News by Subject Social & Behavior

Gambling among young teens may be associated with increased use of alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana according to a study that surveyed sixth- to eighth-graders in Italian schools. The research is reported in the February issue of the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

The fact that your favorite sports team unexpectedly won yesterday won't improve your chances of winning the lottery and yet it might increase the likelihood that you'll buy a ticket, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

A new 'early warning' system that automatically informs gamblers as soon as their behaviour shows signs of turning into an addiction is helping people engage in the pastime responsibly. The system pinpoints whether a player's gambling patterns are exhibiting signs of risk and starting to match those of previous players who asked online gambling sites to block them, for a fixed period, to stop them becoming 'hooked' -- an option known as 'self-exclusion'.

Teenagers are known for taking unnecessary risks, from reckless driving to smoking marijuana, but some seek out risky experiences more than others. A new study of sensation-seeking behavior shows that children growing up in the United States versus Puerto Rico were more likely to seek out new and risky behaviors. Results of the study are the first to look at sensation-seeking patterns in young children and teenagers.

When people with anorexia nervosa decide what to eat, they engage a part of the brain associated with habitual behavior. This finding by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, New York State Psychiatric Institute, the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, and New York University was published today in Nature Neuroscience.

US fans of the National Football League and sports reporters assigned to specific teams have unrealistic expectations about how well their team will perform, finds new research from UCL and Oxford University. The study, published in PLOS ONE, also reveals which teams are most liked and disliked, as well as which teams have the most optimistic fans.

A new study has revealed that playing Tetris on a smarthphone for as little as three minutes can weaken cravings for drugs, food and activities by as much as one-fifth.

Every addiction is characterized by a strong desire for a certain addictive substance, be it nicotine, alcohol or other drug. Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland recently conducted a study on heroin addiction and demonstrated that the stress hormone cortisol can reduce addictive cravings. The findings from the research have been published in the medical journal Translational Psychiatry.

Boosting levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine can lead to increased risk-taking, according to research published July 8 in the Journal of Neuroscience.