{"title":"Differences in social media use between adolescents with and without mental health conditions","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02133-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02133-5","url":null,"abstract":"We report differences in social media engagement between adolescents with and without a mental health condition, and also differences between those with internalizing and externalizing conditions. Differences include time spent on social media, online social comparison and the effect of social media feedback on mood.","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143927306","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":"Playing repeated games with large language models","authors":"Elif Akata, Lion Schulz, Julian Coda-Forno, Seong Joon Oh, Matthias Bethge, Eric Schulz","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02172-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02172-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in applications where they interact with humans and other agents. We propose to use behavioural game theory to study LLMs’ cooperation and coordination behaviour. Here we let different LLMs play finitely repeated 2 × 2 games with each other, with human-like strategies, and actual human players. Our results show that LLMs perform particularly well at self-interested games such as the iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma family. However, they behave suboptimally in games that require coordination, such as the Battle of the Sexes. We verify that these behavioural signatures are stable across robustness checks. We also show how GPT-4’s behaviour can be modulated by providing additional information about its opponent and by using a ‘social chain-of-thought’ strategy. This also leads to better scores and more successful coordination when interacting with human players. These results enrich our understanding of LLMs’ social behaviour and pave the way for a behavioural game theory for machines.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143920119","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}
Anna Gui, Anja Hollowell, Emilie M. Wigdor, Morgan J. Morgan, Laurie J. Hannigan, Elizabeth C. Corfield, Veronika Odintsova, Jouke-Jan Hottenga, Andrew Wong, René Pool, Harriet Cullen, Siân Wilson, Varun Warrier, Espen M. Eilertsen, Ole A. Andreassen, Christel M. Middeldorp, Beate St Pourcain, Meike Bartels, Dorret I. Boomsma, Catharina A. Hartman, Elise B. Robinson, Tomoki Arichi, Anthony D. Edwards, Mark H. Johnson, Frank Dudbridge, Stephan J. Sanders, Alexandra Havdahl, Angelica Ronald
{"title":"Genome-wide association meta-analysis of age at onset of walking in over 70,000 infants of European ancestry","authors":"Anna Gui, Anja Hollowell, Emilie M. Wigdor, Morgan J. Morgan, Laurie J. Hannigan, Elizabeth C. Corfield, Veronika Odintsova, Jouke-Jan Hottenga, Andrew Wong, René Pool, Harriet Cullen, Siân Wilson, Varun Warrier, Espen M. Eilertsen, Ole A. Andreassen, Christel M. Middeldorp, Beate St Pourcain, Meike Bartels, Dorret I. Boomsma, Catharina A. Hartman, Elise B. Robinson, Tomoki Arichi, Anthony D. Edwards, Mark H. Johnson, Frank Dudbridge, Stephan J. Sanders, Alexandra Havdahl, Angelica Ronald","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02145-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02145-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Age at onset of walking is an important early childhood milestone which is used clinically and in public health screening. In this genome-wide association study meta-analysis of age at onset of walking (<i>N</i> = 70,560 European-ancestry infants), we identified 11 independent genome-wide significant loci. SNP-based heritability was 24.13% (95% confidence intervals = 21.86–26.40) with ~11,900 variants accounting for about 90% of it, suggesting high polygenicity. One of these loci, in gene <i>RBL2</i>, co-localized with an expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) in the brain. Age at onset of walking (in months) was negatively genetically correlated with ADHD and body-mass index, and positively genetically correlated with brain gyrification in both infant and adult brains. The polygenic score showed out-of-sample prediction of 3–5.6%, confirmed as largely due to direct effects in sib-pair analyses, and was separately associated with volume of neonatal brain structures involved in motor control. This study offers biological insights into a key behavioural marker of neurodevelopment.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143916037","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}
Luisa Fassi, Amanda M. Ferguson, Andrew K. Przybylski, Tamsin J. Ford, Amy Orben
{"title":"Social media use in adolescents with and without mental health conditions","authors":"Luisa Fassi, Amanda M. Ferguson, Andrew K. Przybylski, Tamsin J. Ford, Amy Orben","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02134-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02134-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Concerns about the relationship between social media use and adolescent mental health are growing, yet few studies focus on adolescents with clinical-level mental health symptoms. This limits our understanding of how social media use varies across mental health profiles. In this Registered Report, we analyse nationally representative UK data (<i>N</i> = 3,340, aged 11–19 years) including diagnostic assessments by clinical raters alongside quantitative and qualitative social media measures. As hypothesized, adolescents with mental health conditions reported spending more time on social media and were less happy about the number of online friends than adolescents without conditions. We also found hypothesized differences in social media use by condition type: adolescents with internalizing conditions reported spending more time on social media, engaging in more social comparison and experiencing greater impact of feedback on mood, alongside lower happiness about the number of online friends and lower honest self-disclosure. In contrast, those with externalizing conditions only reported higher time spent. These findings emphasize the need to consider diverse adolescent mental health profiles in policy and clinical practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143909774","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}
Jorge Cuartas, Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Drew H. Bailey, Maria Alejandra Gutiérrez, Dana C. McCoy
{"title":"Physical punishment and lifelong outcomes in low‑ and middle‑income countries: a systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis","authors":"Jorge Cuartas, Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Drew H. Bailey, Maria Alejandra Gutiérrez, Dana C. McCoy","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02164-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02164-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Research from high-income countries has found negative outcomes associated with physical punishment. Yet, the extent to which such research evidence generalizes to children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is largely unknown. The objective of the current pre-registered study (PROSPERO: CRD42022347346) was to conduct a meta-analysis of the associations between childhood physical punishment and individual outcomes in LMICs. We identified eligible articles by searching for keywords related to physical punishment in six languages across 11 databases, with search periods from April to August 2021 and June to July 2024. This process yielded 5,072 unique records, of which 189 studies, comprising 1,490 unique effect sizes and representing 92 LMICs, met our inclusion criteria. Findings from random-effects multilevel meta-analyses indicated that physical punishment was associated with detrimental outcomes, including mental health problems, worse parent–child relationships, substance use, impaired social–emotional development, negative academic outcomes and heightened externalizing behaviour problems, among others. Despite some variation by contextual and study-level characteristics, all subgroup estimates were consistent in direction. Sensitivity checks indicated that these findings were not typical of other non-violent methods of discipline but were specific to physical punishment and psychological aggression. The analysis confirmed that physical punishment is associated with detrimental outcomes for individuals in LMICs. Additional research is needed to inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of policies and interventions to prevent the physical punishment of children and adolescents worldwide.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"93 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143905430","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":"Preliminary evidence for enhanced auditory cortex activation and mental development after gene therapy in children with autosomal recessive deafness 9","authors":"Jiajia Zhang, Zengzhi Guo, Changjie Pan, Chunchun Hu, Xinyang Weng, Yang-wenyi Liu, Xiaoting Cheng, Jun Lv, Qi Cao, Hui Wang, Yuxin Chen, Daqi Wang, Shaowei Hu, Mengzhao Xun, Longlong Zhang, Zijing Wang, Honghai Tang, Biyun Zhu, Luo Guo, Sha Yu, Xiaoling Hu, Lin Chen, Bing Chen, Zheng-Yi Chen, Shan Sun, Xiu Xu, Huawei Li, Fei Chen, Yilai Shu","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02184-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02184-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Individuals with congenital deafness that have received gene therapy represent a unique group who experience hearing recovery and speech development. However, it is unclear how hearing-related cortex changes because of gene therapy. Here we study neural processing in ten patients using functional near-infrared spectroscopy and electroencephalography during a six-month follow-up period. Patients showed an enhancement of activation in the auditory cortex, particularly in parts of the Sylvian parietotemporal area while listening to music. Activation in the right anterior temporal lobe and left Sylvian parietotemporal area was also enhanced when listening to speech. The electroencephalography data showed that the power of the resting-state electroencephalography beta band at time points T2 and T3 was statistically significantly increased after gene therapy, and mismatch negativity amplitudes at T2 and T3 were statistically significantly higher than those at T0. The mental developmental level of the patients also increased after gene therapy. These preliminary findings illuminate the neural and cognitive effects of gene therapy, supporting its potential effectiveness in auditory and mental development.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143898125","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}
Emorie D. Beck, Felix Cheung, Stuti Thapa, Joshua J. Jackson
{"title":"Towards a personalized happiness approach to capturing change in satisfaction","authors":"Emorie D. Beck, Felix Cheung, Stuti Thapa, Joshua J. Jackson","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02171-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02171-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Contemporary approaches examining the determinants of happiness have posited that happiness is determined bidirectionally by both top-down, global life satisfaction and bottom-up, domain satisfaction processes. We propose a personalized happiness perspective, suggesting that the determinants and consequences of happiness are idiographic (that is, specific) to each individual rather than assumed to be the same for all. We showed the utility of a personalized happiness approach by testing associations between life and domain satisfaction at both the population and personalized levels using nationally representative data of 40,074 German, British, Swiss, Dutch and Australian participants tracked for up to 33 years. The majority of participants (41.4–50.8%) showed primarily unidirectional associations between domain satisfactions and life satisfaction, and only 19.3–25.9% of participants showed primarily bidirectional associations. Moreover, the population models differed from personalized models, suggesting that aggregated, population-level research fails to capture individual differences in personalized happiness, showing the importance of a personalized happiness approach. Patterns of individual differences are robust, yet distinguishing between individual-level patterns and random error is challenging, highlighting the need for future work and innovative approaches to study personalized happiness.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143898129","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":"Promoting human flourishing","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02213-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02213-6","url":null,"abstract":"The Global Flourishing Study is a longitudinal panel study that is collecting nationally representative, multidimensional well-being data from more than 200,000 people in 22 geographically and culturally diverse countries. The first wave of results highlights the value of tracking a rich set of flourishing indicators for both science and policy.","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143889837","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}
Lisa A. Gennetian, Christina Gibson-Davis, William A. Darity
{"title":"A framework and policy case for black reparations to support child well-being in the USA","authors":"Lisa A. Gennetian, Christina Gibson-Davis, William A. Darity","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02189-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02189-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Enslavement of African Americans and the legacy of structural racism have led to disproportionate hardship for black people in the USA. Reparations realize unfulfilled promises of financial compensation and redress. Existing US reparations initiatives have not yet included financial transfers or investments in black families or children, which a survey shows black parents support. We offer a three-pronged approach of child-specific, family-level and systemic educational and information renumeration via a child-centric reparations framework. Mechanisms for such government transfers have precedent in the USA but face limitations in that their broader implementation would also require political will. Such wealth transfers may address economically meaningful differences that persist between black and white children’s outcomes at nearly every developmental stage from infancy to young adulthood and long-standing racial wealth differences among US households with children.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143889889","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}
Piotr Bialowolski, Christos A. Makridis, Matt Bradshaw, Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, Craig Gundersen, Noémie Le Pertel, Cristina Gibson, Sung Joon Jang, R. Noah Padgett, Byron R. Johnson, Tyler J. VanderWeele
{"title":"Analysis of demographic variation and childhood correlates of financial well-being across 22 countries","authors":"Piotr Bialowolski, Christos A. Makridis, Matt Bradshaw, Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, Craig Gundersen, Noémie Le Pertel, Cristina Gibson, Sung Joon Jang, R. Noah Padgett, Byron R. Johnson, Tyler J. VanderWeele","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02207-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02207-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Using nationally representative data from 202,898 participants in the Global Flourishing Study, this work examines factors associated with financial well-being across 22 countries. We investigate how demographic factors—including age, gender, marital status, employment status, education, religious service attendance and immigration status—are correlated with financial well-being (as assessed through four dimensions). Additionally, we analyse associations between recalled early-life conditions, such as parental marital status and childhood health, with financial well-being in adulthood. Our findings reveal cross-national differences in levels of financial well-being and its demographic correlates. Early-life conditions were also consistently associated with adult financial well-being, although these associations varied substantially across countries. These results suggest that understanding financial well-being should encompass both current sociodemographic factors and early-life experiences within the unique cultural and socioeconomic contexts of different populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143890264","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}