Jaume Ojer, David Cárcamo, Romualdo Pastor-Satorras, Michele Starnini
{"title":"Charting multidimensional ideological polarization across demographic groups in the USA","authors":"Jaume Ojer, David Cárcamo, Romualdo Pastor-Satorras, Michele Starnini","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02251-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02251-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Has ideological polarization actually increased in the past decades, or have voters simply sorted themselves into parties matching their ideology more closely? Here we present a methodology to quantify multidimensional ideological polarization by embedding the respondents to a wide variety of political, social and economic topics from the American National Election Studies into a two-dimensional ideological space. By identifying several demographic attributes of the American National Election Studies respondents, we chart how political and socioeconomic groups move through the ideological space in time. We observe that income and especially racial groups align into parties, but their ideological distance has not increased over time. Instead, Democrats and Republicans have become ideologically more distant in the past 30 years: Both parties moved away from the centre, at different rates. Furthermore, Democratic voters have become ideologically more heterogeneous after 2010, indicating that partisan sorting has declined in the past decade.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144533026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Machine learning-assisted optimization of dietary intervention against dementia risk","authors":"Si-Jia Chen, Hui Chen, Jia You, Shi-Dong Chen, Yan Fu, Wei Zhang, Liyan Huang, Jian-Feng Feng, Xiang Gao, Wei Cheng, Changzheng Yuan, Jin-Tai Yu","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02255-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02255-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A healthy diet has been associated with a reduced risk of dementia. Here we devised a Machine learning-assisted Optimizing Dietary intERvention against demeNtia risk (MODERN) diet based on data from 185,012 UK Biobank participants, 1,987 of whom developed all-cause dementia over 10 years. We first identified 25 food groups associated with dementia in a food-wide association analysis. Second, we ranked their importance using machine learning and prioritized eight groups (for example, green leafy vegetables, berries and citrus fruits). Finally, we established and externally validated a MODERN score (0–7), which showed stronger associations with lower risk of dementia-related outcomes (hazard ratio comparing highest versus lowest tertiles: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.43–0.93) than the a priori-defined MIND diet (0.75, 0.61–0.92). Across 63 health-related outcomes, the MODERN diet showed particularly significant associations with mental/behavioural disorders. Multimodal neuroimaging, metabolomics, inflammation and proteomics analyses revealed potential pathways and further support the potential of MODERN diet for dementia prevention.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"137 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144533024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alice Xia, Yi Yang Teoh, Matthew R. Nassar, Apoorva Bhandari, Oriel FeldmanHall
{"title":"Knowledge of information cascades through social networks facilitates strategic gossip","authors":"Alice Xia, Yi Yang Teoh, Matthew R. Nassar, Apoorva Bhandari, Oriel FeldmanHall","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02241-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02241-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Social networks are composed of many ties among many individuals. These ties enable the spread of information through a network, including gossip, which comprises a sizeable share of daily conversation. Given the number of possible connections between people in even the smallest networks, a formidable challenge is how to strategically gossip—to disseminate information as widely as possible without the target of the gossip finding out. Here we find that people achieve this goal by leveraging knowledge about topological properties, specifically, social distance and popularity, using a gossip-sharing task in artificial social networks (experiments 1–3, <i>N</i> = 568). We find a similar pattern of behaviour in a real-world social network (experiment 4, <i>N</i> = 187), revealing the power of these topological properties in predicting information flow, even in much noisier, complex environments. Computational modelling suggests that these adaptive social behaviours rely on mental representations of information cascades through the social network.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144520427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A systemic approach to better coordination in science","authors":"Sajedeh Rasti, Krist Vaesen, Daniël Lakens","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02260-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02260-z","url":null,"abstract":"Although individualism and isolated work remain common in academia, coordination offers substantial benefits. This Comment calls on researchers, funders, policymakers, journals and universities to create systemic change towards greater coordination in science.","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144520428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Matan Rubin, Joanna Z. Li, Federico Zimmerman, Desmond C. Ong, Amit Goldenberg, Anat Perry
{"title":"Comparing the value of perceived human versus AI-generated empathy","authors":"Matan Rubin, Joanna Z. Li, Federico Zimmerman, Desmond C. Ong, Amit Goldenberg, Anat Perry","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02247-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02247-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Artificial intelligence (AI) and specifically large language models demonstrate remarkable social–emotional abilities, which may improve human–AI interactions and AI’s emotional support capabilities. However, it remains unclear whether empathy, encompassing understanding, ‘feeling with’ and caring, is perceived differently when attributed to AI versus humans. We conducted nine studies (<i>n</i> = 6,282) where AI-generated empathic responses to participants’ emotional situations were labelled as provided by either humans or AI. Human-attributed responses were rated as more empathic and supportive, and elicited more positive and fewer negative emotions, than AI-attributed ones. Moreover, participants’ own uninstructed belief that AI had aided the human-attributed responses reduced perceived empathy and support. These effects were replicated across varying response lengths, delays, iterations and large language models and were primarily driven by responses emphasizing emotional sharing and care. Additionally, people consistently chose human interaction over AI when seeking emotional engagement. These findings advance our general understanding of empathy, and specifically human–AI empathic interactions.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144520426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reading news on social media boosts knowledge, discernment and trust","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02206-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02206-5","url":null,"abstract":"We estimate the causal effects of following the news on social media by randomly assigning participants to follow either news or non-news accounts on social media. Participants who followed news accounts became more knowledgeable, better able to distinguish true from false news, and more trusting of the news.","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144500402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Following news on social media boosts knowledge, belief accuracy and trust","authors":"Sacha Altay, Emma Hoes, Magdalena Wojcieszak","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02205-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02205-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Many worry that news on social media leaves people uninformed or even misinformed. Here we conducted a preregistered two-wave online field experiment in France and Germany (<i>N</i> = 3,395) to estimate the effect of following the news on Instagram and WhatsApp. Participants were asked to follow two accounts for 2 weeks and activate the notifications. In the treatment condition, the accounts were those of news organizations, while in the control condition they covered cooking, cinema or art. The treatment enhanced current affairs knowledge, participants’ ability to discern true from false news stories and awareness of true news stories, as well as trust in the news. The treatment had no significant effects on feelings of being informed, political efficacy, affective polarization and interest in news or politics. These results suggest that, while some forms of social media use are harmful, others are beneficial and can be leveraged to foster a well-informed society.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144500385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"People lived high in the mountains in Australia during the last ice age","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02181-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02181-x","url":null,"abstract":"New archaeological results from the oldest Pleistocene site yet to be identified in high-altitude Australia indicate that human occupation began about 20,000 years ago, during the peak of the last glacial maximum. This site — Dargan Shelter — provides evidence of repeated human movement through and adaption to a periglacial environment in Australia.","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144500397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jian-Qiao Zhu, Joshua C. Peterson, Benjamin Enke, Thomas L. Griffiths
{"title":"Capturing the complexity of human strategic decision-making with machine learning","authors":"Jian-Qiao Zhu, Joshua C. Peterson, Benjamin Enke, Thomas L. Griffiths","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02230-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02230-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Strategic decision-making is a crucial component of human interaction. Here we conduct a large-scale study of strategic decision-making in the context of initial play in two-player matrix games, analysing over 90,000 human decisions across more than 2,400 procedurally generated games that span a much wider space than previous datasets. We show that a deep neural network trained on this dataset predicts human choices with greater accuracy than leading theories of strategic behaviour, revealing systematic variation unexplained by existing models. By modifying this network, we develop an interpretable behavioural model that uncovers key insights: individuals’ abilities to respond optimally and reason about others’ actions are highly context dependent, influenced by the complexity of the game matrices. Our findings illustrate the potential of machine learning as a tool for generating new theoretical insights into complex human behaviours.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144479024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alessandro T. Gifford, Maya A. Jastrzębowska, Johannes J. D. Singer, Radoslaw M. Cichy
{"title":"In silico discovery of representational relationships across visual cortex","authors":"Alessandro T. Gifford, Maya A. Jastrzębowska, Johannes J. D. Singer, Radoslaw M. Cichy","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02252-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02252-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Human vision is mediated by a complex interconnected network of cortical brain areas that jointly represent visual information. Although these areas are increasingly understood in isolation, their representational relationships remain unclear. Here we developed relational neural control and used it to investigate the representational relationships for univariate and multivariate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses of areas across the visual cortex. Through relational neural control, we generated and explored in silico fMRI responses for large numbers of images, discovering controlling images that align or disentangle responses across areas, thus indicating their shared or unique representational content. This revealed a typical network-level configuration of representational relationships in which shared or unique representational content varied on the basis of cortical distance, categorical selectivity and position within the visual hierarchy. Closing the empirical cycle, we validated the in silico discoveries on in vivo fMRI responses from independent participants. Together, this reveals how visual areas jointly represent the world as an interconnected network.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"90 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144479106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}