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New Study Shows Over 10% of Medicare Beneficiaries Have Diagnoses Indicating Dementia

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Dementia DataHub website fills a critical epidemiological data gap

CHICAGO, September 3, 2024 – In the first comprehensive count of all Medicare beneficiaries of all ages with documented diagnosis of some form of dementia, a new study published today in JAMA Network Open estimated that millions of Americans in Medicare had diagnostic evidence of dementia. The study, conducted by researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago and George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, estimated that in 2019, 5.4 million Medicare beneficiaries had diagnoses indicating likely or highly likely dementia, and an additional 2.6 million people had diagnoses indicating possible dementia. 

The study, “Case Definition for Diagnosed Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias in Medicare,” developed and applied a new case definition of claims-based dementia identification informed by a systematic review of previous definitions used across the research community. Dementia causes progressive deterioration in memory, language, and bodily function and ultimately results in death. The study used a new diagnostic and drug code case definition based on a systematic review of previous research. 

“This new case definition for identifying dementia is novel in that it was driven by researcher consensus and data analysis,” said Kan Gianattasio , the first author of the study and a research scientist in Health Care Evaluation at NORC at the University of Chicago. “It is an important first step toward our goal of developing a refined national surveillance system that can be used by public health researchers and practitioners, policymakers, and medical professionals for dementia monitoring and research purposes.”   

The project team used the case definition developed in the paper to create the Dementia DataHub , a public website that provides detailed geographic and demographic data on different types of diagnosed dementia in Medicare at the national, state, and county level. The Dementia DataHub currently includes estimates for beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare in 2020. 

According to the study:

• Approximately 9.1 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries, and 10.9 percent of beneficiaries ages 65 and older with Part A and B coverage, had diagnostic evidence of at least likely dementia.
• 4.3 percent of all beneficiaries and 4.8 percent of those ages 65 and older with Part A and B coverage had diagnostic evidence that could possibly indicate dementia. 
• Beneficiaries with diagnostic evidence of dementia were older, frailer, had greater proportions of dual Medicaid eligibility and long-term care utilization, were more likely to die in 2019, and incurred greater all-cause Medicare expenditures than those without diagnostic evidence of dementia. 

The authors caution that their research includes only people who received documentation for a diagnosis or prescription drug through Medicare; prior research has indicated that as many as up to 61 percent of dementia patients in the United States are undiagnosed.

According to the Dementia DataHub:

• Rates of diagnosed dementia varied by state and U.S. county. In 2020, Puerto Rico (10.6 percent), Florida (8.2 percent), Texas (8.1 percent), Connecticut (8.0 percent), and New York (7.9 percent) had the highest burden of “highly likely” dementia among their Medicare beneficiaries.
• Idaho (5.3 percent), Montana (5.1 percent), Vermont (5.0 percent), Wyoming (4.9 percent), and Alaska (4.9 percent) had the lowest burden (excluding territories other than Puerto Rico). 

Research regarding the reasons for differences in diagnosis rates by demographics and geography is ongoing. 

The Dementia DataHub draws data from Medicare, which provides nearly universal health coverage for people ages 65 and older, and coverage for selected groups younger than 65 such as those who qualify because of disability. NORC and its collaborating organizations analyzed Medicare fee-for-service claims and Medicare Advantage encounter data to measure the scope and outcomes of Alzheimer’s and related dementias (ADRD). Among Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in 2020, over 8.1 million were coded as having some form of diagnosed dementia.

“We developed the Dementia DataHub to provide the research community and the public with data visualizations and tools to explore the epidemiology of diagnosed dementia in the United States,” said David Rein , program area director in NORC’s Public Health Analytics Program Area and principal investigator of the grant that supports the project. “The DataHub provides the first counts and statistics on diagnosed dementia prevalence, incidence, all-cause Medicare payments, mortality, and COVID-19 infection, at the national, state, and county levels, and uses the internet to facilitate the use of these data. We hope our work can help others better understand regional and demographic variation in diagnosed dementia and use the information to reduce the impact of dementia on individuals and families nationwide.”

The Dementia DataHub is a joint effort led by NORC at the University of Chicago, with intellectual and technical support from George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health and KPMG LLP. The DataHub is funded by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, through Grant R01-AG-075730. The content of both the paper and the DataHub is solely the responsibility of the project team and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

“We needed a nationwide dementia surveillance system to really understand the scope of the dementia epidemic, direct critical support to those in need, address disparities, and create informed policy solutions,” said Dr. Melinda Power, the director of George Washington University’s Institute for Brain Health and Dementia, and co-investigator on the project. “The Dementia DataHub fills that need.” 

Multidisciplinary experts from across NORC contributed to building a website that presents our findings via visually appealing and easily accessible interactive maps and dashboards, allowing users to delve deep while safeguarding individual privacy. The DataHub also contains a summary of the website’s data that will eventually be updated to include the drivers and determinants of geographic variation in dementia outcomes. 

“The prevalence of Alzheimer’s and related dementias is rising fast, and the impact is not equitable. Policymakers and advocates need the best data possible to track and fight back against this disease. The Dementia Datahub provides all of us with actionable insights that can enable us to fight back against Alzheimer’s with greater efficiency, effectiveness, and precision. Together with our National Alzheimer’s Disease Index, this information enables us to better execute on our mission to end the disease—for everyone, everywhere,” said Russ Paulsen, chief operating officer of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, a leading Alzheimer’s not-for-profit working on prevention, early detection and diagnosis and equal access to treatments for ADRD. UsAgainstAlzheimer’s has been briefed about the Dementia DataHub but was not involved with project.  

Dementia DataHub Case Definitions

• Highly Likely Dementia:  A patient having a dementia-specific diagnosis code on at least two separate dates over a three-year period.
• Likely Dementia:  A patient having a dementia-specific diagnoses code indicating dementia on only one date over three-year period.
• Possible Dementia:  A person having diagnosis codes that may indicate dementia over a three-year period, or a prescription drug inidcated for dementia without a corresponding dementia diagnosis code.
• Any Dementia:  The sum of highly likely dementia, likely dementia, and possible dementia.

The portal’s public use files provide the granular data researchers and others need to better investigate and understand ADRD and its scope and to more effectively plan public health services as the nation prepares for a potential surge in cases. In the future, the Dementia DataHub will include additional indicators, data sources, and more.

Visit: Case Definition for Diagnosed Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias in Medicare

JAMA Article

Explore the Dementia DataHub website

Dementia DataHub

About NORC at the University of Chicago

NORC at the University of Chicago conducts research and analysis that decision-makers trust. As a nonpartisan research organization and a pioneer in measuring and understanding the world, we have studied almost every aspect of the human experience and every major news event for more than eight decades. Today, we partner with government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world to provide the objectivity and expertise necessary to inform the critical decisions facing society.

www.norc.org

Contact:  For more information, please contact Eric Young at NORC at  young-eric@norc.org  or (703) 217-6814 (cell).

About George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health is proud to be a global leader in public health education and research. As the only school of public health in Washington, DC, we work to spearhead initiatives and programs that tackle many of the world’s most pressing public health challenges, work to improve community health policy, and assess the quality of care provided nationally and around the world. GWSPH faculty, researchers and students maximize their long-standing relationships with the world’s most influential health organizations to advance learning and research for the benefit of all. Together, we have developed groundbreaking models for national and international health care reform.

About KPMG LLP. KPMG LLP. is one of the largest professional services firms in the US, with about 40,000 professionals providing audit, tax, and advisory services. With over 90 offices nationwide, we serve clients in all 50 states. The KPMG team on this work brings extensive experience in healthcare data analytics, modeling, and visualization.

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Unlocking the Secrets of Earth’s Most Resilient Creatures: New Fossils Reveal 500-Million-Year-Old History

Harvard scientists have discovered a new tardigrade species in amber, offering insights into their evolutionary history and survival strategies.

Tardigrades, also known as “water bears,” are eight-legged microscopic organisms known for their incredible resilience. These remarkable micro-animals can survive anything from deadly radiation to arctic temperatures to the vacuum of space. Although they can be found anywhere on Earth where there’s water, the evolutionary history of tardigrades remains relatively mysterious because of their sparse fossil record.

A new study by Associate Professor Javier Ortega-Hernández and PhD candidate Marc Mapalo (both in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard) has not only shed light on that history but also confirmed another entry in the fossil record, which now stands at a mere four specimens.

New Discoveries in Amber

In their study, recently published in the journal Communications Biology , the team took another look at a piece of amber found in Canada in the 1960s that contains the known fossil tardigrade Beorn leggi and another presumed tardigrade that couldn’t be substantively described at the time. Using confocal laser microscopy, a method usually employed for studying cell biology, the researchers were able to examine the tiny structures of the fossil tardigrades in stunning detail.

Ortega-Hernández and Mapalo’s study provides not only a definitive classification of B. leggi in the tardigrade family tree but also the identification of a new species of tardigrade.

“Both of them are found in the same piece of amber that dates to the Cretaceous Period, which means that these water bears lived alongside dinosaurs,” Ortega-Hernández said. “The images of B. leggi show seven well-preserved claws, with the claws that curve toward the body being smaller than those curving away from it, a pattern found in modern-day tardigrades.”

The second, previously unidentified specimen, had claws of similar length on each of its first three pairs of legs, but longer outer claws on its fourth set of legs. The team named it Aerobius dactylus , from “aero” meaning relating to air—because the fossil appears to be floating on air in the amber—and “dactylo”, or finger, after its one long claw.

Advances in Tardigrade Research

The impetus for applying this new technology to known fossils came when Mapalo, a self-described “paleo-tardigradologist,” came across the 2019 book, Water Bears: The Biology of Tardigrades .

“In one of the chapters, they had a photo of the oldest fossil tardigrade that was visualized using both normal microscopy and confocal laser microscopy,” Mapalo said. “And that gave me the idea to use that with the fossil that I’m working with right now.”

That fossil, encased in a piece of amber from the Dominican Republic, turned out to be a new species of tardigrade. Mapalo, along with Ortega-Hernández and researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology , published their findings in a 2021 paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B .

Insights into Tardigrade Evolution

Ortega-Hernández said that, in their latest study, both fossils serve as critical calibration points for what’s called molecular clock analysis, which helps scientists estimate the timing of key evolutionary events.

For example, the latest findings suggest that modern tardigrades likely diverged during the Cambrian Period over 500 million years ago. The research also sheds light on the origin of cryptobiosis, the technical name for the remarkable ability of tardigrades to survive extreme conditions by entering a state of stasis.

”The study estimates that this survival mechanism likely evolved during the mid to late Paleozoic, which may have played a crucial role in helping tardigrades endure the end-Permian mass extinction, one of the most severe extinction events in Earth’s history,” Ortega-Hernández said.

Impact on Paleontology

Ortega-Hernández and Mapalo’s research represents a significant advancement in the field of paleontology because it offers new avenues for exploring the evolutionary history of one of the most resilient life forms on the planet.

“Before I started my PhD, there were only three known fossil tardigrades, and now there’s four,” Mapalo said. “Most, if not all, of the fossil tardigrades were really discovered by chance. With the Dominican amber, researchers were looking for fossil ants, and they happened to see a fossil tardigrade there.

“That’s why, whenever I have a chance, I always tell researchers who are working with amber fossils to check if maybe there’s another tardigrade in there, waiting to be found.”

Reference: “Cretaceous amber inclusions illuminate the evolutionary origin of tardigrades” by Marc A. Mapalo, Joanna M. Wolfe and Javier Ortega-Hernández, 6 August 2024, Communications Biology . DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06643-2

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“the latest findings suggest that modern tardigrades likely diverged during the Cambrian Period over 500 million years ago.”

It’s one thing to suggest something is likely, but another to prove it. It’s a long time from the Cambrian to the Cretaceous with no fossil evidence in between to support that suggestion.

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10 recent scientific breakthroughs

From cell reparation to reef restoration

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1. Finding the root cause of lupus

2. restoring brain cells, 3. menstrual blood as a diagnostic tool, 4. cell therapy for melanoma, 5. rhino ivf, 6. pristine configuration, 7. restoring reefs, 8. ai to find aliens, 9. inverse vaccines, 10. sequencing the y-chromosome.

Scientists in many fields received little recognition for the last couple of years, as the world focused on the emergency push to develop vaccines and treatments for Covid-19. But that doesn't mean they weren't still busy researching a dizzying series of developments that are now being reported as major discoveries and achievements.

Scientists have discovered a cause of lupus and a possible way to reverse it. A study published in the journal Nature points to abnormalities in the immune system of  lupus patients that is caused by a molecular abnormality. "What we found was this fundamental imbalance in the types of T cells that patients with lupus make," Deepak Rao, one of the study authors, said to NBC News . Specifically, "people with lupus have too much of a particular T cell associated with damage in healthy cells and too little of another T cell associated with repair," NBC News said.

The good news is that this could be reversed. A protein called interferon is mainly to blame for the T-cell imbalance. Too much interferon blocks another protein called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, which helps regulate how the body responds to bacteria or environmental pollutants. In turn, too many T-cells are produced that attack the body itself. "The study found that giving people with lupus anifrolumab, a drug that blocks interferon, prevented the T-cell imbalance that likely leads to the disease," said NBC News.

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Scientists have found a way to repair brain cells impaired by a rare genetic disorder. A study published in the journal Nature found that a drug called antisense oligonucleotide allowed human neurons to develop normally despite carrying a mutation due to a genetic disorder called Timothy syndrome. "It's the beginning of a new era for many of these diseases that we first thought were untreatable," Dr. Huda Zoghbi, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, said to NPR . 

Timothy syndrome is caused by a mutation of a single gene in a person's DNA. The new drug develops an "antisense nucleotide, a small piece of synthetic genetic material that alters the proteins made by a cell," said NPR. The antisense nucleotide for Timothy syndrome was designed to replace a defective protein with a healthy version — "in effect counteracting the mutation responsible for the disorder." This same approach could potentially be used to treat other genetic disorders, "including some that cause schizophrenia, epilepsy, ADHD and autism spectrum disorder."

Menstrual blood can potentially be used to measure blood sugar. In early 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new diagnostic menstrual pad called the Q-Pad and A1C Test by the biotechnology research company Qvin. The Q-Pad is an organic cotton period pad that "collects the blood, which a laboratory then uses to analyze the individual's average blood sugar over three weeks through the A1C biomarker," said Forbes .

"There is a lot of clinically relevant information in this bodily fluid that comes every month," Sara Naseri, the CEO and co-founder of Qvin, said to Axios . "We've built a way for women to get insights about their health regularly. Non-invasively, using blood that comes every month, the menstrual blood." Diagnostic capabilities can potentially be extended to diagnose HPV or endometriosis. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first cellular therapy for aggressive forms of melanoma. The treatment, called Amtagvi, is "designed to fight off advanced forms of melanoma by extracting and replicating T cells derived from a patient's tumor," said NPR . These cells are also called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). T cells are integral in the immune system but can become "dysfunctional inside tumors." 

"The approval of Amtagvi represents the culmination of scientific and clinical research efforts leading to a novel T cell immunotherapy for patients with limited treatment options," Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement . The treatment won't work for everyone, but research by the National Institutes of Health showed a "56% response rate among patients with melanoma, and 24% of patients had a complete disappearance of their melanoma, regardless of where it was," Axios said. "This is the tip of the iceberg of what TIL can bring to the future of medicine," Patrick Hwu, CEO of Moffitt Cancer Center, said to Axios .

Scientists were able to impregnate a southern white rhino using in-vitro fertilization (IVF).  Researchers in Kenya implanted a southern white rhino embryo into another of the same species using the technique in September 2023, resulting in a successful pregnancy. The technique could be used to save the northern white rhino from total extinction. "We achieved together something which was not believed to be possible," Thomas Hildebrandt , head of the reproduction management department at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, said in a press conference. 

There are two species of white rhinos: northern and southern. The northern white rhino is on the verge of extinction due to poaching, with only two females remaining. Luckily, scientists have sperm preserved from the last male rhino, which could be combined with an egg from the female and implanted into a southern white rhino female to act as a surrogate. Using a white rhino embryo to test the procedure was a "proof of concept" which is a "milestone to allow us to produce northern white rhino calves in the next two, two and a half years," Hildebrandt said.

Scientists discovered six exoplanets that revolve around a star in a rare pattern called orbital resonance, said a study published in the journal Nature . This means that "for every six orbits completed by planet b, the closest planet to the star, the outermost planet g completes one," CNN said, adding that "as planet c makes three revolutions around the star, planet d does two, and when planet e completes four orbits, planet f does three."

The system was deemed a "rare fossil" by Rafael Luque, a postdoctoral scholar in the University of Chicago's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. "We think only about one percent of all systems stay in resonance," Luque said in a statement . "It shows us the pristine configuration of a planetary system that has survived untouched." The discovery could help further the study of sub-Neptunes, which are planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. They are not present in our solar system. "There is little agreement among astronomers about how these planets form and what they're made of — so an entire system consisting of sub-Neptunes could help scientists determine more about their origin," Luque said.

Coral bleaching has been a rapidly growing problem as climate change worsens. Without intervention, the reefs will continue to deteriorate. To counter this, scientists have explored the idea of a "coral gym," essentially a "laboratory to make corals stronger," NPR said. The goal is to "train" coral to survive more extreme conditions.

Warming oceans and rising temperatures are the largest contributors to coral degradation. "One of the things that we do in this lab is subject them to different environmental conditions and evaluate who's a little bit stronger," Ian Enochs, lead of the Coral Program at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said to NPR. Researchers created a "complex matrix of aquariums" where they can "subject different types of corals to different environments and not only understand how they might survive, but perhaps help them to do so."

Scientists have created an artificial intelligence model that can detect alien life , said a study published in the journal PNAS . The algorithm can "distinguish between samples of biological and nonbiological origin 90% of the time," after being "trained using living cells, fossils, meteorites and lab-made chemicals," Live Science said. "Put another way, the method should be able to detect alien biochemistries, as well as Earth life," Robert Hazen, co-author of the study, said in a statement .

The AI "does not involve a machine having to look for specific things," but rather "looks for differences between samples," BBC said. "These results mean that we may be able to find a lifeform from another planet, another biosphere, even if it is very different from the life we know on Earth," Hazen said. "And, if we do find signs of life elsewhere, we can tell if life on Earth and other planets derived from a common or different origin."

Scientists may have found a way to calm immune responses for those with autoimmune disorders using an " inverse vaccine ," said a study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering . The immune system responds to specific identifying markers on invaders like viruses and bacteria called antigens, "but some immune cells react to self-antigens," which are "molecules from our own cells," said Science . "In autoimmune diseases, these misguided immune cells turn against patients' own tissues."

The new research worked by "directing potential self-antigens to the liver," where "immune cells there pick up self-antigens and then stifle T cells that could target these molecules." The experiment was performed on mice. "The method they use is promising and potentially can induce better tolerance," neurologist and neuroimmunologist A.M. Rostami said to Science, adding that "we don't know" whether this approach is "applicable to human disease in which we don't know the antigen."

Scientists have finally sequenced the entire Y chromosome, one of the human sex chromosomes present in those assigned male at birth. The feat has been "notoriously difficult" because of the Y chromosome's "complex repeat structure," said a research paper published in the journal Nature .

"Just a few years ago, half of the human Y chromosome was missing" from knowledge of the human genome, Monika Cechova, co-lead author on the paper, said to CNN . "I would credit new sequencing technologies and computational methods for this," Arang Rhie, who also worked on the paper, said to Reuters . The X chromosome was fully sequenced back in 2020.

Understanding the Y chromosome can help with a number of health issues, including fertility. Genes have also "been shown to be required for the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular disease," Kenneth Walsh, a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, said to CNN.

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 Devika Rao has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022, covering science, the environment, climate and business. She previously worked as a policy associate for a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental action from a business perspective.  

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How A Good Night’s Rest Can Change Your Life: A Lot Of New Research Shows Just How Important Sleep Really Is

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New research shows quality of sleep may positively impact quality of life, and experts recommend getting enough rest in ample sleeping conditions for better life satisfaction.

Top View of a Young Woman Sleeping Cozily on a Bed.

A new study published Wednesday in Plos One reveals that quality of sleep is a better indicator of quality of life than sleep duration or “social jetlag,” when biological sleep rhythms and socially directed sleep rhythms don’t align.

The study looks at the effects of the three sleep variables on Czech study participants over time (between 2018 and 2020) and found quality of sleep was a bigger contributor to quality of life than the other variables.

A 2021 study published in Sleep Science reported poor sleep quality is associated with impaired quality of life, especially if the participant reported depression or anxiety.

According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the benefits of getting enough quality sleep include reduced stress and improved mood, thinking more clearly, maintaining a healthy weight, getting sick less often, a lowered risk of developing serious health problems and getting along better with people.

One third of American adults do not get enough sleep, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Adults between the ages of 18 and 64 need at least seven hours of sleep each night, while adults 65 and older need seven to eight hours of sleep.

Around 50 to 70 million U.S. citizens are affected by a sleep disorder, with 25 million adults in the U.S. struggling with obstructive apnea.

How To Improve Sleep Quality

The CDC recommends developing good sleeping habits (or sleep hygiene) to get into a routine of quality sleep.

• Going to sleep at the same time every day and waking up at the same time, even on the weekends. A study published in BMC Public Health found students with irregular sleep schedules experienced insufficient sleep compared to those with regular sleep schedules.
• A dark, quiet, relaxed room at a comfortable temperature is essential for quality sleep. However, if noise is needed to fall asleep, Ahmad Boota, a pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist with Bon Secours St. Francis, told Greenville News an “audio-only source” is recommended over turning on the TV, which frequently changes in volume and emits a light that can be disruptive.
• Exercise and being physically active during the day can help with falling asleep more easily at night. Working out helps decompress the mind and stabilize moods, which is an important process for “naturally transitioning to sleep,” Charlene Gamaldo, a medical director of Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep at Howard County General Hospital, told Johns Hopkins Medicine.
• Removing all electronics from the bedroom. A 2021 study examined the connection between electronic device use and sleep quality among college students and found those who used devices two hours before bed had poorer sleep quality than those who didn’t.
• Avoiding caffeine, large meals and alcohol before bed. Jade Wu, a board-certified sleep psychologist and a Mattress Firm sleep advisor, told Verywell that eating foods high in carbs, sugar and caffeine before bed means the “metabolism is still working hard,” keeping the body’s temperature higher than recommended for sleep and tricking the brain into “not feeling the sleepiness it has accumulated.”

Quality Of Life

The World Health Organization identifies quality of life as a person’s perception of their position in life within society and in relation to their goals, expectations, concerns and standards. There are five indicators used to determine quality of life:

• Life satisfaction: A Nursing and Health Science study discovered a positive correlation between not only life satisfaction and quality of life, but also between life satisfaction and the other four indicators of quality of life. When a person is content with their life, all other areas typically do well, too.
• Subjective health: Several different entities like WHO and Healthy People (the U.S. government’s database of health trends over each decade) track health-related quality of life. The CDC tracks it on an individual level (a person’s physical and mental health perceptions) and on the community level (access to community resources, policies and practices that affect a population’s health perceptions and functional status). Healthy People 2000, 2010 and 2020 identified quality of life improvement as important to advancing public health goals because when a society is in good health, its quality of life is high.
• Work stress: A 2017 study found that when people have high levels of work stress, their quality of life diminishes. This is mainly due to lack of recognition or reward related to stress. Stress doesn’t just affect the employee, but the business as well. It’s estimated work-related stress costs the U.S. economy $300 billion annually, and British employers $1,091.38 per employee.
• Well-being: The CDC defines well-being as a positive outcome that indicates people believe their lives are going well. Some well-being indicators include quality of relationships, living conditions, realization of potential, positive emotions and overall satisfaction with life.
• Happiness: According to a study published in Plos One, people with a higher quality of life tend to identify as happy. Happiness can be found in all aspects of life, like work, school or relationships. “How happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health,” Robert Waldinger, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School , told the Harvard Gazette.

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New Research Shows Learning Is More Effective When Active

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New Research Exposes the Narcissistic Traits and Fragile Egos of Online Trolls

In the digital age, few phenomena have proven as pervasive and toxic as “online trolling.” From social media platforms to comment sections on news websites, trolls are everywhere, stirring up conflict and spreading negativity. 

But who are these trolls, and what drives them to act this way? Recent research reveals surprising insights: many online trolls are narcissists with low self-esteem who do not like to be on the receiving end of their own behavior.

“This research also allowed for deeper insights into online trolls,” wrote authors of a recent study published in Behavioral Sciences .  “Interestingly, online trolls did not appear to enjoy being trolled, but they enjoy trolling, highlighting a disconnect between the two experiences.” 

Online trolling, broadly defined, involves the deliberate provocation, harassment, or upsetting of others online, often to elicit an emotional response. 

Trolls can use various tactics, from personal insults and offensive jokes to misinformation and outright abuse. While the intent of trolling may range from sheer amusement to malicious harm, its impact can be substantial, affecting mental health, online discourse, and community trust.

For some, online trolling has even become a niche market . These “professional trolls” often manage social media accounts or YouTube channels focused exclusively on criticizing specific individuals or topics. Unlike traditional media critics, professional trolls seldom offer positive or balanced perspectives. Instead, they primarily rely on personal attacks or exaggerated criticism to draw attention.

Inside the Mind of the online Troll: The Narcissist Connection

Two recent studies published in Telematics and Informatics and Behavioral Sciences sheds light on the psychology behind trolling. Both studies converge on a similar conclusion: a significant proportion of trolls exhibit narcissistic traits. They are often characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, a lack of empathy for others, and an insatiable need for attention and admiration.

The study in Telematics and Informatics , led by a team of German social psychologists, found that individuals with high levels of narcissism are more likely to engage in online trolling. 

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the American Psychological Association (APA) defines narcissistic personality disorder as having “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy, with interpersonal entitlement, exploitativeness, arrogance, and envy.” 

Narcissists thrive on validation and often seek to dominate online spaces where they can control the narrative and draw attention to themselves. However, their behavior is not just about asserting superiority but also a defense mechanism against their insecurities.

This finding was echoed in the research from Behavioral Sciences , which delved deeper into the connection between narcissism and online trolling. The study identified two types of narcissism prevalent among trolls: grandiose and vulnerable. Grandiose narcissists are overtly self-confident and seek admiration and recognition. 

In contrast, vulnerable narcissists have low self-esteem, oscillating between feelings of superiority and intense insecurity. Interestingly, both types were linked to increased trolling behavior for slightly different reasons.

While grandiose narcissists use trolling to assert dominance and control, vulnerable narcissists tend to lash out due to their sensitivity to perceived slights or criticism. 

They may troll others to elevate themselves by comparison, masking their insecurities behind a façade of bravado. Yet, these same individuals are highly sensitive to being trolled themselves, often reacting with anger or defensiveness when they are the target.

Low Self-Esteem of online trolls Drives Destructive Behavior

The studies further suggest that low self-esteem is a critical factor contributing to trolling behavior. Contrary to the popular stereotype of the confident provocateur, many trolls are, in fact, deeply insecure. The research by German psychologists points to a significant correlation between low self-esteem and a higher likelihood of engaging in online trolling.

According to the researchers, individuals with low self-esteem may turn to trolling as a way to compensate for their insecurities. By attacking others, they create a temporary sense of power and control. However, this behavior can also lead to a cycle of negativity: the more they troll, the worse they feel about themselves, prompting even more destructive actions.

“Note that this evidence is in line with the social compensation hypothesis, which proposes that social media elicit the ‘poor get richer’ effect, meaning that the use of social media is especially promising for people who are limited in their communication skills offline,” researchers wrote. 

The Behavioral Sciences study by researchers from the University of Plymouth highlights that many trolls experience feelings of inadequacy and social isolation, which they attempt to counteract by seeking attention and validation online. 

Unfortunately, this often backfires, as trolling rarely brings positive reinforcement. Instead, trolling isolates online trolls further, perpetuating their insecurities and driving them to continue the behavior in a misguided attempt to feel better.

online Trolls Don’t Like Being Trolled Back

Interestingly, while trolls are quick to dish out insults and provoke others, they are less adept at handling similar treatment directed at them. 

Social psychologists Sophie Voisey and Sonja Heintz found that many trolls have a low tolerance for criticism or negative feedback. When they become the target, they often react with heightened aggression or retreat, revealing a thin skin beneath their abrasive exterior.

“Interestingly, online trolls did not appear to enjoy being trolled, but they enjoy trolling, highlighting a disconnect between the two experiences,” Voisey and Heintz wrote. “This illustrates that online trolls can ‘give’  but not ‘take’ and further demonstrates that there is a disconnect between the two trolling experiences.” 

This paradoxical finding underscores the fragile self-image of many online trolls. They project strength and confidence but are easily hurt by negative interactions. 

These findings suggest that this vulnerability from being trolled may stem from their underlying insecurities. When confronted with trolling behavior directed at them, their self-esteem takes a hit, exposing the very fragility they seek to hide.

Implications for Online Communities and Social Media Platforms

The findings from these studies have important implications for understanding and managing trolling behavior in online communities. 

New Study Reveals Sharp Decline in American IQ Scores as the “Reverse Flynn Effect” Takes Center Stage

While many platforms have implemented measures to combat trolling—such as comment moderation, reporting tools, and user bans—these studies suggest that a more profound psychological approach may also be necessary.

One potential strategy is to develop interventions that address the underlying insecurities of trolls. For instance, online platforms could incorporate features that promote positive engagement and self-esteem building, such as recognizing constructive contributions and fostering a sense of community. Additionally, educating users about the psychology behind trolling could help reduce the emotional impact on its victims.

However, the research also highlights a more challenging reality: some trolls may be unlikely to change their behavior without targeted psychological support. For individuals whose trolling is driven by deeply ingrained narcissistic traits or low self-esteem, professional help is likely necessary to address these underlying issues.

The insights from these studies are not just about understanding trolls but also illuminating the broader impact of trolling on society. 

Online trolling can degrade the quality of online discourse, discourage constructive engagement, and foster a culture of hostility and distrust. This is particularly concerning in an era where many social, political, and cultural interactions occur online.

By understanding trolls’ traits and motivations, communities and platforms can better tailor their strategies to mitigate trolling behavior. Encouraging healthier online interactions and fostering a culture of empathy and respect may help reduce the prevalence of trolling and create a more positive digital environment.

The image of the online troll has long been clouded by confusion over why someone would repeatedly engage in negative behavior or deliberately try to hurt others emotionally.

However, these research studies offer a clearer picture: many trolls are narcissists with fragile egos and low self-esteem. They lash out online, seeking validation and attention, but are often ill-equipped to handle criticism. 

By revealing the psychological makeup of trolls, these studies provide a roadmap for addressing one of the internet’s most persistent problems—reminding us that, at their core, trolls are often more vulnerable than they appear.

Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter:   @LtTimMcMillan.   Tim can be reached by email:  [email protected]  or through encrypted email:   [email protected]  

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Marijuana | With marijuana at a new level of scrutiny, here’s what the research says

Sheila Hogan tends to her garden in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago on Aug. 24, 2024. Cannabis gummies have helped relieve Hogan’s debilitating pain from spinal stenosis, allowing her to resume activities such as gardening. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Sheila Hogan wipes sweat off her face while tending to her garden in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago on Aug. 24, 2024. Cannabis gummies have helped relieve Hogan’s debilitating pain from spinal stenosis, allowing her to resume activities such as gardening. (Tess Crowley/Chicago Tribune)

Chicagoan Sheila Hogan, one of 140,000 people registered in the state to use medical cannabis, believes in its powers. She uses mild gummies at bedtime to relieve debilitating pain from spinal stenosis, which has allowed her to get back to gardening and pickleball.

“I could not even believe it,” she said. “It was remarkable. I was able to get a lot more active.”

Despite support for legalization, and increasing use of marijuana nationwide, a recent Gallup poll showed slim majorities say it negatively affects both society and most people who use it — but is still less harmful than tobacco and alcohol.

The evolving perceptions of cannabis come as major changes are afoot in the regulation of the drug.

The Biden administration has proposed reclassifying pot as less-dangerous, making it legal with a prescription. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has called for decriminalization, while Republican candidate Donald Trump, who legalized hemp, has said he is open to decriminalization, and that legalization should be up to the states.

At the state level, more jurisdictions continue to legalize weed. Ohio became the most recent state to do so, effective this year. Residents of Florida and North and South Dakota will vote on the issue Nov. 5. So far, 24 states — with a majority of the nation’s population — have legalized marijuana for adults, and most states allow some level of medical use.

So with the nation at a potential tipping point in its treatment of cannabis, what have we learned from legalization, and what does the latest research show about its effects?

Public health effects

First, the sky has not fallen in those states that legalized. A report by the Cato Institute in 2021 concluded that the effects, both pro and con, were fairly limited.

Advocates have suggested that legalization reduces crime, improves public health and stimulates the economy. Critics argued that legalization spurs marijuana and other drug use, increases crime, harms public health and hurts kids in school.

But many of these claims, Cato reported, were overstated and sometimes baseless.

While adult use of marijuana is at record highs nationally, use among teens has not risen appreciably in states that have legalized it, surveys have found. In Illinois, the legal age to purchase marijuana is 21.

As far as crime goes, homicides and other violent crimes increased significantly in Illinois since recreational legalization in 2020, before decreasing substantially recently. That was part of a nationwide trend that criminologists say was influenced by many factors, including civil unrest and the COVID pandemic. In a prior study, the Cato report found no substantial increase or decrease in violent crime through 2018 in states that legalized.

Traffic fatality rates also surged in Illinois in 2020 and 2021, before falling in 2022, again part of a nationwide trend fueled by the pandemic. A 2022 study found a 6% increase in injury crashes and a 4% increase in fatal crash rates in states after legalization.

Ingestion of edibles by toddlers and overdoses by adults also have increased in Illinois since legalization, but remain far fewer and less harmful than overdoses of other substances.

One significant economic effect has been that legal weed has generated substantial tax revenues — about $1 billion since 2020 for Illinois.

After administrative expenses, 25% of that money goes to community reinvestment; 20% for substance abuse prevention and mental health treatment; 8% to local governments for law enforcement; and 45% to the state budget. Illinois has awarded $244 million for community programs from weed tax revenue.

Effects on individuals

Despite widespread claims about the effectiveness of using pot to treat a host of medical conditions, the evidence is limited.

After a comprehensive review of medical uses last year, Health and Human Services found support for the use of marijuana for three conditions: anorexia related to a medical condition; nausea and vomiting; and pain, especially nerve pain.

Those findings match with prior Food and Drug Administration approval of synthetically derived THC, known as dronabinol, for the treatment of nausea, vomiting and anorexia. The agency also has approved pure CBD, under the brand name Epidiolex, to treat a rare form of severe epilepsy.

But marijuana showed mixed or inconclusive effectiveness for anxiety, inflammatory bowel disease, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Anxiety disorder is a good example of divided views of cannabis. Though it’s one of the most common reasons people use the drug, the Illinois Medical Cannabis Advisory Board recently failed to recommend it as a qualifying condition on a tie vote.

Board member and family nurse practitioner Katie Sullivan said that with guidance, high doses of CBD, a nonpsychoactive component of pot, with low amounts of THC — the part of pot that gets users high — can help some people with anxiety.

But a study of 12,000 patients showed it’s not very helpful for many and can cause shrinkage in parts of the brain, neurologist Amarish Dave cautioned.

“There’s real risk,” he said. “There are studies to suggest it can make it worse for a significant portion of people.”

With people in Illinois able to buy cannabis for any reason, they may be using it for anxiety without any medical guidance. Board members agreed that Illinois needs better education of doctors and the public on the medical use of cannabis.

One of the advantages of marijuana is that it doesn’t have some of the side effects of opioids, such as constipation, or of causing fatal overdose. Many people use low doses occasionally without incident.

But modern commercial marijuana is much more potent than street weed of the past. It can have mild to moderate adverse effects, such as causing anxiety or, in rare cases, psychotic episodes.

More alarming, a National Institute on Drug Abuse study found that young men with cannabis dependence were at a significantly increased risk of developing schizophrenia .

And smoking or vaping can damage the lungs. One study showed that cannabis use was tied to increased risk of severe COVID-19.

The most popular nonpsychoactive component of cannabis, CBD , is generally well-tolerated by users, without the anxiety or other side effects of THC. It has been shown to help people with certain severe forms of epilepsy, though in high doses it could cause anemia, flatulence and sleepiness.

One small study at the University of Colorado suggested CBD was associated improvements in cognition and emotional issues associated with Parkinson’s disease. Other studies have suggested potential benefits for ulcerative colitis, opioid withdrawal and sleep, but doctors say much more research is needed to prove widespread health claims.

Rescheduling

Last year, at the request of President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and National Institute on Drug Abuse recommended rescheduling marijuana from Schedule 1 (the highest) to Schedule 3 on a scale of 5 that rates controlled substances by their dangers and medical effectiveness.

Currently, at the federal level, marijuana is classified as having no medical use and high risk for abuse and addiction — somehow more so than even fentanyl or methamphetamine, which, unlike marijuana, kill thousands of people every year.

Instead, pot would be categorized as having a moderate to low likelihood of dependence and would be legal for medical use with a prescription. It would allow increased research and would let marijuana businesses take federal business tax deductions, making it easier to make money. Consumers would likely see little direct effect, since state law would still control where and how pot is legal.

At the local level, one aspect of the Illinois medical program upsets both patients and doctors.

Cannabis patients in the state still are restricted to getting their medical products without tax at the 55 original designated medical dispensaries. Some of those companies, which have a captive market, have lobbied to keep it that way.

Dr. Leslie Mendoza Temple, a member of the state cannabis advisory board, said the state should allow patients to get their medicine at any recreational dispensary.

“The consistency of supply for our medical patients has always been an issue,” she said. “It reduces compliance and confidence in the program. Our medical patients who built this program are being edged out by market forces.”

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Harnessing the power of habits

The Habit Lab at the University of Southern California explores how we form habits and how we can change unwanted ones

Vol. 51, No. 8 Print version: page 78

• Personality

Would you eat a bucket of popcorn without salt and butter? What if it were stale? Sounds unappetizing, but you’re much more likely to chow down without thinking about the taste if the environmental context is just right for popcorn munching, say in a darkened movie theater ( Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , Vol. 37, No. 11, 2011). The critical role of context is just one of the many facets of habitual behavior that Wendy Wood, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Southern California (USC), has illuminated throughout her decades-long career exploring how and why people fall back into old habits, how good patterns help people meet goals and how to change unwanted habits.

Many of the actions people engage in daily—such as shopping, exercising (or not) and communicating with others—are habitual, and thus can be difficult to change. Among Wood’s findings is that a stunning 43% of everyday actions are enacted habitually while people are thinking about something else ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , Vol. 83, No. 6, 2002).

“We think we do most things because we make decisions or we’re asserting willpower, but instead our research shows that a lot of human behavior is repeated often enough in the same context to form habits,” Wood says.

In addition to investigating the foundations of habit formation in the lab and in real-life situations, Wood and the members of the Wood Habit Lab at USC have advised the National Academy of Sciences on how to encourage health-protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic, worked with the World Bank on a project to change centuries-old bathroom habits to improve public health and counseled Fortune 500 companies on the best practices for changing consumers’ purchasing habits.

“The work in Wendy’s lab sits in a sweet spot between rigorous experimental lab work and more applied field studies that allow you to see how people’s unconscious processes actually play out in the real world in very concrete ways,” says David Neal, PhD, a former postdoctoral researcher in Wood’s lab and one of several Habit Lab members who have gone on to work in the private sector.

Ultimately, the goal of the lab is understanding how to harness the power of repeated actions.

“The cognitive revolution led people to focus on motivation, goals, cognitive practices, how people think,” Wood says. “But we’re finally seeing the limits of thoughts and feelings, and we’re starting, as a discipline, to realize that how people actually act day in, day out is also quite important.”

The role of context

Wood got her start studying habits in an indirect way—she was initially studying attitude change and how to influence people to adopt new views of the world under the supervision of psychologist Alice Eagly, PhD, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Wood’s early work with Eagly on attitude change would give rise to her interest in why people’s behavior seems to have a different logic than what people say, believe and feel. “I became fascinated by why changing attitudes doesn’t always lead to a change in behavior,” Wood says. “One answer is habits—how they keep us persisting in old actions—and how people underestimate the role of habits in their daily lives.”

During her time as a faculty member at Texas A&M University, Wood and her former graduate student Judith Ouellette conducted a meta-analysis of research on habits and intentions that was both formative for Wood’s later research and easily her most highly cited article to date. They demonstrated that when a person repeats a behavior often enough, the behavior becomes habitual and their intentions really don’t matter all that much ( Psychological Bulletin , Vol. 124, No. 1, 1998). People can intend to do all kinds of things—exercise and eat lots of fruits and vegetables—but in the end, their behavior primarily is cued by performance contexts and therefore has a different causal source than their thoughts, intentions and beliefs. “That study suggested a split between the processes that guide our attitudes and the ones that guide our behaviors,” Wood says.

At Duke University, Wood and her students observed that habits are learned associations between responses and aspects of the context under which the responses are performed, such as the physical location and preceding actions ( Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , Vol 48. No. 2, 2012 ). Wood and her team have also noticed that habits are not readily changed by changing minds, as evidenced by failures of information campaigns such as the food pyramid and daily ozone warnings to change people’s habits around eating or spending time outdoors, respectively ( Journal of Public Policy & Marketing , Vol. 25, No. 1, 2006). Instead, habits can be broken by controlling the cues that trigger behavior. For example, changes to one’s circumstances (e.g., taking a different route to work) can change context cues and lead to disruption of habits (e.g., stopping for a daily iced coffee fix on the way to the office) ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , Vol. 88, No. 6, 2005).

Wood and her team have also found that familiar cues in performance contexts direct behavior when people are too distracted or too tired to think of an appropriate response ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , Vol. 104, No. 6, 2013). “When people are maxed out, they don’t have a lot of willpower left over to make effortful decisions and they resort to acting out of habit, often in response to context cues,” Neal says. This isn’t always a bad thing, Neal points out, because during times of low resources, people turn to both bad (e.g., stress eating) and good (e.g., daily exercise routines) habits.

A critical context cue is location, and the more often a behavior occurs within a certain location, the stronger a habit can become. In one Habit Lab study, led by graduate student Asaf Mazar, Wood and her students interviewed diners at the USC dining commons, and in some conditions the interviewer drank a lot of water, and in other conditions they drank very little. They found that diners who reported regularly drinking water in the commons did so regardless of what the interviewer did. But people who didn’t have a strong habit to drink water in the dining commons were very influenced by how much the interviewer drank. “This observation shows that habits can persist regardless of social influences when you’re in the context that you’ve performed the habit before,” Wood says of the soon-to-be-published study.

Mazar is also exploring ways to disrupt social media use habits by creating friction on the automatic behavior of flipping through a smartphone by moving around the icons to launch certain apps or requiring passwords to use those apps.

Putting research into action

Wood has been working with government agencies, nonprofits and industry to apply her knowledge of habits to help shape people’s behavior, whether it’s to benefit public health or to help companies improve their marketing strategies.

Wood has worked with Procter & Gamble to leverage insight about consumers’ habits to encourage them to use a new product. “One of the challenges in introducing new products is not that people don’t like them,” Wood says. “It’s just that they already have habits for using competing products.”

Wood, Neal and their colleagues found that old habits could be overcome if the new products were designed to be integrated into those old habits ( Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science , Vol. 45, 2017). One example from their study involved getting participants to incorporate a “fabric refresher” into their laundry routines by using a sniff test to determine if their clothes were smelly, but instead of just re-wearing or washing as was their usual habit, they followed a plan to use the refresher.

“Working on this project was my first exposure to the idea that you could run rigorous academic studies published in collaboration with a company funding the research,” says Neal, who cites the experience as the stepping-stone for launching a psychological science consulting business.

Other members of the Habit Lab have also gone on to work in industry, including at an environmental science firm, a hand sanitizer manufacturer and a digital media player manufacturer. “A number of my students take jobs in industry simply because there’s a great deal of interest in habit; for example, how to get consumers to form habits and what kinds of products are habit-forming,” Wood says.

As another example of applied research, the World Bank asked Wood and Neal to help encourage home toilet and community latrine usage in India, where open defecation is still a major health concern. “The World Bank engineers built the toilets and latrines, but when they left, no one wanted to use them,” Wood says. “They just didn’t have a bathroom habit and they continued to defecate in their fields.”

Wood, Neal and others delivered a white paper (“Nudging and Habit Change for Open Defecation: New Tactics From Behavioral Science,” World Bank, 2016) consisting of a framework of eight principles to support the use of toilets or latrines. The principles highlighted the value of nudges and other tactics that bypass rational thinking, such as the “No Toilet, No Bride” media campaign. “The idea was that having a toilet is almost part of the dowry,” Neal says.

Researchers in the Habit Lab are also working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to increase people’s participation in pre-diabetes control programs. Wood also recently wrote a brief and appeared in a webinar for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, advising communities on how to encourage COVID-19-prevention behaviors such as wearing a mask and practicing social distancing.

Research for the public

After years of being asked for advice—from friends, family, colleagues and strangers—about how to break bad habits or maintain new ones, Wood recently began looking for ways to more widely communicate her decades of research on how habits shape our lives to help people help themselves. The early results were op-eds in The New York Times about keeping New Year’s resolutions and in The Washington Post about the top habit myths, and near-daily tweets that describe recent habit research in terms laypeople can understand and act on.

In addition, Wood has been making the rounds on a variety of behavioral science podcasts— including The Happiness Lab, The Hidden Brain, and Choiceology—to pull back the curtain on habitual behaviors and encourage more researchers to pursue this topic.

She also wrote a popular press book, “Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick,” to give readers evidence-based guidance on how to form good habits.

“Everyone is interested in habits in their own lives, but I hadn’t seen habit research getting out there into the public realm,” Wood says. “The science of habit is finally beginning to reveal why we have been unable to change our own behavior and, even better, the discoveries we are making are helping people craft plans that bring lasting change to their lives.”

Further reading

The Pull of the Past: When Do Habits Persist Despite Conflict With Motives? Neal, D., et al. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 2011

How Do People Adhere to Goals When Willpower is Low? The Profits (and Pitfalls) of Strong Habits Neal, D., et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 2013

Habit Slips: When Consumers Unintentionally Resist New Products Labrecque, J., et al. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science , 2017

“Lab Work” illuminates the work of psychologists in research labs. To read previous installments, go to the  Monitor and search for “Lab Work .”

Recommended Reading

Research foci.

The Habit Lab at the University of Southern California is exploring:

• How people form habits and change unwanted ones
• The role context plays in shaping and maintaining habits
• How adding “friction” to a behavior will make it less likely to occur

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Nevada Today

Aspartame: is it safe for kids, this additive is used to make food and drinks taste sweet without adding a lot of extra calories. as you decide what’s best for you and your family, consider these points.

The American Academy of Pediatrics points out that nonnutritive sweeteners such as aspartame may cause children to prefer foods that are sweeter. This could, in turn, affect appetite, weight gain and health throughout life.

Find more answers here!

Aspartame and its potential link to cancer has been in the news. This additive is used to make food and drinks taste sweet without adding a lot of extra calories. As you decide what’s best for you and your family, consider these points.

• Aspartame has been used as a food additive since the 1980s. It is one of the most studied food additives.
• The recent classification of aspartame as a “possible carcinogen” doesn’t mean that it causes cancer in humans. Much more research is needed in order to make that determination.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) disagrees with this recent classification and maintains that there are no safety concerns when aspartame is used correctly . The FDA sets acceptable daily limits for aspartame based on body weight. For example, a 40-pound child would need to drink four, 12-ounce cans of diet soda every day to reach this limit.

Some consumers buy products sweetened with aspartame and other nonnutritive sweeteners because they enjoy the flavor but don’t want the extra calories. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics points out that nonnutritive sweeteners such as aspartame may cause children to prefer foods that are sweeter. This could, in turn, affect appetite, weight gain and health throughout life. According to another expert panel, beverages with these types of sweeteners should be avoided among children ages 5 and younger . If you have concerns about the safety of aspartame, it’s easy to avoid . When it’s added to food and drinks, it must be included on the product’s ingredients list. Fruit is a great alternative to sweetened foods and drinks . Fruit is generally less costly and better quality when it’s purchased in season. During the summer months, think about adding fresh melons, berries and stone fruit to your shopping list. Frozen, dried and canned fruit are also healthy choices and can be enjoyed year-round.

This article was written and reviewed by Rethink Your Drink Nevada’s team of dietetic professionals. To learn more about making healthier drink choices, subscribe to the program's newsletter , the Insider . To suggest a newsletter topic, write to [email protected] , and receive a free, healthy drink recipe book.

Chenin Treftz Nickel, Ph.D., R.D., is a nutrition research scientist with Rethink Your Drink, a program offered by the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources '  Department of Nutrition   in collaboration with Extension .

The program is funded by USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — SNAP. SNAP provides nutrition assistance to people with low income. It can help you buy nutritious foods for a better diet. To find out more, contact 800-992-0900.

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October 28, 2021

New research shows most people are honest—except for a few

by Shannon Thomason, University of Alabama at Birmingham

People are more honest in day-to-day life than previously thought—except for "a few prolific liars," according to the results of a new study.

There has been an assumption for a long time that people lie a lot, and that lying is ubiquitous and really common, says the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Timothy Levine, Ph.D., who studies deception. Past research has found that people lie, on average, about once or twice per day.

However, researchers have learned that the average number of lies per day reported in the literature does not reflect the behavior of most people. The distribution of lying is highly skewed: Most people report telling few or no lies on a given day; and most lies are told by only "a few prolific liars," the study's authors determined.

Levine, along with co-authors Kim B. Serota of Rochester University in Michigan and Tony Docan-Morgan of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, are authors of the study "Unpacking variation in lie prevalence: Prolific liars, bad lie days, or both?" It was published in Communication Monographs, the flagship journal of the National Communication Association.

Levine, who is Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Communication Studies in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, says the message in this paper is that everyday communication is probably safer than you think it is.

"That said, there are these few prolific liars out there," Levine said. "And I think this study showed that they are a real thing. There is that kind of top 1 percent who are telling more than 15 lies per day, day in day out."

Over the past decade, the skewed distribution of lie prevalence has emerged as an "exceptionally robust phenomenon," Levine said. "People are mostly honest, except for a few pathological liars."

Most previous research on lying looked at snapshots of deception at one point in time. This new groundbreaking research study involved so much work it may be one-of-a-kind, Levine says.

The study tracked people's lying every day over three months. More than 630 participants were asked to keep a daily deception journal, yielding 116,336 lies.

The results showed about three-quarters of the study participants were consistently honest, telling between zero and two lies per day. By contrast, a small subset of people—about 6 percent—averaged more than six lies per day and accounted for a sizable proportion of the lies.

"It was a really hard study to pull off, where you get people to answer the survey every day for three months in a row," Levine said. "And we find, yes, there are people who lie way more than the rest of us. Seventy-five percent of us are, really, pretty honest. There are a few people who are super-honest."

People also have good and bad lie days, when they tell more or fewer lies than is typical for them, Levine says. People do not lie for the most part, he says, a few pathological liars aside. Also, for the most part, people do not lie unless they have a reason to. Our daily communication demands "are a big driver for most of us on how honest or dishonest we are," Levine said.

This is more evidence that people are probably more honest than a lot of people might think, he says, even in the era of fake news and misinformation.

"People are mostly honest, and people mostly believe other people—and deception is more of a kind of exceptional thing rather than a chronic worry," Levine said.

Provided by University of Alabama at Birmingham

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Brain scans may reveal a lot about mental illness, but not until studies get bigger.

Jon Hamilton

New research finds that previous studies of mental illness using brain scans may be too small for the results to be reliable. Andrew Brookes/Getty Images/Image Source hide caption

New research finds that previous studies of mental illness using brain scans may be too small for the results to be reliable.

MRI scans have allowed researchers to peer inside the human brain. And the technology is great at revealing damage from a stroke, or areas that light up when we see a face.

But brain scan studies have yet to offer much insight into the underpinnings of traits like intelligence, or mental health conditions like anxiety and depression.

A key reason is that these studies need to include scans of thousands of brains, instead of the dozens typically used, a team reported in the March 16 issue of the journal Nature .

"You need a very large sample, and bigger samples are better," says Dr. Nico Dosenbach , an author of the study and an associate professor of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis.

That's a lesson the field of genetics has already learned, says Paul Thompson , a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California who was not involved in the research.

"Twenty years ago you'd hear someone had discovered a gene for criminality or for psychosis or a gene for autism," Thompson says, "and then another group wouldn't find the same thing, or they'd find another gene, and they'd be scratching their head."

Geneticists eventually fixed the problem by expanding their studies from dozens or hundreds of people to millions, Thompson says. Now, neuroscientists appear to be in a similar position, one that will require them to reconsider the results of many small studies.

An illuminating search for intelligence

The new paper on brain scan studies has its roots in a 2018 effort to understand how children develop cognitive abilities, also known as intelligence.

A team including Scott Marek, a researcher in Dosenbach's lab at Washington University, planned to use data from a federal study that was scanning the brains of thousands of adolescents.

"What we wanted to do is just ask the question with this huge sample: How is cognitive ability represented in the brain?"

Previous research had found that intelligence is strongly linked to the thickness of the brain's outermost layer and to the strength of connections between certain brain regions.

So Marek's team analyzed nearly 1,000 brain scans from the federal study. Then they checked their work, using 1,000 different scans.

"What we noticed was that we couldn't replicate everything," Marek says. "It didn't look great."

An area or connection that seemed important in one set of scans might appear insignificant in the other. It was only when they increased the sample size to thousands of brains that the results became more reliable.

The team wondered whether this was also the case with other studies that searched the entire brain for differences associated with complex problems like anxiety, depression and ADHD.

So they got brain scan data from about 50,000 people, then used a computer to conduct lots of simulated studies, both small and large. Once again, the team found that it took thousands of scans to get reliable results.

That was troubling because for years, much smaller samples have been used to produce a stream of scientific papers on mental illness and behavioral disorders.

So far, that research "hasn't really translated to tangibles for patients," Dosenbach says, "and I think these results give us a clue as to why."

Art and music therapy seem to help with brain disorders. Scientists want to know why

The perils of small samples.

One problem with small studies is they can only find brain features that produce relatively large effects on mood, behavior, or mental abilities. In Alzheimer's disease, for example, it's easy to show that atrophy of the hippocampus is accompanied by a dramatic loss of memory.

Differences in the brain that are associated with mental illness tend to be far less obvious, and far more controversial. For example, some studies have found that people with major depressive disorder have less activity in the brain's frontal lobe. But the strength of that correlation varies widely from study to study. And there's no way to look at the activity in any one person's frontal lobe and know how that person is feeling.

Another problem with small studies is something called publication bias.

"If multiple groups are doing similar research using small samples, just by chance one of the groups, or several, will have a significant result," Dosenbach says. "And that's what's going to get reported."

When enough of these studies get published, a misleading finding can become the conventional wisdom. But this doesn't mean small studies are necessarily wrong.

"Even a tiny study could hold true." he says. "It's just the chances of that happening are much, much, much, much smaller than for an extremely large study."

So the public should be wary of headlines that extrapolate the findings from a small MRI study to the general population.

Scans reveal the brain's early growth, late decline and surprising variability

A study with "aftershocks".

Many brain scientists are still trying to digest the news that human behavior studies may require thousands of scans.

"It's a little like an earthquake in Los Angeles," UCLA's Thompson says. "It sent a few aftershocks through the neuroscience community."

But Thompson says the solution is obvious, and achievable: Combine the scans from many small studies into one or more large databases — then check the results.

The ENIGMA Consortium , which Thompson helped create, is one effort to make this easy. The group maintains a database with more than 50,000 MRI scans. And scientists have already used that to identify brain differences associated with schizophrenia .

"There's huge differences all over the brain in schizophrenia," Thompson says. "The auditory centers that are involved in hallucinations are abnormal. There's alterations in memory systems, in vision systems."

But it may take even larger studies to find the brain areas and connections associated with mental illnesses like depression and bipolar disorder because the differences are far more subtle.

Some of those studies are already underway.

The National Institutes of Health study on adolescent brain development, for example, has enrolled more than 11,000 young people, and it is scanning their brains periodically to track changes.

The study's large size is, in part, an effort to address the problems found in smaller studies, says Terry Jernigan , a brain scientist at the University of California, San Diego and one of the study's principal investigators.

But it's not enough for brain scan studies to include thousands of people — the studies must also be more diverse than they typically have been, Jernigan says.

"You want to know to what extent your observations are generalizable to all the groups in our society," she says.

Brain Scans May Help Predict Future Problems, And Solutions

• schizophrenia
• brain scans
• mental illness

JD Vance got ‘single cat women’ all wrong. Our research shows they wouldn’t vote for him anyway

Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of The Future of Work Lab, Podcast at MissPerceived, The University of Melbourne

Associate Professor of Political Science, Oregon State University

Associate Professor of Sociology, Oregon State University

Disclosure statement

Leah Ruppanner receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is also the host of MissPerceived podcast, where she discusses gender research.

Christopher Stout and Kelsy Kretschmer do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Melbourne provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

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The Trump/Vance ticket seems to have a problem attracting the support of women voters . In fact, recent polling shows women in the battleground states report 17 points less support for the Trump/Vance ticket than men .

When the data are split generationally, this gender divide becomes even more stark. Among those aged 18–29, there is a 51-point gender gap . Women in this age bracket support Trump at just 13 points, while women support Harris by 38 points.

There are likely numerous reasons for this growing gender gap, including the historic nature of Harris’ campaign and Trump’s numerous well-documented conflicts with women . However, one source of these polling deficits may be tied to Trump’s vice presidential nominee’s attack on single women and women without children.

As JD Vance emerged as the vice presidential pick for the Trump ticket, a 2021 Fox News Interview resurfaced in which he said the country was being run by a

bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.

In another interview around the same time, he questioned whether the president of the American Federation of Teachers should be working on school policy , because she did not have children.

The challenge for the Trump/Vance ticket is that, as our research shows , single women are much more likely to see their futures as connected to other women. As a result, they are more likely to support the Democrats. Shaming them for their single status only reinforces their connection to other women, and a vote for Harris.

We are connected: the role of gender linked fate

Our research team has been investigating the concept of “gender-linked fate”, or agreement with the idea that what happens to women in general will affect women’s own lives. This work follows previous research in the US that found Black voters tend to report higher levels of racial-linked fate , or seeing their futures and fates as intrinsically tied to those of other Black people. This link helps explain why Black voters in the US consistently vote Democratic, despite coming from diverse educational and income backgrounds.

We used the 2012 American Election Survey to see if women’s levels of gender-linked fate predicted their political affiliation. And, we found that one group was a standout in their exceptionally high rates of gender-linked fate: single White and Latina women. More than three-quarters of White and Latina single women reported that their futures were tied to what happened to women in general. One in three reported that influence was significant.

So, single women felt particularly connected to other women. Black women’s universally higher levels of gender-linked fate meant that their marital status had little impact on their levels of connection to other women.

We then looked to see if levels of gender linked fate helped explain political ideologies, or levels of conservatism and progressivism, and political party support. We found single women’s higher levels of gender linked fate helped explain why they held more progressive attitudes and were less likely to identify as Republicans than their married counterparts.

Women see the hardships other women ensure

So, JD Vance is right – single women are less likely to be conservative and vote for his ticket. But, it has nothing to do with them being miserable. Rather, they have a unique view of the experiences of woman in a society they feel is stacked against them. We aren’t the only ones to show this. Previous research shows single women are more likely to experience poverty and, despite being more likely to work than married women, earn less .

As a result, single women are more likely to support policies that advance opportunities for all women, especially as they have to rely more heavily on their own incomes. They are also more likely to see gender discrimination at work and gender pay gaps that aren’t tied to individual successes or failures.

They are more likely to be pro-choice , in part because they see their futures and fates as more connected to other women. And women who see themselves as connected to other women are more likely to vote for women .

Group-based attacks are not a winning strategy

Attacking women for their life choices is likely to increase levels of group consciousness among women. When women feel marginalised, they tend to display higher levels of gender-linked fate . Vance trivialising the value of the work of women without children is likely to highlight the marginalisation they feel in society. This greater recognition of the shared bonds that are forged from shaming likely heightens their sense of connection to others who share their gender and circumstance.

This sense of gender-linked fate, which is likely furthered by these comments, will amplify support for the Democratic ticket. Not only should higher levels of gender link fate lead women to feel a greater disconnect between their preferences and the Republican Party’s positions around reproductive rights and gender equity, but it may also increase support for the Harris campaign’s attempt to break the glass the ceiling.

To learn more about research on women in politics, tune into this week’s episode of MissPerceived podcast .

• 2024 US election

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Telegram’s financials: It’s a loss-making company (that holds a lot of crypto)

Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s arrest in France late last month put a crimp in  his plans to stage an IPO for the messaging platform within the next two years. Durov had previously claimed that he had received offers for the company valuing it at $30 billion .

But a set of financial statements, filed in the British Virgin Islands, the site of Telegram’s legal HQ, show the company had revenue of only $342 million and saw a net loss of $259 million in 2023.

That would make Telegram unlikely to be worth anywhere near $30 billion. Fortune contacted the company for comment but did not hear back by press time.

Highlights from Telegram’s financials, obtained by the Financial Times , include:

• Revenue: $342,481,000, up from $228,122,000.
• A net loss on the bottom line of $259,275,000 after development and operating expenses.
• Of the company’s revenues, sales from Telegram’s “integrated wallet” for crypto were $130,000,000.
• Premium subscriptions delivered $94,093,000.
• Advertising was $70,572,000.
• “Premium access” to Telegram’s ad platform was $30,000,000.

Notably, Telegram’s crypto business is bigger than any of its other lines of revenue. Telegram sells crypto wallets and “collectibles,” like fancy usernames and custom phone numbers, in exchange for Toncoin, the cryptocurrency developed by Telegram.

Here’s what the income statement looks like:

On Telegram’s balance sheet, the company lists as assets:

• Digital assets $399,196,000
• Cash: $170,850,000

Again, the notable fact is that Telegram’s crypto assets are larger than its cash holdings.

The company’s income statement was also unusual because it contained a line item titled “revaluation of digital assets” that added $502,000 in income. Usually, changes in the value of assets get written up onto the balance sheet.

The company also recorded a further gain on its digital assets of $85,996,000 as an item “that will not be reclassified to profit or loss.”

Durov is currently on bail in France after being charged with allowing “illicit transactions” on Telegram as well as allowing “dissemination in an organized group of images of minors in child pornography,” drug trafficking, fraud, and money laundering.

He potentially faces 10 years in prison , according to the AFP.

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Staying fit as you age isn’t just about exercise. Experts say to prioritize these 4 habits

January 24, 2012

The Power of Introverts: A Manifesto for Quiet Brilliance

Author Susan Cain explains the fallacy of "groupwork," and points to research showing that it can reduce creativity and productivity

By Gareth Cook

Do you enjoy having time to yourself, but always feel a little guilty about it? Then Susan Cain’s “ Quiet : The Power of Introverts ” is for you. It’s part book, part manifesto. We live in a nation that values its extroverts – the outgoing, the lovers of crowds – but not the quiet types who change the world. She recently answered questions from Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook .

Cook: This may be a stupid question, but how do you define an introvert? How can somebody tell whether they are truly introverted or extroverted? 

Cain: Not a stupid question at all! Introverts prefer quiet, minimally stimulating environments, while extroverts need higher levels of stimulation to feel their best. Stimulation comes in all forms – social stimulation, but also lights, noise, and so on. Introverts even salivate more than extroverts do if you place a drop of lemon juice on their tongues! So an introvert is more likely to enjoy a quiet glass of wine with a close friend than a loud, raucous party full of strangers.

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It’s also important to understand that introversion is different from shyness. Shyness is the fear of negative judgment, while introversion is simply the preference for less stimulation. Shyness is inherently uncomfortable; introversion is not. The traits do overlap, though psychologists debate to what degree.

Cook: You argue that our culture has an extroversion bias. Can you explain what you mean?

Cain: In our society, the ideal self is bold, gregarious, and comfortable in the spotlight. We like to think that we value individuality, but mostly we admire the type of individual who’s comfortable “putting himself out there.” Our schools, workplaces, and religious institutions are designed for extroverts. Introverts are to extroverts what American women were to men in the 1950s -- second-class citizens with gigantic amounts of untapped talent.

In my book, I travel the country – from a Tony Robbins seminar to Harvard Business School to Rick Warren’s powerful Saddleback Church – shining a light on the bias against introversion. One of the most poignant moments was when an evangelical pastor I met at Saddleback confided his shame that “God is not pleased” with him because he likes spending time alone.

Cook: How does this cultural inclination affect introverts?

Cain: Many introverts feel there’s something wrong with them, and try to pass as extroverts. But whenever you try to pass as something you’re not, you lose a part of yourself along the way. You especially lose a sense of how to spend your time. Introverts are constantly going to parties and such when they’d really prefer to be home reading, studying, inventing, meditating, designing, thinking, cooking…or any number of other quiet and worthwhile activities.

According to the latest research, one third to one half of us are introverts – that’s one out of every two or three people you know. But you’d never guess that, right? That’s because introverts learn from an early age to act like pretend-extroverts.

Cook: Is this just a problem for introverts, or do you feel it hurts the country as a whole?

Cain: It’s never a good idea to organize society in a way that depletes the energy of half the population. We discovered this with women decades ago, and now it’s time to realize it with introverts.

This also leads to a lot of wrongheaded notions that affect introverts and extroverts alike. Here’s just one example: Most schools and workplaces now organize workers and students into groups, believing that creativity and productivity comes from a gregarious place. This is nonsense, of course. From Darwin to Picasso to Dr. Seuss, our greatest thinkers have often worked in solitude, and in my book I examine lots of research on the pitfalls of groupwork. 

Cook: Tell me more about these “pitfalls of groupwork.”

Cain: When you’re working in a group, it’s hard to know what you truly think. We’re such social animals  that we instinctively mimic others’ opinions, often without realizing we’re doing it. And when we do disagree consciously, we pay a psychic price. The Emory University neuroscientist Gregory Berns found that people who dissent from group wisdom show heightened activation in the amygdala, a small organ in the brain associated with the sting of social rejection. Berns calls this the "pain of independence."

Take the example of brainstorming sessions, which have been wildly popular in corporate America since the 1950s, when they were pioneered by a charismatic ad executive named Alex Osborn. Forty years of research shows that brainstorming in groups is a terrible way to produce creative ideas. The organizational psychologist Adrian Furnham puts it pretty bluntly: The "evidence from science suggests that business people must be insane to use brainstorming groups. If you have talented and motivated people, they should be encouraged to work alone when creativity or efficiency is the highest priority."

This is not to say that we should abolish groupwork. But we should use it a lot more judiciously than we do today.

Cook: What are some of the other misconceptions about introverts and extroverts?

Cain: One big one is the notion that introverts can’t be good leaders. According to groundbreaking new research by Adam Grant, a management professor at Wharton, introverted leaders sometimes deliver better outcomes than extroverts do. Introverts are more likely to let talented employees run with their ideas, rather than trying to put their own stamp on things. And they tend to be motivated not by ego or a desire for the spotlight, but by dedication to their larger goal. The ranks of transformative leaders in history illustrate this: Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Rosa Parks were all introverts, and so are many of today’s business leaders, from Douglas Conant of Campbell Soup to Larry Page at Google.

Cook: Is there any relationship between introversion and creativity?

Cain: Yes. An interesting line of research by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist suggests that the most creative people in many fields are usually introverts. This is probably because introverts are comfortable spending time alone, and solitude is a crucial (and underrated) ingredient for creativity.

Cook: Can you give some other examples of surprising introversion research?

Cain: The most surprising and fascinating thing I learned is that there are “introverts” and “extroverts” throughout the animal kingdom – all the way down to the level of fruit flies! Evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson speculates that the two types evolved to use very different survival strategies. Animal “introverts” stick to the sidelines and survive when predators come calling. Animal “extroverts” roam and explore, so they do better when food is scarce. The same is true (analogously speaking) of humans.

Cook: Are you an introvert?

Cain: Yes. People sometimes seem surprised when I say this, because I’m a pretty friendly person. This is one of the greatest misconceptions about introversion. We are not anti-social; we’re differently social. I can’t live without my family and close friends, but I also crave solitude. I feel incredibly lucky that my work as a writer affords me hours a day alone with my laptop. I also have a lot of other introvert characteristics, like thinking before I speak, disliking conflict, and concentrating easily.

Introversion has its annoying qualities, too, of course. For example, I’ve never given a speech without being terrified first, even though I’ve given many. (Some introverts are perfectly comfortable with public speaking, but stage fright afflicts us in disproportionate numbers.)

But I also believe that introversion is my greatest strength. I have such a strong inner life that I’m never bored and only occasionally lonely. No matter what mayhem is happening around me, I know I can always turn inward.

In our culture, snails are not considered valiant animals – we are constantly exhorting people to “come out of their shells” – but there’s a lot to be said for taking your home with you wherever you go.

Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe. He can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas .

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many research shows that vs many research show that

Last updated: September 11, 2015

many research shows that

155 results on the web

Some examples from the web:

• Aug 1, 2015 ... Probably not many. Research shows that the vast majority of us self-identify as “ middle class,” although even those with decent jobs have seen ...
• Jul 25, 2015 ... Sipping on a cup of tea is a relaxing ritual for many. Research shows that it can also deliver a powerhouse of flavonoids, an antioxidant that's ...
• Apr 8, 2014 ... And it's this web of complexity and connectivity that makes mitochondrial disease research valuable to so many. Research shows that  ...
• Jul 19, 2015 ... Sipping on a cup of tea is a relaxing ritual for many. Research shows that it can also deliver a powerhouse of flavonoids, an antioxidant that's ...

many research show that

66 results on the web

• Many research show that VIPS can greatly improve the perform- ance of web search [6][8][26]. 3. THREE KINDS OF REPRESENTATIONS. FOR WWW IMAGES.
• May 26, 2015 ... Many research show that most of cases have no symptoms or signs and there is no single cause which result in high blood pressure. Therefore ...
• surprising that many research show that self efficacy influences academic achievement motivation, learning and academic achievement (Pajares, 1996;. Schunk ...
• Therefore, it is not surprising that many research show that self efficacy influences academic achievement motivation, learning and academic achievement ...

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