{"title":"Changes in the auditory cortex of children receiving gene therapy for deafness","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02185-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02185-7","url":null,"abstract":"Children with DFNB9 deafness receiving gene therapy in either one ear or both ears exhibited enhanced activation in parts of the auditory speech cortex, which occurred as early as four weeks after surgery, as well as an improvement in measures of their mental development.","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144104112","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}
Thole H. Hoppen, Rieke M. Cuno, Janna Nelson, Frederike Lemmel, Pascal Schlechter, Nexhmedin Morina
{"title":"Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials examining social comparison as a behaviour change technique across the behavioural sciences","authors":"Thole H. Hoppen, Rieke M. Cuno, Janna Nelson, Frederike Lemmel, Pascal Schlechter, Nexhmedin Morina","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02209-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02209-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Research on social comparison as a behaviour change technique (SC-BCT) has increased substantially. We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials investigating SC-BCTs across the behavioural sciences (PROSPERO: CRD42022343154). We searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Web of Science from inception to January 2024. Seventy-nine randomized controlled trials (<i>N</i> = 1,356,521) investigating effects on behaviours related to climate change mitigation, health, performance and service were included. In the short term (mean 3.7 months post-intervention), SC-BCTs produced small effects relative to both passive (Hedges’ <i>g</i> = 0.17; 95% confidence interval, 0.11–0.23; <i>k</i> = 37; <i>P</i> < 0.001) and active control conditions (<i>g</i> = 0.23; 95% confidence interval, 0.15–0.31; <i>k</i> = 42; <i>P</i> < 0.001). A greater number of SC-BCT sessions and emphasis on desired (versus undesired) behaviours were associated with larger effects. Moderation effects were observed in only a few analyses, highlighting the need for further testing. SC-BCTs also produced significant small effects in the long term (mean 6.2 months post-intervention). Small effects should be interpreted in the context of low cost and scalability (for example, sending one or two emails). Certainty of evidence, using GRADE criteria, ranged from low to moderate depending on the analysis. More high-quality research is needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144088312","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}
Francesco Salvi, Manoel Horta Ribeiro, Riccardo Gallotti, Robert West
{"title":"On the conversational persuasiveness of GPT-4","authors":"Francesco Salvi, Manoel Horta Ribeiro, Riccardo Gallotti, Robert West","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02194-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02194-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Early work has found that large language models (LLMs) can generate persuasive content. However, evidence on whether they can also personalize arguments to individual attributes remains limited, despite being crucial for assessing misuse. This preregistered study examines AI-driven persuasion in a controlled setting, where participants engaged in short multiround debates. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 12 conditions in a 2 × 2 × 3 design: (1) human or GPT-4 debate opponent; (2) opponent with or without access to sociodemographic participant data; (3) debate topic of low, medium or high opinion strength. In debate pairs where AI and humans were not equally persuasive, GPT-4 with personalization was more persuasive 64.4% of the time (81.2% relative increase in odds of higher post-debate agreement; 95% confidence interval [+26.0%, +160.7%], <i>P</i> < 0.01; <i>N</i> = 900). Our findings highlight the power of LLM-based persuasion and have implications for the governance and design of online platforms.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144096914","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":"Social media interventions to improve well-being","authors":"Amira Skeggs, Amy Orben","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02167-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02167-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Concerns about the negative effect of social media on well-being have generated much interest around the development of social media interventions, which aim to change users’ interactions with social media to improve well-being. To aid the effective study and design of such interventions, we introduce a new theoretical approach, guided by self-determination theory. We review current interventions and categorize them by the context in which they intervene: social media platforms, devices, users, families and society. Drawing on established behavioural change models, we then evaluate how social media use affects the core psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. We propose theoretically grounded design features that can be applied to maximize the effectiveness of future interventions. In response to the increasing calls for interventions to counteract social media risks, our recommendations will inform future research in academia and industry, with practical applications to enhance well-being in this digital age.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143979467","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":"ChatGPT decreases idea diversity in brainstorming","authors":"Lennart Meincke, Gideon Nave, Christian Terwiesch","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02173-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02173-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><span>arising from</span> B. C. Lee & J. J. Chung <i>Nature Human Behaviour</i> https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01953-1 (2024)</p><p>Lee and Chung<sup>1</sup> explore how ChatGPT augments human creativity in brainstorming. In a series of experiments, they randomized participants to complete various creative challenges, either with or without the help of ChatGPT. These challenges included tasks such as coming up with gift ideas, designing toys from everyday objects and repurposing household items. Each participant submitted one idea, which external evaluators rated on multiple creativity dimensions, including innovativeness and usefulness. Across tasks, instructing participants to use ChatGPT enhanced the average creativity of ideas, outperforming web searches and unaided human intuition, with creativity measured as the average of aggregated scores of originality (original, innovative, creative) and appropriateness (practical, effective, useful). These results strengthen the empirical evidence for the effectiveness of large language models in idea generation, contributing to a rapidly growing literature<sup>2,3,4</sup>. However, as we demonstrate analytically, reliance on ChatGPT for idea generation comes with a trade-off: while enhancing individual ideas’ creativity, it reduces the diversity of ideas in a pool of ideas—a critical element for effective brainstorming.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143945862","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}
Catherine J. Crompton, Sarah J. Foster, Charlotte E. H. Wilks, Michelle Dodd, Themis N. Efthimiou, Danielle Ropar, Noah J. Sasson, Martin Lages, Sue Fletcher-Watson
{"title":"Information transfer within and between autistic and non-autistic people","authors":"Catherine J. Crompton, Sarah J. Foster, Charlotte E. H. Wilks, Michelle Dodd, Themis N. Efthimiou, Danielle Ropar, Noah J. Sasson, Martin Lages, Sue Fletcher-Watson","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02163-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02163-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Autism is clinically defined by social communication deficits, suggesting that autistic people may be less effective at sharing information, particularly with one another. However, recent research indicates that neurotype mismatches, rather than autism itself, degrade information sharing. Here, using the diffusion chain method, we examined information transfer in autistic, non-autistic and mixed-neurotype chains (<i>N</i> = 311), replicating and extending a key study. We hypothesized that information transfer would deteriorate faster and rapport would be lower in mixed-neurotype compared with single-neurotype chains. Additionally, we examined whether informing participants of the diagnostic status of their chain and whether information was fictional or factual impacted performance and rapport. We found no difference in information transfer between single-neurotype and mixed-neurotype chains. Non-autistic chains indicated higher rapport, and disclosing diagnosis improved rapport. This result challenges assumptions about autistic communication deficits but contrasts with prior findings. Enhanced participant heterogeneity and methodological differences may explain these unexpected results. Protocol registration The Stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 23 August 2022. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://osf.io/us9c7/.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143945865","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":"Reply to: ChatGPT decreases idea diversity in brainstorming","authors":"Byung Cheol Lee, Jaeyeon ‘Jae’ Chung","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02195-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02195-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><span>replying to</span> L. Meincke et al. <i>Nature Human Behaviour</i> https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02173-x (2025)</p><p>We appreciate the thoughtful commentary from Meincke et al.<sup>1</sup> and are pleased that our open data practices are contributing to the dialogue about ChatGPT’s impact on creativity. Our paper<sup>2</sup> evaluated ChatGPT’s potential to assist individuals in solving problems requiring creativity. After analysing our publicly available data, Meincke et al. affirmed our finding that ChatGPT has a positive impact on individual creativity; that is, ChatGPT effectively combines disparate concepts into a cohesive response, leading to more creative solutions. Meincke et al. expanded on our inquiry by taking a group-level lens to the data. They found that the pool of ChatGPT-assisted responses exhibits lower diversity, concluding that the collective use of ChatGPT may undermine “effective brainstorming”.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143945859","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":"What I wish I knew when I switched fields for my PhD","authors":"Sterling Williams-Ceci","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02214-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02214-5","url":null,"abstract":"Switching fields for a PhD can be challenging. Williams-Ceci shares her experiences when transitioning from psychology to information science.","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"123 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143940089","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":"Psychological and behavioural considerations for integrating polygenic risk scores for disease into clinical practice","authors":"Saskia C. Sanderson, Michael Inouye","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02200-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02200-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A polygenic risk score (PRS) summarizes in one number an individual’s estimated genetic association with a specific trait or disease based on the common DNA variants included in the score. Disease PRSs have the potential to positively affect population health by improving disease risk prediction, thereby also potentially improving disease prevention, early intervention and treatment. However, given the potential psychological, behavioural and other harms, there are also concerns about integrating PRSs into clinical tools and healthcare systems. Here we assess five arguments against implementing PRSs for physical disease in clinical practice that revolve around psychological and behavioural considerations. For each argument, we consider a counterargument, the evidence and underlying theory, any gaps in the evidence base and possible future directions and research priorities. We conclude that, although there may be other barriers to implementation, there is currently little evidence of psychological or behavioural harms from integrating PRSs into practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143933213","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}
Matt Fillingim, Christophe Tanguay-Sabourin, Marc Parisien, Azin Zare, Gianluca V. Guglietti, Jax Norman, Bogdan Petre, Andrey Bortsov, Mark Ware, Jordi Perez, Mathieu Roy, Luda Diatchenko, Etienne Vachon-Presseau
{"title":"Biological markers and psychosocial factors predict chronic pain conditions","authors":"Matt Fillingim, Christophe Tanguay-Sabourin, Marc Parisien, Azin Zare, Gianluca V. Guglietti, Jax Norman, Bogdan Petre, Andrey Bortsov, Mark Ware, Jordi Perez, Mathieu Roy, Luda Diatchenko, Etienne Vachon-Presseau","doi":"10.1038/s41562-025-02156-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02156-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Chronic pain is a multifactorial condition presenting significant diagnostic and prognostic challenges. Biomarkers for the classification and the prediction of chronic pain are therefore critically needed. Here, in this multidataset study of over 523,000 participants, we applied machine learning to multidimensional biological data from the UK Biobank to identify biomarkers for 35 medical conditions associated with pain (for example, rheumatoid arthritis and gout) or self-reported chronic pain (for example, back pain and knee pain). Biomarkers derived from blood immunoassays, brain and bone imaging, and genetics were effective in predicting medical conditions associated with chronic pain (area under the curve (AUC) 0.62–0.87) but not self-reported pain (AUC 0.50–0.62). Notably, all biomarkers worked in synergy with psychosocial factors, accurately predicting both medical conditions (AUC 0.69–0.91) and self-reported pain (AUC 0.71–0.92). These findings underscore the necessity of adopting a holistic approach in the development of biomarkers to enhance their clinical utility.</p>","PeriodicalId":19074,"journal":{"name":"Nature Human Behaviour","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":29.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143933215","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}