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Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with poor mental health outcomes in adulthood. Childhood maltreatment is related to both depressive and anxiety symptoms. Our objective was to investigate these associations among low-income, mostly Black and Latino men who have sex with men (MSM), as these may be a particularly vulnerable population group. Data come from a longitudinal study of MSM with varied substance use behaviors (n = 321) collected between August 2014 and April 2022. Cumulative, childhood maltreatment ACEs, and the single ACE of childhood sexual abuse were investigated as potential predictors of self-reported depressive and anxiety symptoms in mixed-effects logistic and ordinal regression models. There was no evidence of a dose-response relationship between the number of ACEs and the predicted probability of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Compared to MSM reporting fewer than five ACEs, those with five or more ACEs had approximately double the odds ratio of reporting depressive (OR = 1.93; 95% CI: 1.04–3.60) and anxiety symptoms (OR = 2.21; 95% CI: 1.05–4.68). The dimension of childhood maltreatment had a more robust prediction of depressive symptoms than the dimension of household dysfunction across all models. The association between childhood sexual abuse history and depressive symptoms remained after adjustment for the other nine ACEs (OR = 2.27; 95% CI: 1.11–4.68). The ordinal logistic model suggested that cumulative ACEs more than triple the odds of being in a higher anxiety category (OR = 3.12; 95% CI: 1.58–6.14), with associations reported for childhood maltreatment ACEs (OR = 1.31; 95% CI: 1.06–1.66) and childhood sexual abuse (OR = 1.93; 95% CI: 0.89–4.21). Childhood maltreatment ACEs, particularly childhood sexual abuse, are salient predictors of depressive and anxiety symptoms among adult urban MSM. Mitigating the impact of childhood maltreatment requires understanding the additional burden of social distress often faced by MSM throughout the life course.

Objective To experimentally test weight stigma and weight stigma by association in a parent-child relationship using a large, community-based sample. Methods We conducted a randomized experiment on Amazon Mechanical Turk using an online survey. Participants were randomly assigned to view a picture of a parent-child dyad, for which the parent and child's gender (male vs. female) and weight status (with obesity vs. without obesity) were manipulated. Participants read identical parenting descriptions that adhered to the American Academy of Pediatrics' parenting recommendations, then rated the parent's perceived effectiveness, helpfulness, and level of caring using a parenting questionnaire based on Barnhart et al. (2013). Results Participants (N = 1862; Mage = 36.8 [11.2] years) rated parents of children with obesity as less effective compared to parents of children without obesity (P = .010) and parents with obesity as less effective compared to parents without obesity (P = .033). Participants also rated parents with obesity as less helpful compared to parents without obesity (P = .021). No differences emerged in perceived caring. Parenting evaluations did not differ across daughters versus sons or mothers versus fathers. Conclusions Parents of children with obesity may experience weight stigma by association, which could have direct consequences for the parents, the children, and the parent-child relationship.

Context The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet is one of the most commonly prescribed diets for preventing and controlling hypertension. However, the relationship between the DASH diet and mental health and well-being has yet to be systematically understood. Objective To fill this gap, the present review systematically examined the current literature on the association between the DASH diet and mental health. Data Sources The Web of Science, PsycINFO, and PubMed databases were systematically searched to identify eligible publications up to May 2021. Interventional and observational studies published in English allowing for inferences about mental well-being were included. Data Extraction Two authors independently assessed the quality of reviewed studies using the NIH quality assessment tool and extracted qualitative data. Conflicts were adjudicated by the senior author. Data Analysis A total of 16 studies involving 48 824 participants were included in the final review: Ten were observational studies and 6 were randomized controlled trials. On average, the methodological quality of the studies was medium strength. Mixed results on psychological measures were reported, but in general, the DASH diet was associated with better mental well-being. Five observational studies supported a negative association between adherence to the DASH diet and depressive symptoms/depression. Four randomized controlled trials provided evidence of the beneficial effects of the DASH diet on mental health, including quality of life and emotional symptoms. Conclusion The DASH diet likely has positive effects on mental well-being, but the results were inconsistent across different studies, which might be likely due to differences in methods of assessments of the DASH diet and mental health outcomes. Well-powered randomized controlled trials with mental well-being as the primary outcome are needed in the future. Systematic Review Registration PROSPERO registration no. CRD42021267667.

Using existing data from a study conducted in New York State by my advisor, Patrick Wilson , I will examine how everyday discrimination impacts attitudes towards Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) among a sample of Black and White, gay, bisexual men.

I will be testing the Cyclic Obesity/Weight-Based Stigma model (Tomiyama, 2014), which theorizes that weight stigma functions as a psychological stressor that promotes comfort eating and cortisol production, thereby leading to weight gain that renders higher weight individuals more vulnerable to experiencing further weight stigma.

A secondary analysis as part of a larger, ongoing study, which aims to investigate the moderating role of emotion regulation on the association between weight stigma and eating behaviors. Specifically, how emotion regulation abilities can mitigate the increase in eating after being exposed to weight stigma.

Black women continue to be underrepresented in disordered eating research, with only a few studies examining patterns of disordered eating in this demographic group, specifically. Though research establishes that chronic and perceived stressors are a strong predictor of disordered eating, further research is needed to examine how race-specific stressors contribute to this relationship. Discrimination is one of the most salient forms of stress for Black women, and it occurs at the intersection of both their racial and gender identities. The purpose of the current study is to determine how different types of discrimination—racism, sexism, and their interaction—affect disordered eating among Black women.

In this study, we investigate if social class stigma is associated with poorer mental health outcomes, independently of objective SES.

Our overall objectives are to test the efficacy of a social media literacy intervention to (1) decrease weight bias internalization, (2) decrease physical comparison towards others, (3) decrease appearance ideal internalization, and (4) increase state body satisfaction.

When current conditions are probabilistically less suitable for successful reproduction than future conditions, females may prevent or delay reproduction until conditions improve. Throughout human evolution, social support was likely crucial to female reproductive success. Women may thus have evolved fertility regulation systems sensitive to cues from the social environment. However, current understanding of how psychological phenomena might affect female ovarian function is limited. In this study, we examined whether cues of reduced social support—social ostracism— impact women’s hormone production. Following an in-lab group bonding task, women were randomly assigned to a social exclusion (n = 88) or social inclusion (n = 81) condition. After social exclusion, women with low background levels of social support experienced a decrease in estradiol relative to progesterone. In contrast, socially-included women with low background social support experienced an increase in estradiol relative to progesterone. Hormonal changes in both conditions occurred specifically when women were in their mid-to-late follicular phase, when baseline estradiol is high and progesterone is low. Follow-up analyses revealed that these changes were primarily driven by changes in progesterone, consistent with existing evidence for disruption of ovarian function following adrenal release of follicular-phase progesterone. Results offer support for a potential mechanism by which fecundity could respond adaptively to the loss or lack of social support.

Background. Regardless of intention, the ways in which parents often choose to discuss their children’s weight (e.g. weight labeling, or telling them that they are “too fat”) can prompt body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Though the detriments of weight labeling have been established, it is not known how mothers’ previous experiences being weight labeled in adolescence influence their propensity to weight label their own child(ren). The purpose of the current study was to explore intergenerational transmission of weight stigma, in the form of weight labeling, from mother to child.Methods. Participants included 193 mothers (45% white and 66% Black; surveyed at ages 10 -19 and 40) who were enrolled in the longitudinal National Health Lung and Blood Institute’s Growth and Health study from 1987-2021, and 265 of their children (35% white and 66.4% Black or biracial; ages 7-17). Both mothers and their children responded to a survey question that asked if they had ever been called “too fat” by their own mother. Results. Mothers who were told that they were “too fat” by their own mothers were not more likely (than those who were not) to tell their own child(ren) that they are “too fat.” This relationship was also not moderated by child sex. Conclusions. Findings suggest that being weight labeled by one’s own mother does not make women more likely to weight-label her own child(ren). Further research should be conducted on other forms of weight stigma within families.

In addition to its immediate negative consequences, childhood sexual abuse is associated with lifelong deleterious mental and physical health outcomes. This review employs a biopsychosocial perspective to better understand pathways from childhood sexual abuse to eating disorders, food and drug addictions, and obesity across the life course. Guided by an updated conceptual model, this review delineates how the biological embedding of childhood sexual abuse triggers a cascade of interrelated conditions that often result in failed attempts at weight suppression and eventually obesity. Such biological embedding involves pathways such as inflammation, allostatic load, reward sensitivity, activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, epigenetics, and structural and functional changes in the brain. These pathways are in turn theorized to lead to food addiction, substance use disorder, and eating disorders—each with potential pathways toward obesity over time. Predisposing factors to childhood sexual abuse including gender, culture, and age are discussed. This model calls into question the longstanding “protective measure” theory that purports individuals exposed to sexual abuse will deliberately or subconsciously gain weight in attempt to prevent future victimization. A more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms by which childhood sexual abuse becomes biologically embedded may help clinicians and survivors normalize and/or address disordered eating and weight-related outcomes, as well as identify intervention strategies. Level of evidence: Level V: opinions of respected authorities, based on descriptive studies, narrative reviews, clinical experience, or reports of expert committees.

Can perceptions of impurity uniquely explain moral judgment? Or is moral judgment reducible to perceptions of harm? Whereas some perspectives posit that purity violations may drive moral judgment distinctly from harm violations, other perspectives contend that perceived harm is an essential precursor of moral condemnation. We tested these competing hypotheses through five preregistered experiments (total N = 2,944) investigating U.S. adults’ perceptions of social distancing violations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Perceived harm was more strongly related to moral judgment than was perceived impurity. Nevertheless, over and above perceived harm, perceived impurity reliably explained unique variance in moral judgment. Effects of perceived harm and impurity were significant among both liberal and conservative participants but were larger among liberals. Results suggest that appraisals of both harm and impurity provide valuable insights into moral cognition. We discuss implications of these findings for dyadic morality, moral foundations, act versus character judgments, and political ideology.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been shown to be associated with drug use in adulthood. The single ACE of household substance use history (part of the household dysfunction category) has frequently been associated with drug use. Resilience factors such as perceived social support appear to buffer the association between ACEs and drug use and may be particularly relevant for urban men who have sex with men (MSM). The current study of low-income mostly Black and Latino MSM aims to investigate whether the cumulative ACE score predicts self-reported drug use in a dose-response manner and whether this potential association differs by perceived social support.Data was utilized from a longitudinal study of MSM (mean age=34; SD=7.1) with varied substance use behaviors (n = 321) collected between August 2014 and April 2022. Cumulative, household dysfunction ACEs, and the single ACE of household substance use history were investigated as predictors of self-reported drug use (methamphetamine, ecstasy, cocaine/crack, heroin/fentanyl, party drugs [GHB, special K, mushrooms, LSD/acid], other drugs [bath salts, PCP]) during the past six months in mixed-effects logistic regression models, with moderation analyses by perceived social support (measured by the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support) across all models using stratified analysis and one model of multiplicative interaction.There was no suggestion of a dose-response relationship between the number of ACEs and the predicted probability of self-reported drug use. Cumulative ACEs did not predict the outcome overall (aOR=1.99; 95% CI: 0.86-4.59), however, a positive association was estimated for individuals reporting lower levels of perceived social support (aOR=2.80; 95% CI: 0.97-8.06). The dimension of household dysfunction had a positive association with drug use (aOR=1.32; 95% CI: 1.00-1.74) whereas the dimension of childhood maltreatment did not. The association between household dysfunction and drug use was moderated by the perception of social support, with those reporting lower levels having greater odds of reporting drug use (aOR=2.94; 95% CI: 1.04-8.31). The association between household substance use history and self-reported drug use was similarly moderated by perceived social support in a multiplicative interaction model (p = .02).Perceived social support emerged as a potential buffering factor for any reported drug use, particularly for the single ACE of household substance use history. Given that the association between ACEs and drug use was weak among those with higher levels of perceived social support, promotion of social ties in the community may help reduce the burden of substance use among MSM exposed to ACEs.

Background Weight stigma is pervasive across the U.S. and is associated with poor health outcomes including all-cause mortality. One potential reason that weight stigma may be detrimental to health is that it begets poorer health behaviors. Therefore, the present study tested for associations between weight stigma and four health behaviors (i.e., eating behavior, alcohol use, sleep disturbance, and physical activity), while controlling for BMI and other potential confounds. Subjects/Methods Participants (N = 2022) in the U.S. were recruited for the Eating in America Study using a Qualtrics panel between December 2019 and January 2020 and were census-matched according to national quotas for age, gender, income, race/ethnicity, and census region. Participants completed questionnaires about weight stigma, health behaviors, demographics, and anthropometric measurements. The current study employed a two-stage investigation: exploratory analyses were first performed on a random sample of the dataset (n = 438), then the remaining unexamined data were used to conduct confirmatory analyses that were preregistered on the Open Science Framework. Results Controlling for BMI, weight stigma was significantly associated with greater disordered eating (b = 0.34, 95% CI [0.31, 0.38], p b = 0.32, 95% CI [0.25, 0.39], p b = 0.27, 95% CI [0.20, 0.33], p b = 0.30, 95% CI [0.11, 0.49], p = 0.002), but not lower physical activity (b = −0.04, 95% CI [−0.13, 0.05], p = 0.402) for individuals across the weight spectrum. BMI and perceived weight status significantly moderated the effects of weight stigma on disordered eating and alcohol use. No gender differences were found. These confirmatory analyses partially replicated the exploratory stage 1 findings. Conclusions This study provides preliminary evidence that weight stigma is linked to several poor health behaviors, which may impact physical health.

The objective of this research brief was to assess if prenatal weight stigma is a predictive factor for perinatal complications compared to pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI). Data were assessed from 358 women. Results indicated weight stigma concerns increased the odds of gestational diabetes, with a stronger association than BMI.

The first months of 2020 rapidly threw people into a period of societal turmoil and pathogen threat with the COVID‐19 pandemic. By promoting epistemic and existential motivational processes and activating people's behavioral immune systems, this pandemic may have changed social and political attitudes. The current research specifically asked the following question: As COVID‐19 became pronounced in the United States during the pandemic's emergence, did people living there become more socially conservative? We present a repeated‐measures study (N = 695) that assessed political ideology, gender role conformity, and gender stereotypes among U.S. adults before (January 25–26, 2020) versus during (March 19–April 2, 2020) the pandemic. During the pandemic, participants reported conforming more strongly to traditional gender roles and believing more strongly in traditional gender stereotypes than they did before the pandemic. Political ideology remained constant over time. These findings suggest that a pandemic may promote the preference for traditional gender roles.

Psychologists use experiments to understand causal relationships. The effects that we observe are typically shown in subsets of people using specific stimuli, yet we assume these specific effects can generalize to many different populations and circumstances than specifically tested. Here, we provide a clear demonstration of how the set of stimuli chosen in an experiment can dramatically influence the observed results. We asked whether there exists a memory bias for high-calorie food images, as others have previously reported such a bias. Using a 650% increase in the number of stimuli relative to previous reports, we find no evidence of such a bias, and instead show the perils of testing for categorical differences in psychological phenomena when only using a few stimuli in each category. We discuss how this relates to the field more broadly and ways to reduce the influence of stimulus selection on performance.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may be an early life factor associated with adult weight stigma via biological (e.g., stress response), cognitive (e.g., self-criticism/deprecation), and/or emotional (e.g., shame) mechanisms. This pilot study investigated relationships between ACEs and internalized and experienced weight stigma in adult women with overweight/obesity and explored differential relationships between weight stigma and ACE subtypes (i.e., abuse, neglect, household dysfunction). Adult women (68% white, Mage = 33 ± 10 years, MBMI = 33.7 ± 7.2 kg/m2) completed measures of ACEs (ACE Questionnaire), internalized weight stigma (IWS; Weight Bias Internalization Scale—Modified; WBIS—M), and lifetime experiences of weight stigma (yes/no). Data were analyzed with linear and logistic regression (n = 46), adjusting for age, race, and body mass index (BMI). Linear regressions revealed a positive association between ACE and WBIS—M scores (β = 0.40, p = 0.006), which was driven by Abuse-type ACEs (β = 0.48, p = 0.009). Relationships between WBIS—M scores and Neglect- and Household-Dysfunction-type ACEs did not reach significance (β = 0.20, p = 0.173; β = −0.16, p = 0.273). Though descriptive statistics revealed greater rates of experienced weight stigma endorsement by those with high-3+ ACEs (81%) vs. medium-1–2 ACEs (67%) or low/no-0 ACEs (60%), ACE scores were not significantly associated with experienced weight stigma in logistic regression (Wald = 1.36, p = 0.244, OR = 1.324, 95%, CI = 0.825–2.125). ACEs may be an early life factor that increase the risk for internalizing weight stigma in adulthood. Larger studies should confirm this relationship and follow-up on descriptive findings suggesting a potential association between ACEs and experienced weight stigma.

Background The environmental impact of meat consumption requires immediate action. Cultured meat—which is emerging through technologies to grow meat ex vivo—has exciting potential to offset the burden of livestock agriculture by providing an alternative method to sustainably produce meat without requiring individuals to become vegetarian. However, consumer uptake of cultured meat may be challenged by negative public perceptions. Scope and approach In this Review, we assert that the academic sector can play a vital role by understanding and communicating the science of cultured meat to the public. Here, we discuss how crosstalk between the science and technology of cultured meat and the behavioral sciences will be critical to overcome challenges in public perceptions, and ultimately to realize the environmental benefits of cultured meat. We identify research and outreach priorities for the academic sector as well as potential policy actions to achieve the maximum benefits of cultured meat for planetary health.

Open Science practices include some combination of registering and publishing study protocols (including hypotheses, primary and secondary outcome variables, and analysis plans) and making available preprints of manuscripts, study materials, de-identified data sets, and analytic codes. This statement from the Behavioral Medicine Research Council provides an overview of these methods, including preregistration; registered reports; preprints; and open research. We focus on rationales for engaging in Open Science and how to address shortcomings and possible objections. Additional resources for researchers are provided. Research on Open Science largely supports positive consequences for the reproducibility and reliability of empirical science. There is no solution that will encompass all Open Science needs in health psychology and behavioral medicine’s diverse research products and outlets, but the Behavioral Medicine Research Council supports increased use of Open Science practices where possible.

Low-income Black and Latinx individuals are disproportionately vulnerable to chronic stress and metabolic disease. Evidence suggests that these populations engage in elevated levels of comfort eating (i.e., eating comforting food to alleviate stress), which can harm diet quality. For this reason, many interventions discourage comfort eating. However, if comfort eating does indeed buffer stress, it may be a protective health behavior, particularly if healthy foods (e.g., strawberries) buffer stress as effectively as traditional unhealthy comfort foods (e.g., brownies). By choosing healthy foods, people may be able to simultaneously improve their nutrition and reduce their stress levels, both of which have the potential to reduce health disparities among chronically stressed populations. The present study tested the efficacy of healthy and unhealthy comfort eating for improving psychophysiological stress recovery. A sample of low-income Black and Latinx individuals (N = 129) were randomly assigned to consume a healthy food (e.g., grapes), unhealthy comfort food (e.g., chips), or no food after exposure to a laboratory stressor. Throughout, we measured participants' psychophysiological stress responses, including self-reported stress, rumination, autonomic nervous system activation (i.e., electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate variability (HRV)) and neuroendocrine responses (i.e., salivary cortisol). We compared participants' stress recovery trajectories by condition and found no significant group differences (p = 0.12 for self-reported stress; p = 0.92 for EDA; p = 0.22 for HRV, p = 1.00 for cortisol). Participants in all conditions showed decreases in self-reported stress and in cortisol post-stressor (ps 0.01), but rates of decline did not differ by condition (i.e., healthy or unhealthy comfort food, brief no-food waiting period). Although null, these results are important because they challenge the widely-held assumption that comfort foods help people decrease stress.

Description, A smartwatch was developed for noninvasive stress biomarker data acquisition that provides real-time feedback to the wearer., Wearable technologies for personalized monitoring require sensors that track biomarkers often present at low levels. Cortisol—a key stress biomarker—is present in sweat at low nanomolar concentrations. Previous wearable sensing systems are limited to analytes in the micromolar-millimolar ranges. To overcome this and other limitations, we developed a flexible field-effect transistor (FET) biosensor array that exploits a previously unreported cortisol aptamer coupled to nanometer-thin-film In2O3 FETs. Cortisol levels were determined via molecular recognition by aptamers where binding was transduced to electrical signals on FETs. The physiological relevance of cortisol as a stress biomarker was demonstrated by tracking salivary cortisol levels in participants in a Trier Social Stress Test and establishing correlations between cortisol in diurnal saliva and sweat samples. These correlations motivated the development and on-body validation of an aptamer-FET array–based smartwatch equipped with a custom, multichannel, self-referencing, and autonomous source measurement unit enabling seamless, real-time cortisol sweat sensing.

Resources on supporting anti-racism activities, including resources for research labs, clinical settings, and institutional change. Initiated by the American Psychosomatic Society Anti-Racism Taskforce but open to all!

The purpose of the current study was to test the longitudinal association between disordered-eating symptoms (body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and bulimia) in adolescence (ages 12, 14, 16, 18, 19) and adulthood (age 40) in a sample of 883 white and Black women. We also investigated moderation by race. Adolescent symptoms at each time point significantly predicted adulthood symptoms for the Body Dissatisfaction and Drive for Thinness subscales for both Black and white women. Bulimia symptoms in adolescence predicted symptoms in adulthood; however, the effect was largely driven by white women. Although moderation was nonsignificant, among white women, bulimia symptoms at all adolescent time points predicted adulthood bulimia, but among Black women, only symptoms at ages 18 and 19 were predictive of adulthood bulimia. Results suggest that both Black and white women are susceptible to disordered eating and that symptoms emerging in adolescence can potentially follow women into midlife.

People who eat meat generally expect vegan food to taste bad. We theorize that this expectation stems in part from the perception that veganism is symbolically threatening; devaluing vegan food may enable meat-eaters to defend in-group values and defuse symbolic threat. We conducted four studies (total N = 1,563) on meat-eaters residing in the US. In Studies 1a and 1b, participants who most strongly endorsed carnism—the ideology that humans have a right to eat animals and their byproducts as food—were most likely to expect vegan food to taste bad. In Study 2, perceptions of veganism as symbolically threatening explained the relationship between carnism and taste expectations. In Study 3, experimentally increasing the salience of symbolic threat worsened taste expectations. Attachment to dominant group values and perceptions of intergroup threat may be barriers to the acceptance of veganism.

Increased consumption of highly processed foods may result in lower diet quality, and low diet quality is associated with elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. One mechanism driving highly processed food intake is the expectation that eating these foods will improve emotional experiences, particularly among individuals with elevated “highly processed food addiction” symptoms. However, experimental findings about the emotional experiences following highly processed food intake are mixed. Furthermore, prior studies have generally failed to capture the potentially prolonged emotional effects of eating highly processed foods and not tested for individual differences. The present study was a preregistered archival data analysis of an ambulatory electronic diary study that captured real-life emotions following highly processed food intake. Multilevel modeling was used to predict the effects of highly processed food intake on subsequent positive and negative emotions immediately, one hour, and three hours after consumption. Intake of sweet high-fat food, fast foods, and non-alcoholic sugary drinks was associated with greater positive emotions immediately after eating, and sweet high-fat food intake remained associated with greater positive emotions one hour later. Sweet high-fat food and non-alcoholic sugary drink intake were associated with fewer negative emotions one hour after consumption, and the negative association between non-alcoholic sugary drink intake and negative emotions was stronger for those with elevated highly processed food addiction symptoms. Overall, results suggest that highly processed food intake results in small alterations in positive and negative emotions immediately and up to one hour after intake; however, these do not persist through three hours after intake. The ability of highly processed foods to briefly alter emotions may be key to their reinforcing nature.

OBJECTIVE Perceived stress, lower fruit intake, and comfort eating are all risk factors for chronic disease. The present pilot study aimed to simultaneously mitigate all three risk factors by applying Pavlovian conditioning to change the nature of comfort eating. Specifically, stressed participants underwent a Pavlovian conditioning intervention designed to elicit comforting effects of fruit intake and thereby reduce negative mood while promoting fruit intake. METHODS We developed a seven-dose Pavlovian conditioning intervention wherein participants temporally paired together Progressive Muscle Relaxation (unconditioned stimulus) with fruit intake (conditioned stimulus) daily for 1 week. Participants (N = 100, mean [standard deviation] age = 20.7 [4.6] years; 74% female) with moderate to high levels of baseline perceived stress were randomized to the intervention or an active explicitly unpaired control group, wherein the Progressive Muscle Relaxation and fruit intake also occurred but were not temporally paired together. After the intervention, participants' negative mood was assessed immediately before and after fruit intake to assess conditioning effects. Then, participants logged their regular food intake for 4 days using the MyFitnessPal smartphone app. RESULTS After the intervention, fruit intake acutely improved negative mood to a greater extent among the intervention versus control group (F(1,98) = 3.99, p = .048, = 0.039). However, there was not a significant between-group difference in intake of fruit or traditional comfort foods at postintervention. CONCLUSIONS Repeated pairing of fruit intake with a reliable distress-reducing activity led to the conditioning of comforting effects of fruit intake. Further refinement of the intervention design is necessary to translate this conditioned association to actual intake of fruit and other foods.

The COVID-19 pandemic has extensively changed the state of psychological science from what research questions psychologists can ask to which methodologies psychologists can use to investigate them. In this article, we offer a perspective on how to optimize new research in the pandemic’s wake. Because this pandemic is inherently a social phenomenon—an event that hinges on human-to-human contact—we focus on socially relevant subfields of psychology. We highlight specific psychological phenomena that have likely shifted as a result of the pandemic and discuss theoretical, methodological, and practical considerations of conducting research on these phenomena. After this discussion, we evaluate metascientific issues that have been amplified by the pandemic. We aim to demonstrate how theoretically grounded views on the COVID-19 pandemic can help make psychological science stronger—not weaker—in its wake.

Although it has been demonstrated that (a) body dissatisfaction and internalization of societal appearance standards contribute to disordered eating and (b) that internalization of societal appearance standards leads to decreased skin color satisfaction among Black women, it has not been established whether skin color dissatisfaction contributes to disordered eating among Black women or girls. The objective of the present study is to determine the influence of skin color satisfaction as a potential predictor for binge eating, and its effect through body image in Black girls during the vulnerable developmental period of adolescence. Using data from ten annual measurements in 1213 Black girls across ages 10-19, we sought to determine whether skin color satisfaction predicts Binge Eating Disorder (BED) risk and symptoms using pre-registered logistic and multilevel models. We found that lower skin color satisfaction at ages 13 and 14 significantly predicted greater odds of BED and lower skin color satisfaction at all ages predicted greater BED symptoms. Body satisfaction mediated the relationship between skin color satisfaction and BED symptoms. Our results suggest that skin color dissatisfaction is a novel component of body image for Black girls that is also related to binge eating.

Background Vaccinating the public against COVID-19 is critical for pandemic recovery, yet a large proportion of people remain unwilling to get vaccinated. Beyond known factors like perceived vaccine safety or COVID-19 risk, an overlooked sentiment contributing to vaccine hesitancy may rest in moral cognition. Specifically, we theorize that a factor fueling hesitancy is perceived moral reproach: the feeling, among unvaccinated people, that vaccinated people are judging them as immoral. Approach. Through a highly powered, preregistered study of unvaccinated U.S. adults (N = 832), we found that greater perceived moral reproach independently predicted stronger refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19, over and above other relevant variables. Of 18 predictors tested, perceived moral reproach was the fifth strongest—stronger than perceived risk of COVID-19, underlying health conditions status, and trust in scientists. Conclusion These findings suggest that considering the intersections of morality and upward social comparison may help to explain vaccine hesitancy.