beliefs

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain In two newly published papers, Tom Lyon, professor of business economics and public policy, explores the effect of sentiment and policy on greenhouse gas emissions. Lyon and his collaborators found that community concerns and policy actions can significantly predict and affect greenhouse gas emissions from local facilities. …

(a and b) Predicted probabilities of explanations of the cause mental health by views of science-religion and race-ethnicity. Credit: Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World (2024). DOI: 10.1177/23780231231225543 Beliefs about the relationship between religion and science may be a key factor in people's views on mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, especially in minority racial communities, according…

On the first new moon in February, not long after Pluto had entered Aquarius, Shima Moore stood like a priestess in flowing white robes behind a podium in the Los Angeles Ballroom at the LAX Hilton. She was there to officially open the 22nd Conscious Life Expo with a 12th dimensional stargate meditation.“When we’re in the 12th dimension, we’re more receptive so the angels and ascended masters, nature spirits and our own higher selves can come to us,” she said in a deep, resonant voice as celestial music played softly in…

Plot of trajectories over time. Panels display percentage of participants in each trajectory group (columns), for each item (rows). Plotted lines represent agreement with item over time for individual participants. Credit: Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-51653-z From 9/11 to COVID, researchers including La Trobe University's Dr. Mathew Marques, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, surveyed just shy of 500…

Noah Schnapp is addressing online criticism to social media that surfaced in relation to the Israel-Gaza conflict, stating that he stands “against any killing of any innocent people” and has had “learned a lot” from “open discussions with friends from Palestinian background.” The Stranger Things actor shared his statement in a TikTok posted Monday night, with Schnapp’s comments following online calls to boycott the final season of the Netflix hit — which started production just a week ago — over the…

Researchers have shown, for the first time, that a person’s beliefs about nicotine influences brain activity, producing a dose-dependent effect that was only thought to occur with pharmaceutical agents. In addition to providing an explanation for why individuals respond differently to the same drug, the findings suggest that pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments could be optimized simply by leveraging the power of human belief.Beliefs, the things we hold to be true about ourselves, other people, and the world…

Confocal microscopic image shows mesenchymal stem cells (green) captured within nanovials (pink). The nanovial technology was developed by UCLA’s Dino Di Carlo and colleagues. Credit: Shreya Udani/UCLAUCLA stem cell scientists ID surprise genetic instructions for boosting protein secretion, with big implications for biotech and cell therapy.Mesenchymal stem cells, found in bone marrow, secrete therapeutic proteins that could potentially help regenerate damaged tissue.A UCLA study examining these cells challenges the…

Recent research by Professors Tamar Makin and John Krakauer challenges the widely held belief that the brain can rewire itself to compensate for sensory losses like blindness or the effects of a stroke. Their analysis of seminal studies reveals that the brain does not create new functions in previously unrelated areas but rather enhances its pre-existing architecture through learning and repetition. This understanding is crucial for setting realistic expectations in rehabilitation and appreciating the effort behind…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Members of the "manosphere" community are misusing academic research to frame and validate their beliefs about women, according to new research led by the University of Kent's School of Anthropology and Conservation. The research, published by Evolutionary Human Sciences, demonstrates how…

When I was a teenager, I declared that I did not like my grandma. My mother excoriated me not just for saying such a thing but for feeling it. That, in her eyes, made me a terrible person. She believed that. I tried not to.Our beliefs about emotions—whether we feel that they’re good or bad, controllable or uncontrollable, or useful or harmful—profoundly affect our life and relationships. Science has only recently committed itself to examining this issue, but it is now doing so with a vengeance. In 2020 the journal…