news 2014

AUSTIN, Texas — Adolescent girls living in economically disadvantaged families are more likely than their male counterparts to become overweight or obese, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin. The study, published online this month in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior , shows long-lasting consequences of economic hardship in childhood for the risk of obesity in adulthood.

One of history's most iconic social psychology experiments may have been completely misinterpreted, according to a University of Queensland researcher. Stanley Milgram's studies on obedience are widely understood to demonstrate people's natural inclination to obey orders from those in authority, without question.

Dementia UK: The Second Edition , prepared by King's College London and the London School of Economics for the Alzheimer's Society, finds that the cost of dementia to the UK has hit £26 billion a year and that people with dementia, their carers and families shoulder two-thirds of the cost themselves.

HERSHEY, Pa. A positive outlook and support from people around them help patients with diabetes cope with psychosocial challenges of the disease, according to an international study that included researchers from Penn State College of Medicine. A better understanding of the emotional, psychological and social challenges people with diabetes face could improve health outcomes.

Social networking programmes designed to help people lose weight could play a role in the global fight against obesity, according to research. Analysis by researchers from Imperial College London combining the results of 12 previous studies shows that such programmes have achieved modest but significant results in helping participants lose weight.

ANN ARBOR-Nearly half of older adults-18 million people-have difficulty or get help with daily activities, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Michigan and the Urban Institute analyzed data from a national sample of older adults drawn from Medicare enrollment files. In all, 8,245 people were included in the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study.

Press release issued: 10 September 2014 The effect of movies featuring dogs on the popularity of dog breeds can last up to ten years and is correlated with the general success of the movies, according to new research from the University of Bristol, the City University of New York, and Western Carolina University.

A new study has found that fresh water from melting glaciers has caused the sea-level around the coast of Antarctica to rise by 2cm more than the global average of 6cm, since 1992. A research team, which included the University of Liverpool, detected the rapid rise in sea-level by studying satellite scans of a region that spans more than a million square kilometres.

Scientists from Oxford University, the University of Vienna, and the Max Planck Institute at Seewiesen have shown that a spontaneous innovation by a Goffin's cockatoo can spread to other conspecifics by social learning. After observing that an adult male Goffin cockatoo named Figaro spontaneously started to sculpt stick tools out of wooden aviary beams to use them for raking in nuts out of his reach, the researchers wondered what effect, if any, such individual invention might have on social companions.

The discovery, made by scientists from Oxford University, the University of Vienna, and the Max Planck Institute at Seewiesen, is thought to be the first controlled experimental evidence for the social transmission of tool use in any bird species. Goffin's cockatoo ( Cacatua goffini ) is a curious species of Indonesian parrot not known to use tools in the wild.

Emma Blakey, PhD researcher in developmental psychology at the University of Sheffield, comments on strategic thinking in children. Now we know why it's so hard to deceive children by Emma Blakey, 2 September 2014, posted on The Conversation Daily interactions require bargaining, be it for food, money or even making plans.

Sharing regular family meals with children may help protect them from the effects of cyberbullying, according to a study by McGill professor Frank Elgar, Institute for Health and Social Policy. Because family meal times represent social support and exchanges in the home that benefit adolescents' well-being, Elgar suggests that this family contact and communication can also reduce some of the distressing effects of cyberbullying.

The importance of social rank is something we all learn at an early age. Life on the lowest rung can be stressful, but life at the top also requires careful acts of balancing and coalition forming. In non-human primates, social dominance influences access to food and mates. In humans, social hierarchies influence our performance everywhere from school to the workplace and have a direct influence on our well-being and mental health.

U.S. Army UCLA researchers theorize that humans have evolved to view the act of moving in unison as a marker of a group's strength. In the aftermath of the Aug. 9 shooting of an 18-year-old African American man by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, much of the nation's attention has been focused on how law enforcement's use of military gear might have inflamed tensions.

After killing its host, the so-called zombie ant fungus grows from the cadaver and produces spores, which rain down on the forest floor to infect new hosts. UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. A parasitic fungus that must kill its ant hosts outside their nest to reproduce and transmit their infection, manipulates its victims to die in the vicinity of the colony, ensuring a constant supply of potential new hosts, according to researchers at Penn State and colleagues at Brazil's Federal University of Vicosa.

Experiencing diverse communities by hearing different languages at the park, on a bus or in the grocery store may make babies more open-minded in their social learning, a new study finds. While previous research has shown that direct interactions with parents and caregivers shape early cognitive development, the influence of the broader community beyond those direct experiences has not been as carefully examined.

Health practitioners will be better equipped to predict self-harm or suicide attempts in adolescents as a result of a University of Queensland study on psychosis in young people. The UQ Centre for Clinical Research's Associate Professor James Scott said the research showed that adolescents who had psychotic experiences were 13 times more likely to attempt suicide and 11 times more likely to self-harm in the following 12 months than those who had never had a psychotic episode.

Cardiff University researchers will discover public perceptions of the recent horse meat scandal for the first time by analysing social media data. The horse meat scandal last year revealed a major breakdown in the traceability of the food supply chain and the adulteration of meat. The extensive media coverage revealed not only widespread fraud but also the complexity of the UK meat supply chain and the extent of meat imports.

Informing the white public that the percentage of black Americans in prison is far greater than the percentage of white people behind bars may not spur support for reform. Instead, it might actually generate support for the policies – such as stop-and-frisk and three-strikes laws – that created the situation.

A new national survey finds that while young people express strong support for marriage equality, they also believe the push for same-sex marriage has diverted too much attention from other important issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals. The study shows that young people differ along racial and ethnic lines in setting priorities for advancing LGBT rights.