Sarah Myers, Eshetu Gurmu, Alexandra Alvergne, Daniel Redhead, Janet A. Howard, Mhairi A. Gibson
{"title":"Social clustering of preference for female genital mutilation/cutting in south-central Ethiopia","authors":"Sarah Myers, Eshetu Gurmu, Alexandra Alvergne, Daniel Redhead, Janet A. Howard, Mhairi A. Gibson","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02236-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02236-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Recent estimates indicate that half of Ethiopian girls aged 15–19 years have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting (FGMC). Establishing whether and how pro-FGMC norms are maintained through social transmission is a key priority for global eradication efforts. Here we present the first large-scale socio-centric social network study estimating social influence and social selection on preference for cutting female relatives using data from 5,163 Ethiopian Arsi Oromo adults. Statistical modelling, which accounts for network dependence in cross-sectional data, finds signals of ‘contagion’ within chatting, respect and money-borrowing networks. This indicates that social influence contributes to FGMC maintenance. We find no clear evidence of social selection within marriage-advice networks, suggesting these networks are not implicated in FGMC maintenance. Contrary to assumptions underpinning current eradication efforts, we find negligible evidence that FGMC is a social coordination norm (with only 6.3% endorsement) or an empirical or normative expectation. We conclude by making intervention design recommendations.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144252260","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}
Pranav Goel, Jon Green, David Lazer, Philip S. Resnik
{"title":"Using co-sharing to identify use of mainstream news for promoting potentially misleading narratives","authors":"Pranav Goel, Jon Green, David Lazer, Philip S. Resnik","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02223-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02223-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Much of the research quantifying volume and spread of online misinformation measures the construct at the source level, identifying a set of specific unreliable domains that account for a relatively small share of news consumption. This source-level dichotomy obscures the potential for users to repurpose factually true information from reliable sources to advance misleading narratives. We demonstrate this potentially far more prevalent form of misinformation by identifying articles from reliable sources that are frequently co-shared with (shared by users who also shared) ‘fake’ news on social media, and concurrently extracting narratives present in fake news content and claims fact checked as false. Specifically in this study, we use Twitter/X data from May 2018 to November 2021 matched to a US voter file. We find that narratives present in misinformation content are significantly more likely to occur in co-shared articles than in articles from the same reliable sources that are not co-shared, consistent with users using information from mainstream sources to enhance the credibility and reach of potentially misleading claims.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144252261","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}
Elham Assary, Jonathan R. I. Coleman, Gibran Hemani, Margot P. van de Weijer, Laurence J. Howe, Teemu Palviainen, Katrina L. Grasby, Rafael Ahlskog, Marianne Nygaard, Rosa Cheesman, Kai Lim, Chandra A. Reynolds, Juan R. Ordoñana, Lucia Colodro-Conde, Scott Gordon, Juan J. Madrid-Valero, Anbupalam Thalamuthu, Jouke-Jan Hottenga, Jonas Mengel-From, Nicola J. Armstrong, Perminder S. Sachdev, Teresa Lee, Henry Brodaty, Julian N. Trollor, Margaret Wright, David Ames, Vibeke S. Catts, Antti Latvala, Eero Vuoksimaa, Travis Mallard, K. Paige Harden, Elliot M. Tucker-Drob, Sven Oskarsson, Christopher J. Hammond, Kaare Christensen, Mark Taylor, Sebastian Lundström, Henrik Larsson, Robert Karlsson, Nancy L. Pedersen, Karen A. Mather, Sarah E. Medland, Dorret I. Boomsma, Nicholas G. Martin, Robert Plomin, Meike Bartels, Paul Lichtenstein, Jaakko Kaprio, Thalia C. Eley, Neil M. Davies, Patricia B. Munroe, Robert Keers
{"title":"Genetics of monozygotic twins reveals the impact of environmental sensitivity on psychiatric and neurodevelopmental phenotypes","authors":"Elham Assary, Jonathan R. I. Coleman, Gibran Hemani, Margot P. van de Weijer, Laurence J. Howe, Teemu Palviainen, Katrina L. Grasby, Rafael Ahlskog, Marianne Nygaard, Rosa Cheesman, Kai Lim, Chandra A. Reynolds, Juan R. Ordoñana, Lucia Colodro-Conde, Scott Gordon, Juan J. Madrid-Valero, Anbupalam Thalamuthu, Jouke-Jan Hottenga, Jonas Mengel-From, Nicola J. Armstrong, Perminder S. Sachdev, Teresa Lee, Henry Brodaty, Julian N. Trollor, Margaret Wright, David Ames, Vibeke S. Catts, Antti Latvala, Eero Vuoksimaa, Travis Mallard, K. Paige Harden, Elliot M. Tucker-Drob, Sven Oskarsson, Christopher J. Hammond, Kaare Christensen, Mark Taylor, Sebastian Lundström, Henrik Larsson, Robert Karlsson, Nancy L. Pedersen, Karen A. Mather, Sarah E. Medland, Dorret I. Boomsma, Nicholas G. Martin, Robert Plomin, Meike Bartels, Paul Lichtenstein, Jaakko Kaprio, Thalia C. Eley, Neil M. Davies, Patricia B. Munroe, Robert Keers","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02193-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02193-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Individual sensitivity to environmental exposures may be genetically influenced. This genotype-by-environment interplay implies differences in phenotypic variance across genotypes, but these variants have proven challenging to detect. Genome-wide association studies of monozygotic twin differences are conducted through family-based variance analyses, which are more robust to the systemic biases that impact population-based methods. We combined data from 21,792 monozygotic twins (10,896 pairs) from 11 studies to conduct one of the largest genome-wide association study meta-analyses of monozygotic phenotypic differences, in children, adolescents and adults separately, for seven psychiatric and neurodevelopmental phenotypes: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms, autistic traits, anxiety and depression symptoms, psychotic-like experiences, neuroticism and wellbeing. The proportions of phenotypic variance explained by single-nucleotide polymorphisms in these phenotypes were estimated (<i>h</i><sup>2</sup> = 0–18%), but were imprecise. We identified 13 genome-wide significant associations (single-nucleotide polymorphisms, genes and gene sets), including genes related to stress reactivity for depression, growth factor-related genes for autistic traits and catecholamine uptake-related genes for psychotic-like experiences. This is the largest genetic study of monozygotic twins to date by an order of magnitude, evidencing an alternative method to study the genetic architecture of environmental sensitivity. The statistical power was limited for some analyses, calling for better-powered future studies.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144252259","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":"Restrictions on US academic freedom affect science everywhere","authors":"Frank Fernandez, Neal Hutchens","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02248-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02248-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Historically, the USA has enjoyed greater academic freedom than many countries, and this has likely contributed to its centrality in global research networks. For years, state-level attacks (such as those by Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida) have undermined academic freedom at single campuses or across public university systems<sup>2</sup>. But under the Trump administration, coordinated attacks on academic freedom are being carried out at the national level and are targeting both public and private universities. The administration has targeted institutional autonomy by threatening large-scale federal funding freezes to specific universities, such as Columbia University, Harvard University and University of Pennsylvania. These attacks on universities and federally funded research undermine the arrangements (such as having university faculty members rather than political appointees review proposals for federal grants) that make the USA a globally competitive producer of scholarly scientific publications. Even private industry works in partnership with universities on basic research. Bibliometric analyses estimate that 85–90% of publications in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, plus health (STEM+) — including those funded by industry contracts — are co-authored by university-based scientists<sup>3,4</sup>.</p><p>Although new for American higher education, the Trump administration’s approach is similar to policies followed by Cold War autocratic regimes such as East Germany, where research funding was politicized and research production stalled. Much of the world experienced exponential growth in science production during the latter half of the twentieth century. By contrast, East Germany stood out for its decrease in STEM+ research production<sup>5</sup>. When former German Chancellor Angela Merkel reflected on working as a physicist in East Germany before reunification, she described the danger of becoming comfortable with the boundaries imposed by the state, and the benefits — after reunification — of a more open society that pushed you “to your limits” as a scientist. Merkel realized how autocratic rule had badly constrained East German physics research.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144237984","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":"We need to fight for the next generation of US researchers","authors":"Nicole C. Rust","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02246-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02246-x","url":null,"abstract":"Federal funding of science has been cut, and trainee scientists in the USA face an unstable and uncertain future. Nicole Rust explains how and why we should act to support junior US researchers at this time.","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"522 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144237985","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}
Runnan Cao, Jinge Wang, Chujun Lin, Emanuela De Falco, Alina Peter, Hernan G. Rey, Peter Brunner, Jon T. Willie, James J. DiCarlo, Alexander Todorov, Ueli Rutishauser, Xin Li, Nicholas J. Brandmeir, Shuo Wang
{"title":"Feature-based encoding of face identity by single neurons in the human amygdala and hippocampus","authors":"Runnan Cao, Jinge Wang, Chujun Lin, Emanuela De Falco, Alina Peter, Hernan G. Rey, Peter Brunner, Jon T. Willie, James J. DiCarlo, Alexander Todorov, Ueli Rutishauser, Xin Li, Nicholas J. Brandmeir, Shuo Wang","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02218-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02218-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Neurons in the human amygdala and hippocampus are classically thought to encode a person’s identity invariant to visual features. However, it remains largely unknown how visual information from higher visual cortical areas is translated into such a semantic representation of an individual person. Here, across four experiments (3,581 neurons from 19 neurosurgical patients over 111 sessions), we demonstrate a region-based feature code for faces, where neurons encode faces on the basis of shared visual features rather than associations of known concepts, contrary to prevailing views. Feature neurons encode groups of faces regardless of their identity, broad semantic categories or familiarity; and the coding regions (that is, receptive fields) predict feature neurons’ response to new face stimuli. Together, our results reveal a new class of neurons that bridge perception-driven representation of facial features with mnemonic semantic representations, which may form the basis for declarative memory.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144228617","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}
Zejin Lu, Adrien Doerig, Victoria Bosch, Bas Krahmer, Daniel Kaiser, Radoslaw M. Cichy, Tim C. Kietzmann
{"title":"End-to-end topographic networks as models of cortical map formation and human visual behaviour","authors":"Zejin Lu, Adrien Doerig, Victoria Bosch, Bas Krahmer, Daniel Kaiser, Radoslaw M. Cichy, Tim C. Kietzmann","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02220-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02220-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A prominent feature of the primate visual system is its topographic organization. For understanding its origins, its computational role and its behavioural implications, computational models are of central importance. Yet, vision is commonly modelled using convolutional neural networks, which are hard-wired to learn identical features across space and thus lack topography. Here we overcome this limitation by introducing all-topographic neural networks (All-TNNs). All-TNNs develop several features reminiscent of primate topography, including smooth orientation and category selectivity maps, and enhanced processing of regions with task-relevant information. In addition, All-TNNs operate on a low energy budget, suggesting a metabolic benefit of smooth topographic organization. To test our model against behaviour, we collected a dataset of human spatial biases in object recognition and found that All-TNNs significantly outperform control models. All-TNNs thereby offer a promising candidate for modelling primate visual topography and its role in downstream behaviour.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144228621","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":"Protracted development of gaze behaviour","authors":"Marcel Linka, Harun Karimpur, Benjamin de Haas","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02191-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02191-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>How does scene viewing develop? Previous evidence is limited and suggests that viewing behaviour may be adult-like from about eight years old. Here we present data from <i>n</i> = 6,720 participants from 5 to 72 years old, freely viewing 40 natural scenes. We found that the development of scene viewing is surprisingly protracted. Semantic salience for social features continuously changes until adolescence, and text salience increases over the first two decades of life. Basic oculomotor biases towards the image centre and along the horizontal meridian develop until adolescence, matching developmental changes in visual sensitivity and cortex. Finally, while the tendency for visual exploration continuously increases, fixation patterns become less idiosyncratic and more canonical throughout adolescence. These findings show that fundamental aspects of adult gaze take up to two decades of continuous development and push individuals towards more canonical viewing patterns. We suggest that development is key to understanding the general mechanisms of active vision.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144218827","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":"Majority support for global redistributive and climate policies","authors":"Adrien Fabre, Thomas Douenne, Linus Mattauch","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02175-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02175-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We document majority support for policies entailing global redistribution and climate mitigation. Surveys on 40,680 respondents in 20 countries show strong majority support for a global carbon price funding equal cash transfers, called the Global Climate Scheme (GCS). Through our surveys on 8,000 respondents in the USA, France, Germany, Spain and the UK, we test several hypotheses that could reconcile strong stated support with scarce occurrences in public debates. Three quarters of Europeans and half of Americans support the GCS, even as they understand its cost to them. Using several experiments, we show that the support for the GCS is sincere and that political programmes that include it are preferred to programmes that do not. We document widespread support for other globally redistributive policies, such as increased foreign aid or a wealth tax funding low-income countries. In sum, global policies are genuinely supported by majorities, even in wealthy, contributing countries.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144218831","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}
Qihui Xu, Yingying Peng, Samuel A. Nastase, Martin Chodorow, Minghua Wu, Ping Li
{"title":"Large language models without grounding recover non-sensorimotor but not sensorimotor features of human concepts","authors":"Qihui Xu, Yingying Peng, Samuel A. Nastase, Martin Chodorow, Minghua Wu, Ping Li","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02203-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02203-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>To what extent can language give rise to complex conceptual representation? Is multisensory experience essential? Recent large language models (LLMs) challenge the necessity of grounding for concept formation: whether LLMs without grounding nevertheless exhibit human-like representations. Here we compare multidimensional representations of ~4,442 lexical concepts between humans (the Glasgow Norms<sup>1</sup>, <i>N</i> = 829; and the Lancaster Norms<sup>2</sup>, <i>N</i> = 3,500) and state-of-the-art LLMs with and without visual learning, across non-sensorimotor, sensory and motor domains. We found that (1) the similarity between model and human representations decreases from non-sensorimotor to sensory domains and is minimal in motor domains, indicating a systematic divergence, and (2) models with visual learning exhibit enhanced similarity with human representations in visual-related dimensions. These results highlight the potential limitations of language in isolation for LLMs and that the integration of diverse modalities can potentially enhance alignment with human conceptual representation.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144211025","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}