I checked 15 psychology journals on Friday, March 27, 2026 using the Crossref API. For the period March 20 to March 26, I found 35 new paper(s) in 11 journal(s).

Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science

Chatbots Are Undermining Crowdsourced Research in the Behavioral Sciences: Detecting Artificial Intelligence–Assisted Cheating With a Keystroke-Based Tool
Michael W. Asher, Gillian Gold, Eason Chen, Paulo F. Carvalho
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Generative artificial intelligence (AI) poses a significant threat to data integrity on crowdsourcing platforms, such as Prolific, which behavioral scientists widely rely on for data collection. Large language models (LLMs) allow users to generate fluent and relevant responses to open-ended questions, which can mask inattention and compromise experimental validity. To empirically estimate the prevalence of this behavior, we analyzed keystroke data from three studies ( N = 928) on Prolific between May and July 2025. Using an embedded JavaScript tool, we flagged participants who pasted text or whose keystroke count was anomalously low compared with their response length. For each flagged participant, we manually compared detected keystrokes with their final response to determine if the text could have been typed. This confirmed that despite deterrence measures, approximately 9% of participants submitted responses consistent with AI assistance or other forms of outsourced responding. These participants outperformed noncheaters (by up to 1.5 SD ), were more than twice as likely to share geolocations with other participants (suggesting possible proxy use), and exhibited lower internal consistency on questionnaire scales. Simulated power analyses indicate that this level of undetected cheating can diminish observed effect sizes by 10% and inflate required sample sizes by up to 30%. These findings highlight the urgent need for new detection methods, such as keystroke logging, which offers verifiable evidence of cheating that is difficult to obtain from manual review of LLM-generated text alone. As AI continues to evolve, maintaining data quality in crowdsourced research will require active monitoring, methodological adaptation, and communication between researchers and platforms.

Behavior Research Methods

Blink parameters are confounded by vertical eye orientation in video-based eye tracking: Comparing pupil- and eyelid-based methods
Wolf Culemann, Ignace T. C. Hooge, Diederick C. Niehorster, Angela Heine, Marcus Nyström
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Blink characteristics such as duration, amplitude, and eyelid velocity are widely used indicators of cognitive and physiological states. While early magnetic search coil studies suggested that vertical eye orientation relative to the head influences blink measurements, subsequent research has largely ignored this factor. No studies have investigated whether vertical eye orientation effects replicate in modern video-based methods or whether different video-based blink-detection approaches show similar sensitivities to changes in vertical eye orientation. In this study, we investigated how vertical eye orientation affects blink parameters estimated using both pupil-based and eyelid-based detection. We recorded pupil diameter and estimated eye openness from video data as seventeen participants performed voluntary blinks from three vertical eye orientations while keeping their heads stationary. Vertical eye orientation systematically influenced all measured blink parameters. Eye openness at blink onset and closing amplitude decreased with downward eye orientation. With more downward eye orientation, closing velocity increased, whereas opening velocity decreased. Crucially, pupil-based measurements of blink duration showed much larger vertical eye orientation effects than measurements of eye openness (32% vs. 8% increase of blink duration from upward to downward eye orientation), though eyelid-based estimates are sensitive to how blink onset and offset are derived. These results show that the vertical eye orientation is a systematic confounding factor in video-based blink measurement, with the measurement method influencing the magnitude of observed effects. The findings have important implications for studies investigating blink characteristics where vertical eye orientation varies, and we conclude with practical recommendations for study design and reporting.
Walking towards the future: Exploring OpenTUG’s validity in automatic walking activity analyses and the relationship to cognition in vestibular patients
Emilie Lacroix, Marius Grandjean, Margaux Huyberechts, Lucie Steenbergen, Seyed Abolfazl Ghasemzadeh, Christophe De Vleeschouwer, NaĂŻma Deggouj, Martin Gareth Edwards
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Correction: Collection of body–object interaction ratings for 5,637 Japanese words
Masaya Mochizuki, Naoto Ota
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Computers in Human Behavior

Strategic counter-misinformation engagement on social media: An empirical investigation of corporate response tactics and consumer attitude reconstruction
Xi Han, Xiangxiang Zhou, Tianqi Luo, Yuan Chen, Wenting Han
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Development of digital empathy: Non-linear relationships between daily digital communication time and digital empathic tendencies
Andrew M. Collins, Wayne A. Warburton, Naomi Sweller, Kay Bussey
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Physiological synchrony in elite esports matches driven by competitive motivation
Ken Watanabe, Sorato Minami, Naoki Saijo, Makio Kashino
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Group Processes & Intergroup Relations

Social pain minimization mediates weight discrimination’s effects on interpersonal well-being in the workplace
Brielle N. Johnson, Gargi Sawhney, Jonathan W. Kunstman
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Workplace weight discrimination is pervasive and negatively impacts employees and organizations. Yet, little is known about the psychological processes linking weight discrimination and work outcomes. The current research addresses this gap in the research literature by testing emotion invalidation as a mediator of weight stigma’s negative effects on employees. Dehumanizing aspects of weight stigma include the denial of complex emotions, higher-order mental faculties, and professional potential, which were theorized to leave heavy employees feeling invalidated, an experience termed social pain minimization (SPM). Three studies ( N total = 1,097) with cross-sectional, experimental, and multi-wave designs provide convergent support that workplace weight discrimination triggered actual and expected SPM, which in turn negatively impacted perceived organizational support (POS), workplace belonging, and workplace ostracism. These results offer insights into psychosocial processes linking workplace weight discrimination and key indicators of worker well-being. In conjunction with efforts to eliminate workplace weight stigma, organizations need to foster a supportive and emotionally validating climate.
The importance of antiprejudice in protesting and collective action for disadvantaged groups’ rights
Danielle R. Krusemark, Jennifer LaCosse, E. Ashby Plant
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In the past decade, collective action advocating for a disadvantaged group’s rights has increased exponentially. However, only a fraction of supporters of a disadvantaged group’s rights takes collective action. What drives some to take collective action for a disadvantaged group’s rights while others do not? We argue that antiprejudice, the belief that one should proactively fight discrimination and injustice faced by a group, is a critical component of promoting collective action for that group and differentiating between those who are engaged and those who are not. Across field and online studies, we examined antiprejudice’s role in driving protesting and intentions to take collective action for a disadvantaged group’s rights among causes associated with liberals (e.g., racial equality) and conservatives (e.g., pro-life rights). Antiprejudice repeatedly emerged as a key construct for differentiating between protestors and non-protestors and for predicting collective action intentions.
Presidential candidate endorsements by scientific journals decrease trust in science especially for moderate and conservative Americans
Stylianos Syropoulos, Kyle Fiore Law, Crystal Li, Bernhard Leidner, Kevin L. Young
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Before the 2020 and 2024 US Presidential elections, several scientific journals publicly endorsed the Democratic candidates or opposed the Republican candidate. We conducted three highly-powered, pre-registered online experiments ( N = 6,281) to examine how these endorsements affected trust in science. Results revealed significant declines in trust in science, driven primarily by moderate and conservative Americans. Drawing upon on the theoretical perspective that trust in science is not monolithic, but rather composed of distinct dimensions, we examined and observed effects across a range of trust-related domains, including perceptions of scientific integrity (impartiality), competence (ability), benevolence, and generalized trust in scientific institutions. These findings highlight how motivated reasoning can amplify existing skepticism when individuals who already perceive science as aligned with opposing political ideologies read political endorsements from within the scientific community. Amidst increasing science-skepticism and politicization, journals must consider the unintended consequences of political messaging on public perceptions of science.

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Generic title: Not a research article
Corrigendum to “A trust inoculation to protect public support of governmentally mandated actions to mitigate climate change” [Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 115 (2024) 104656]
Tobia Spampatti, Tobias Brosch, Evelina Trutnevyte, Ulf J.J. Hahnel
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Gossip or confrontation? Sanctioning environmental norm violations and the reputation of punishers
Xiyan Song, Catherine Molho, Paul A.M. Van Lange
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Registered report stage I: Defending or defying democracy? Investigating the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and support for democratic principles [registered report - stage I]
Tisa Bertlich, Felicitas Flade, Roland Imhoff
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Managing threatened identities across everyday situations
N. Derek Brown, Drew S. Jacoby-Senghor, Allyson P. Mackey, Michael L. Slepian
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Just a means to an end? Individuals support direct democracy instrumentally, irrespective of conspiracy mentality
Tisa Bertlich, Fiona Kazarovytska, Roland Imhoff
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Not all stimuli are conditioned equal – Larger evaluative conditioning effects for fluent stimuli
Claudine Pulm, Anne Gast
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Using intersectional implicit association measures does not consistently improve the predictive validity of the implicit association test
Jeffrey To, Jordan Axt
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Approach-avoidance action tendencies: A replicable approach/avoidance compatibility effect can be found when valence is task irrelevant
Yoann Julliard, Cédric Batailler, François Ric, Marine Rougier, Maude Tagand, Mae Braud, Dominique Muller
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Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Cultural differences in the Personality Triad: The interplay of personality traits, situation characteristics, and behavioral states around the world.
Niclas Kuper, character(0), Gwendolyn Gardiner, Erica Baranski, David C. Funder, John F. Rauthmann
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Individual differences in risk preference: Selection and socialization effects.
Yunrui Liu, David Richter, Rui Mata
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Multivariate Behavioral Research

Multivariate Location-Scale Models for Meta-Analysis
Katrin Jansen, Steffen Nestler
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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Broken Promises: Betrayal and Support for Violence in Intergroup Relations
Josephine Gellersen, Eran Halperin, Tamar Saguy
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In diverse societies, minority groups may face challenges when events signal exclusion from a superordinate identity (SOI) shared with the relevant majority groups. We examine how such SOI threats relate to hardline political attitudes, focusing on betrayal as a potential mechanism. A cross-sectional study of Ethiopian Jews in Israel ( N = 276) showed that priming an SOI threat was associated with support for violent resistance via betrayal. A two-wave study of Arab-Muslims in Israel ( N = 165) showed that a real-time SOI-threatening event predicted betrayal and, in turn, increased support for violence, particularly among those with stronger baseline SOI. An additional two-wave study of Israeli Jewish women ( N = 584) during the recent Gaza war extended this framework to a broader SOI shared with women worldwide: stronger baseline SOI predicted higher expectations of solidarity, which, when undermined by SOI threat, was associated with greater betrayal and hawkish wartime policy support.
Narratives About Deported Migrants Who Served in the U.S. Military Reduce Animosity Toward Migrants in the United States
Samantha L. Moore-Berg, Opeyemi S. Adeojo, Roman A. Gallardo, Nour Kteily, Boaz Hameiri
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Animosity toward immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, has reached high levels in many parts of the United States. What can be done to counteract anti-immigrant hostility? One solution is to implement media interventions, which are uniquely positioned to reduce animosity. We thus conducted two studies to assess the efficacy of three media interventions to reduce anti-immigrant attitudes. In Study 1 ( N = 2,050), we conducted an intervention tournament and found that one video was particularly effective at reducing anti-immigrant hostility and support for anti-immigrant policies, especially among Republicans. This video shared the story of undocumented immigrants who served in the U.S. military but were subsequently deported due to their legal status. In Study 2 ( N = 3,000), we replicated these findings among nationally representative partisan voters. These results suggest that a simple media intervention has the power to improve attitudes toward undocumented immigrants across the political spectrum.

Psychological Science

Commentary: On the Equal-Opportunity Jerk “Defense”: Rudeness Complicates Sexism Attributions but Comes at a Cost
Shiyao Bao, Anna Bajet, RocĂ­o MartĂ­nez, Johannes MĂŒller-Trede, Isabelle Engeler, Sebastian HafenbrĂ€dl
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Sexism is a pervasive and persistent problem. In their 2022 article “The ‘Equal-Opportunity Jerk’ Defense: Rudeness Can Obfuscate Gender Bias” ( Psychological Science , Vol. 33, pp. 397–411), Belmi et al. argued that sexism can be obfuscated and go unpunished if perpetrators also act rudely toward men: the “equal-opportunity jerk defense.” We introduce a simple Bayesian model that accounts for Belmi et al.’s findings and corroborated their predictions and implications in five preregistered experiments ( N = 6,968 U.S. adults recruited via Prolific). We replicated that being rude toward men decreased perceived sexism but importantly found that it came at the cost of increased punishment (Study 1). Moreover, rudeness primarily decreased actors’ perceived sexism, whereas their actions were still perceived as sexist (Study 2). Sexism ratings were sensitive to prior beliefs about the prevalence of sexism and to the diagnosticity of observed sexist behavior (Supplementary Studies S1-S2), in line with a broader Bayesian perspective. Bias in sexism ratings thus need not implicate fallacious cognitive processes or an “illusion of gender blindness.”
How Does Turning to AI for Companionship Predict Loneliness and Vice Versa?
Dunigan Folk, Elizabeth Dunn
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Advances in AI have enabled chatbots to provide warm, personalized support. Yet little is known about the long-term consequences of AI companionship. Across a 12-month longitudinal study with more than 2,000 adults from four Western countries, we examined the bidirectional relationships between social chatbot use and loneliness.We found evidence that increased social chatbot use predicted increased loneliness, using a single-item measure of emotional isolation. When we used a broader and more stable measure of social connection, we found evidence that feeling less socially connected predicted subsequent increases in social chatbot use; however, chatbot use did not significantly predict decreases in social connection. Taken together, these findings provide initial evidence that being lonely may spur people to seek companionship through chatbots but that such use may, over time, exacerbate feelings of loneliness. We urge caution, however, in drawing strong conclusions given the exploratory nature of our analyses.
The Relation Between Attributions of Mental Capacities and Moral Standing Across Six Diverse Cultures
Bastian Jaeger, Maarten Bosten
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Whose welfare and interests matter from a moral perspective? This question is at the center of many polarizing debates, for example, on the ethicality of abortion or meat consumption. A widely cited hypothesis holds that attributions of moral standing are guided by which mental capacities an entity is perceived to have. Specifically, perceived sentience (the capacity to feel pleasure and pain) is thought to be the primary determinant, rather than perceived agency (the capacity to navigate the world and social relationships) or other abilities. This has been described as a general feature of moral cognition, but the evidence for this is mixed and overwhelmingly based on Western participants. Here, we examined the link between attributions of mind and moral standing across six culturally diverse countries—Brazil, Nigeria, Italy, Saudi Arabia, India, and the Philippines—using a sample of 1,255 participants (aged 18–74 years old) who were recruited via the online platform Toloka. In every country, entities’ moral standing was most strongly related to their perceived sentience.
Local Economic Inequality and Depression: Evidence From Longitudinal Data on Local Residential Contexts and Antidepressant Use
Kim Mannemar SÞnderskov, Tobias Heide-JÞrgensen, SÞren Dinesen Østergaard, Peter Thisted Dinesen
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We studied the consequences of economic inequality for depression among adults using individual-level longitudinal administrative data from Denmark ( n = 60,654,690 person time points). The data allow us to (a) measure depression without nonresponse (by proxy of redemption of prescriptions for antidepressants), (b) measure income inequality at a low level of aggregation to capture individuals’ everyday experiences, (c) conduct within-individual analyses from stable individual characteristics to address confounding, and (d) test whether inequality has similar consequences for people located differently in the local income distribution. In contrast to previous work, we found a modest negative average effect of economic inequality (a 1- SD increase in inequality is associated with a 1%–2% relative decrease in the probability of depression). However, this average masks substantial heterogeneity: The negative effect was confined to the locally relatively well-off, whereas those with the lowest relative income tended to become more depressed as inequality rose.

Psychology of Popular Media

Which platforms count? The diverse meanings of “social media” in the United States.
Stephanie Torres-Pantoja, Lisa Rhee, Julian Unkel, Muniba Saleem, Joseph B. Bayer
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Reliving 10 years old: Descriptive insights into retro gaming.
Nick Ballou, Nicholas David Bowman, Thomas Hakman, Andrew K. Przybylski
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Exploring the evolving portrayal of #Ozempic content on TikTok.
Megan Sutton, Zachary Staffell, Karen Leung, Eva Pila
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Technology, Mind, and Behavior

Emotional and cognitive factors in the relationship between autistic traits and emotional attachment to AI chatbots.
Rossella Suriano, Alessio Plebe, Valentina Furfari, Rosa Angela Fabio
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The role of online disinhibition on social media users’ privacy concerns and behaviors.
Lisa M. Thompson Lee, Sinyong Choi
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From virtual sparks to reality: How virtual reality exposure influences skill learning intentions.
Daphne Xin Hou, Meaghan Tracy, Bradley D. Pitcher, Benjamin Blachly, Ahleah F. Miles, Tara S. Behrend
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God or the machine? Personal religiosity and negative attitudes to AI.
Cristian G. Rodriguez, Allon Vishkin, Yochanan E. Bigman
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Psychological interventions for mis/disinformation detection: A systematic–narrative review of their effectiveness for older adults.
Holly K. Barnett, Lara Warmelink, Sophie J. Nightingale, Faraz Ahmed, Trevor Crawford
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Psychology-in-the-loop.
Richard N. Landers
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