50 kilometres of each lake, and within 1 kilometre of the river where water would flow in the event of a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF). These floods can happen when an ice or rock dam holding back a glacial lake fails, or a rock slide sends water sloshing over a natural dam.

The researchers found up to 15 million people could be affected, with 9 million in the Himalayas, 2.5 million in the Andes and 2.2 million in the Alps. More than half of the 15 million live in either India, Pakistan, Peru or China.

Outburst floods are unlikely at many glacial lakes, and the study presents a simplified view of the areas any flooding would affect, says Simon Allen at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, but he says the global view helps draw attention to vulnerable and understudied regions.

From the article: Apple plans to introduce new 13-inch MacBook Air, 11.1-inch iPad Pro, and 13-inch iPad Pro models with OLED displays in 2024, according to display industry analyst Ross Young, who has a proven track record with Apple rumors. Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also expects the first MacBook with an OLED display to launch next year.

Young previously said the new MacBook Air and iPad Pro models would use "two-stack" OLED displays with two red, green, and blue emission layers for increased brightness. He also said all of the devices would support ProMotion for up to a 120Hz refresh rate.

All existing iPads and MacBooks are equipped with backlit LCD displays, whereas OLED displays have self-emitting pixels and do not require backlighting, allowing for higher contrast ratio, greater color accuracy, and lower power consumption. Apple already uses OLED displays for the latest Apple Watch and iPhone models, excluding the iPhone SE.

Meanwhile, the Apple Watch Ultra is expected to switch to a microLED display in 2024, and other Apple products will likely follow over the course of several years. microLED will be the next display technology that Apple adopts after OLED, paving the way for even higher contrast ratio, increased brightness, and lower power consumption.

From the article: An online survey in Australia explored the links between “dark” personality traits and the perpetration of online “catfishing” (deceiving and exploiting another person). Results showed that people with higher levels of psychopathy, sadism and narcissism were more likely to perpetrate catfishing. The study was published in Computers in Human Behavior.

Catfishing is a form of online deception where someone steals or creates a fake identity to trick others into forming an online relationship, often with the goal of financial exploitation.

The word “catfishing” itself came from a 2010 documentary “Catfish”, telling a story about a young man starting a relationship with a young woman he met on Facebook, only to discover that most of the information about her was false. This popular documentary led many people to come forward and report going through similar experiences that included online scams, harassment, and stalking.

One avenue of research into the issue of catfishing is the study of personality traits of people who engage in such practices. The set of four personality traits called “the Dark Tetrad” is particularly important in this approach, as previous studies have linked all of these traits to proneness to deceptive and exploitative behaviors.

From the article: Indigenous communities hold rights to more than half of the world’s land, but only a measly 10% is officially recognized and protected. Despite their persistent struggle for justice, political will has been lacking in many countries. According to a new study, we should all care about this struggle.

A team of researchers showed that indigenous communities are good stewards of nature and whenever they are given the right to manage land, they tend to make it better for the natural environment.

Researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder have found that indigenous communities in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest who have formal recognition of their land rights reduce deforestation and increase forest cover. This supports previous studies suggesting that land rights can mitigate climate change and reduce biodiversity loss and suggests that granting native populations stewardship could be an important tool for environmental protection.

“Our study adds an important piece to the growing body of evidence that tenure in Indigenous lands has often improved forest outcomes—including now in the Atlantic Forest, which has experienced high deforestation pressures over a long period of time,” Rayna Benzeev, lead author of the study and researcher, said in a statement.

From the article: A lack of quality sleep can cause aggressive behavior, according to recent longitudinal findings published in the journal Biological Psychology. Brain imaging data revealed that the effect may be related to reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex and increased activity in the limbic regions.

Good sleep is paramount to the healthy functioning of our brains and bodies. Studies have shown that a lack of quality sleep can hinder our ability to regulate our thoughts and emotions and inflict consequences on our behavior. One of these consequences might be increased aggression.

While multiple studies have indicated a link between poor sleep and aggressive behavior, the direction of this relationship remains unclear — does poor sleep actually cause aggressive behavior? Study authors Haobo Zhang and Xu Lei conducted a longitudinal study to attempt to answer this question. Through neuroimaging data, they also explored the potential brain mechanism responsible for the relationship between sleep and aggression.

“As sleep plays an important role in the physical and mental health of individuals, we thought to uncover the causal relationship and mechanisms between sleep quality and aggressive behaviour in order to raise public awareness of the importance of sleep,” said Lei, a professor and director of the Sleep and NeuroImage Center at Southwest University in China.

Zhang and Lei obtained data from the Behavioral Brain Research Project of Chinese Personality (BBP), an ongoing study of undergraduate students from Chongqing, China. They focused on data collected from two time points separated by two years. For the current analysis, the sample consisted of around 450 students between the ages of 16 and 26 years old.

At both time points, the participants completed an assessment of their subjective sleep quality in the past month, and a measure of aggression that included the sub-dimensions of hostility, physical aggression, impulsiveness, and anger. Students also underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure their brain activity.

From the article: A new study on a large sample of mothers and daughters provides evidence that mothers with healthier lifestyles tend to have daughters with fewer depressive symptoms. The link appeared to be achieved through the healthy lifestyles of daughters. But this association was not present in sons. The study was published in Psychological Medicine.

The prevalence of depression among adolescents had seen an increase in recent years. In the United States, estimates show that 8.7% of adolescents had a depressive episode in the past 12 months in 2005, but this percentage grew to 11.3% in 2014. Around half of adolescents diagnosed with depression or major depressive disorder, as it is officially called, also suffer from other psychiatric disorders. In adults, depression is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide.

While there are biological factors that increase the risk of depression, a growing body of scientific research shows that modifiable healthy lifestyle factors can reduce depression risk. “A healthy diet, non-smoking, being physically active, having a normal body mass index (BMI), and light-to-moderate alcohol consumption are independently associated with less depressive symptoms among adults,” wrote Wei-Chen Wang and colleagues in their study.

The researchers wanted to investigate whether the lifestyle of mothers during their offspring’s childhood and adolescence might be associated with depression in their children. They defined the healthy lifestyle of mothers in terms of eating a healthy diet, having a normal body-mass index, never smoking, being physically active, and having light-to-moderate alcohol consumption.

From the article: Research published in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy finds that compulsive sexual behavior is related to religious practices requiring intense commitment and inflexible expectations for belief and behavior. The study found that when moral disapproval is utilized to maintain religious commitment and behaviors, there seems to be a connection between religiosity and compulsive sexual behaviors.

Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD) is a recent addition to the International Classification of Diseases, Eleventh Revision (ICD-11). The ICD-11 identifies the symptoms of compulsive sexual behaviors as “as a persistent pattern of failure to control intense sexual impulses or urges resulting in repetitive sexual behavior that causes marked distress or social impairment (WHO, 2018).” Previous studies have found relationships between compulsive sexual behaviors and strong religious belief or religiosity.

From the article: Findings from a massive psychology study suggest that character strengths have a positive influence on many aspects of our health. Zest, hope, and self-regulation were the qualities most consistently associated with positive health outcomes. The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality.

Character strengths are positive qualities that have a favorable impact on our lives and the lives of others, such as kindness, creativity, and bravery. Psychology research has largely revealed that these qualities are associated with beneficial outcomes like greater life satisfaction and improved physical health. It has been proposed that character strengths might enhance emotional well-being and encourage positive health behaviors — which in turn has a positive effect on our health.

Study author Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska and her team wanted to expand on the existing research by studying a large international sample and including additional health measures.

“There are theoretical arguments from philosophical and religious traditions that morally valued personality traits such as character strengths are not only fundamental to one’s identity but also can generate positive outcomes for oneself and/or others, and contribute to the greater good,” explained Weziak-Bialowolska, an associate professor at Jagiellonian University and faculty affiliate at Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program.

“Character strengths are positive and morally valued personality traits. They are of interest of positive psychology, which have triggered a shift of focus from ‘traditional’ ill-health prevention and risk-mitigation to identifying factors contributing positively to health and well-being. My recent research is on identifying positive health and well-being stimuli, which is actually the main aim of the Positive Health Program – the research project in which I am a principal investigator.”

From the article: Scientists in Australia have developed an intriguing new technique for removing toxic “forever chemicals” from water. Adding a solution to contaminated water coats the pollutants and makes them magnetic, so they can easily be attracted and isolated.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of chemicals that have been in wide use around the world since the 1950s, thanks to their water- and oil-repelling properties. However, more recently PFAS chemicals have been linked to a concerning number of health problems, including increased risks of diabetes and liver cancer. Worse still, a recent study has found that their levels in rainwater almost everywhere on Earth exceed the EPA’s guidelines, and to cap it all off, these stable molecules are very hard to break down, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.”

Now, researchers at the University of Queensland have developed a technique that could help remove PFAS chemicals from water. The team designed a solution called a magnetic fluorinated polymer sorbent which, when added to contaminated water, coats the PFAS molecules. This makes them magnetic, so then it’s a relatively simple process to use a magnet to attract the pollutants and separate them from the water.

In tests with small samples of PFAS-laden water, the team found that the technique could remove over 95% of most PFAS molecules, including over 99% of GenX – a particularly problematic chemical – within 30 seconds.

Plenty of teams have investigated ways to break down PFAS, usually involving catalysts triggered by UV light or heat. Others have made use of hydrogen or supercritical water.

From the article: New research has found that race and ethnicity moderate the associations between the use of psychedelic drugs and major depressive episodes in a large, nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. The findings have been published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

In recent years, psychedelic substances such as MDMA and psilocybin have undergone clinical studies to explore their potential therapeutic benefits, with promising results in areas including depression and anxiety. However, this research is still in its earliest stages, and little is known about the relationship between race and psychedelic-induced improvements to mental health.

“I was interested in the topic because there is a lack of research about psychedelics, race, and mental health,” said study author Grant M. Jones, a clinical psychology PhD student at Harvard University. “Most of the treatment studies have been conducted using majority White samples. So for me, this is my way of starting to raise questions and launch inquires into the intersection of psychedelics, mental health, and race — and seeing how identity might impact the associations that psychedelics have with mental health.”

For his study, Jones analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The data, collected between 2005 and 2019, included responses from 596,187 U.S. adults. The sample included 128,243 non-Hispanic racial minorities, 96,493 Hispanic individuals, and 371,451 non-Hispanic Whites. As part of the survey, participants reported whether they had ever used a variety of drugs, including MDMA and psilocybin.

After controlling for sex, age, educational attainment, engagement in risky behavior, household income, marital status, and the use of other drugs, Jones found that MDMA and psilocybin use were both associated with lowered odds of lifetime depression, past year depression, and past year severe depression among non-Hispanic Whites.

From the article: A bug in Google Home smart speaker allowed installing a backdoor account that could be used to control it remotely and to turn it into a snooping device by accessing the microphone feed.

A researcher discovered the issue and received $107,500 for responsibly reporting it to Google last year. Earlier this week, the researcher published technical details about the finding and an attack scenario to show how the flaw could be leveraged.

While experimenting with his own Google Home mini speaker, the researcher discovered that new accounts added using the Google Home app could send commands to it remotely via the cloud API.

Using a Nmap scan, the researcher found the port for the local HTTP API of Google Home, so he set up a proxy to capture the encrypted HTTPS traffic, hoping to snatch the user authorization token.

From the article: A bug in Google Home smart speaker allowed installing a backdoor account that could be used to control it remotely and to turn it into a snooping device by accessing the microphone feed.

A researcher discovered the issue and received $107,500 for responsibly reporting it to Google last year. Earlier this week, the researcher published technical details about the finding and an attack scenario to show how the flaw could be leveraged.

While experimenting with his own Google Home mini speaker, the researcher discovered that new accounts added using the Google Home app could send commands to it remotely via the cloud API.

Using a Nmap scan, the researcher found the port for the local HTTP API of Google Home, so he set up a proxy to capture the encrypted HTTPS traffic, hoping to snatch the user authorization token.

From the article: Amazon has begun delivering orders by drone. Amazon Prime Air is now operating in Lockeford, Calif. and College Station, Texas, delivering a small number of packages just in time for Christmas.

In August of this year, the retail giant received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to use drones for package deliveries. The maximum payload for Prime Air is 5 lb, and Amazon says that 85 percent of its shipments fall under that weight.

Residents of both towns can sign up for the service, and Amazon will then confirm that the company can deliver safely to the customer's address. Once an order is placed, the customer gets an estimated delivery time and tracking info.

"The drone will fly to the designated delivery location, descend to the customer's backyard, and hover at a safe height," Amazon said. "It will then safely release the package and rise back up to altitude."

Lockeford is a small, rural town of about 3,500 residents located about 50 miles southeast of Sacramento and just northwest of Stockton, making it an ideal location to pilot drone delivery. College Station is roughly 100 miles northwest of Houston and is the home of Texas A&M University.

From the article: Most of us rely on counter-top air poppers or microwaves to whip up a tasty popcorn snack. But infrared cooking offers another viable alternative, according to a September paper published in the journal ACS Food Science and Technology.

Popcorn is the only grain in the corn family that pops in response to the application of heat—specifically, temperatures above 180° C. It has a lot to do with the structure of the kernels. Each has a tough outer shell, called the pericarp, within which lies the germ (seed embryo) and the endosperm. The latter holds trapped water (popcorn kernels need about 14 percent water to pop) and starch granules.

Last year, Mahdi Shavandi and his coauthors at the Iran Research Organization for Science and Technology in Tehran successfully demonstrated the proof of principle for their approach to making popcorn with infrared heat. With this method, a heat source like fire, gas or energy waves is in direct contact with the food, rather than a heating element like a pan or grill grate. It's often likened to broiling or cooking food over a campfire. Fans argue that this method is fast, highly energy efficient, and environmentally friendly when compared to more conventional means of heating.

It's already used for such purposes as heating, drying, roasting, cooking, baking, and even microbial decontamination, per the authors. And infrared grills are increasingly popular. But could you use infrared cooking to produce popcorn with all the desirable characteristics we know and love, and convince us to switch from our beloved microwaveable brands? Shavandi et al. thought it might be possible.

From the article: New research provides evidence that narcissism moderates the relationship between testosterone and generosity in men. The study, published in Hormones and Behavior, found that the most generous men tended to be low in endogenous testosterone and simultaneously low in narcissism. Unexpectedly, however, the researchers also found that heightened testosterone levels in combination with heightened narcissism was a significant positive predictor of generosity.

“Physiological changes constantly occurring in living organisms are interconnected with behavioral outcomes in many intricate and fascinating ways,” said co-author Magdalena Ziemiańska, a PhD student at the Polish Academy of Sciences. “We were curious to examine how a normal (i.e. baseline) level of testosterone is linked to social behavior.”

“A simple economic game was applied, in which the participants’ task was to divide points between themselves and a stranger,” Ziemiańska explained. “We wanted to check if a popular belief, derived from animal studies, that high testosterone level is connected with competitive, antisocial behaviors is true in humans.”

General Motors said Tuesday it is recalling 140,000 Chevrolet Bolt EVs in North America because the carpet could catch fire after a crash where a front seat belt pretensioner deploys.

The U.S. automaker said the recall covers various 2017 through 2023 model year Chevrolet Bolt EV vehicles due to rare instances of front seatbelt pretensioner exhaust gases coming in contact with floor carpeting fibers, after a vehicle crash, which could cause a fire.

About 120,000 U.S. vehicles and 20,000 Canadian vehicles are impacted by the recall.

From the article: Researchers from Mount Sinai have shown that a therapy using talquetamab, an off-the-shelf drug known as a bispecific antibody, can be enlisted to kill multiple myeloma cells (a type of white blood cell) that can build up in the bone marrow and form tumors in bones. The therapy destroys cancerous cells in 3 out of 4 patients, and side effects, while common, are not severe.

The drug was tested in both phase 1 and phase 2 trials — the phase 1 trial established the safety and established a recommendation of two doses, whereas the phase 2 trials tested the effectiveness on 143 patients treated on a weekly dose and 145 patients treated at a higher biweekly dose.

The overall response rate was 73%, said Ajai Chari, study author. Around a third of the patients in both groups had a complete response — there was no detection of any myeloma-specific markers after the treatment. Almost 60% had a “very good partial response”, which means that the cancer was substantially reduced but not to zero.

“This means that almost three-quarters of these patients are looking at a new lease on life,” said Chari. “Talquetamab induced a substantial response among patients with heavily pretreated, relapsed, or refractory multiple myeloma, the second-most-common blood cancer. It is the first bispecific agent targeting the protein GPRC5d in multiple myeloma patients.”

The results are particularly exciting because patients who receive standard therapy for myeloma have a very high rate of relapse — and the more they relapse, the worse the prognosis becomes. But the success of talquematab was even seen in participants who were resistant to all other approved therapies, which makes this approach particularly promising. The researchers described this strategy as “bringing your army right to the enemy.”

From the article: Professor Yan Zhuge, an engineering expert at the University of South Australia, is trialing a novel solution. It involves no humans or bots but self-healing concrete.

The world-first project, if successful, could be a significant help. It could prevent 17,000 kilometers of sewer pipes in Australia from cracking in the future without any intervention by humans, helping to save $1.4 billion in annual maintenance costs, as per a release.

"We are confident this novel self-healing concrete based on advance composite technology will address issues of sewer pipe corrosion and sludge disposal in one hit," Zhuge said in a statement.

The microcapsules will release healing agents when pH value changes

Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are required to treat sewage pipes buckling under internal pressure, temperature fluctuations, and corrosive acid. Self-healing concrete, in the form of microcapsules filled with water treatment sludge, could change everything.

"Sludge waste shows promise to mitigate microbial corrosion in concrete sewer pipes because it works as a healing agent to resist acid corrosion and heal the cracks," Zhuge said.

According to the release, researchers will develop microcapsules with a pH-sensitive shell and a healing agent core with alum sludge, a by-product of wastewater treatment plants, and calcium hydroxide powder. This combination will be resistant to microbially induced corrosion.

From the article: Plastics are incredibly useful but dangerously problematic. Our planet is drowning in unrecycled plastic, and we need better ways to recycle to help it recover.

In theory, all plastics can be recycled, but the sad reality is that the vast majority never get recycled. This is due to the cost of collecting, cleaning, and sorting the thousands of types of plastics before they begin their recycling processes. Even though global recycling rates are barely at 5%, current projections show that global plastic waste is on course to triple by 2060. Polyvinyl chloride, commonly known as PVC, is the third most-produced plastic in the world and one of the most difficult to recycle. The high versatility of PVC has led to its use in a wide variety of products, including hospital equipment, plumbing, electrical wiring, packaging, and even clothing. Unfortunately, less than a quarter of 1% of post-consumer PVC is currently recycled.

Thanks to a research team at the University of Michigan, there is now a promising new technique to recycle PVC.

The team at the University of Michigan led by Danielle Fagnani and Anne McNeil has discovered a way to use a component of the PVC that previously made recycling incredibly difficult by improving the method's efficiency. The components that make PVC so difficult to recycle are the various additives it can contain called plasticizers. Plasticizers are compounds added in the production process to make PVC more flexible and durable. Fagnani stated in a recent interview, “PVC usually contains a lot of plasticizers, which contaminate everything in the recycling stream and are usually very toxic. It also releases hydrochloric acid really rapidly with some heat.”

The most detrimental of the plasticizers are phthalates, which are highly toxic to humans and known to negatively impact our hormonal systems. When plastics are recycled by adding heat, the phthalates leach out. The method discovered by Fagnani and her team uses the toxic phthalates to decrease the energy input required and make the process more efficient overall.

From the article: A new study published in the Journal of Adolescence tested an 8-week mindfulness training program among a group of adolescent and adult females. The results revealed that both teens and adults showed improvements in reorienting their attention following mindfulness training.

Adolescence is a period of continued brain development, which includes improvements in cognitive control and emotion regulation. It has been proposed that mindfulness training (MT) might help adolescents cultivate these skills. But while MT has been found to improve cognitive control and emotion regulation in adult samples, its effectiveness among youth is less clear.

Since adolescence is marked by heightened emotional reactivity, mindfulness training might be particularly beneficial for this age group. On the other hand, with fewer attentional resources than adults, adolescents might not be fully capable of benefiting from MT. Study author Iroise Dumontheil and her team set out to explore differences in how adults and adolescents would respond to the same mindfulness training.

“The study started in 2012. At the time, there was quite a lot of hype about mindfulness,” explained Dumontheil, a professor at the University of London and author of “Educational Neuroscience: Development Across the Life Span.”

“It was being implemented in schools but there was very little research evidence of its potential impact on children and adolescents. We were interested in better understanding the specific mechanisms through which mindfulness meditation training may influence cognition, compared to a closely match condition, which was relaxation training in our study.”

From the article: New research seeks to understand what interventions may improve some of the destructive symptoms of narcissism. Researchers from the University of Maastricht investigated the consequences of exercises to induce two different types of compassion, self-compassion and compassion for others. Their findings indicate targeted interventions inducing feelings of compassion may work for some with grandiose or vulnerable narcissistic traits.

Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism are a pair of traits that result in behaviors that are damaging to the individual and those around them. Grandiose narcissism refers to a set of behaviors that can be characterized by arrogance, superiority and exploitation of others. Vulnerable narcissism is evident when individuals are extremely sensitive to judgment, lack self-esteem and are neurotic.

Those with the grandiose trait are likely to be unnecessarily competitive, denigrating, and manipulative in relationships with others. Those in relationship with people who experience vulnerable narcissism may deal with a person who plays the victim, is manipulative and lashes out emotionally or physically. Both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism are at greater risk for self-harming behavior.

From the article: A 7-year study of twins found that behavioral inhibition in childhood is associated with social anxiety in adolescence. Behavioral inhibition was primarily assessed through shyness. Parental stress and a number of other factors were found to influence the strength of this association. The study was published in Development and Psychopathology.

Behavioral inhibition is a property of one’s temperament that makes the person prone to withdrawing or reticence when faced with a novelty or threat. It is somewhat similar to shyness. However, shyness refers to feelings of discomfort in social situations, while behavioral inhibition affects the behavior in both social and nonsocial situations.

Behavioral inhibition has long attracted research interests in the field of mental health as it is seen as a “trait that biases reactions to later stressors in a way that can result in maladaptive behavioral patterns.” Childhood behavioral inhibition has also been reported to predict social anxiety in later years. This association is important, because anxiety disorders are among the leading causes of disability worldwide. They primarily affect 15–34-year-olds, with 8.6% of adolescents and 13% of adults meeting diagnostic criteria for the social anxiety disorder.