David P. Schmitt, Ph.D.

The interdisciplinary journal "Culture and Evolution" brings all the scientific tools for studying culture and evolution to the same table…publication fees waived for papers submitted by Dec 31, 2026; registered reports and replication studies welcomed! submit.akademiai.com/cultev/index...

Do You Agree? Do You Strongly Agree? The Effect of the Number of Response Categories on Response Processes and Verification of Substantive Hypotheses Abstract. This study investigates how the number and labeling of response categories in survey scales affect respondent behavior, psychometric properties,

This is consistent with earlier psychometric work that suggests 5-7 is the best response scale options, but good to see that the finding holds up in contemporary research. Also, good to see that labeling scales whether anchored or not has little impact on findings. academic.oup.com/ijpor/articl...

Frontiers | Gender differences in emotional disconnection and emotional loneliness in romantic couples: a 3-day ecological momentary assessment study BackgroundEmotional disconnection and loneliness significantly impact romantic relationship quality and individual well-being. Despite the established links ...

Gender differences in emotional disconnection and emotional loneliness in romantic couples: a 3-day ecological momentary assessment study www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

"daily study of psychopathy and Machiavellianism states...covariance higher between-person, compared to
within-person...different pattern of fluctuations over time...qualitatively different constructs linked by antisocial"
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

35,000 participants, 25 countries..."replicated gender differences in sexual attraction to preferred and non-preferred gender...gender typicality (self-rated femininity for women and masculinity for men) positively associated with attraction to preferred gender" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

"people from cultures with strict social norms tend to be less skilled at coming up with funny material compared to those from more relaxed cultures" www.psypost.org/cultural-tig...  doi.org/10.1037/amp0...

Job Alert: Want to come work in a great Psychology Department? Able to teach within Cognitive/Behavioral Neuroscience areas? Well, we have a spot you'll love full well here in Kansas! Applications close March 1, 2026; Anticipated pay range $70,000 annually careers.k-state.edu/jobs/teachin...

Mind the Gap: Perceived Economic Inequality and the Well-Being Gap around the Globe - Ángel Sánchez-Rodríguez, Maciej R. Górski, Mohsen Joshanloo, Kuba Krys, Morten Tønnessen, Liman Man Wai Li, Plamen... The link between economic inequality and individual well-being has been gaining increasing research attention. This study examines this relationship using data ...

"71 countries with diverse national incomes...perceived economic inequality predicts personal well-being more strongly than objective inequality" journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

"More extraverted and open individuals felt better and were less likely to leave their jobs when these traits were strongly demanded by their work" journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Edward L. Deci Obituary February 14, 2026 - Rochester Cremation View Edward L. Deci's obituary, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

Remembering Edward Deci, APS Charter Member and Fellow #Psychology

"14,532 participants across 42 societies...sex similarities and differences in the strength of social motives across adulthood and sociocultural contexts, employing generalized additive models that account for spatial autocorrelation" royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

"LinkedIn microdata...Big 5 personality traits from facial images 96,000 MBA grads...predicts school rank, job matching, compensation...individuals sort into occupations where personality valued and earn higher wages when traits align with occupational demands" www.nber.org/system/files...

Pick your relationships wisely!

For both men & women, their partner's conscientiousness predicted their own future job satisfaction, income, and likelihood of promotion, even after accounting for their own conscientiousness.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Opinion | One Man Stole $660 Million. He’ll Never Pay It Back.

"Criminals and government officials are barely hiding their schemes, and their brazenness is meant to make us feel helpless, to think that nothing can be done. That is false. We already have the legal tools to fight corruption. We just need to use them." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/o...

"as wealthier countries increasingly prioritize individualism over collectivism, the gender gap in specifically communal values (rather than other values) widens in ways that may exacerbate gender differences in interest for care economy careers" psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Psychology says the reason older people stop caring isn't apathy—it's actually the highest form of self-awareness You’ve probably noticed it in someone you know. A parent, a grandparent, an older mentor. At some point, they just… stopped caring about things that used to consume them. The office politics, the soci...

"although older adults experience neural decline in some areas, they’re actually more likely...to regulate their emotions and reduce impact of negative information. They’re not losing their ability to care. They’re becoming more strategic about what they care about"
geediting.com/gen-psycholo...

"traditional and integrative worldviews appear positively related to mental health, while the post-modern had contrasting results, and the modern worldview appeared to have a predominantly negative relationship to mental health" journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

New research connects the size of the beauty market to male parenting effort New research reveals a surprising trend: nations where fathers perform more childcare tend to have larger cosmetics industries. The findings suggest women may invest more in their appearance to compet...

"the size of a country’s cosmetics industry may be directly linked to how much fathers contribute to childcare and the level of economic inequality within that society" www.psypost.org/new-research...

"higher perceived stress was significantly associated with
lower sexual desire or arousal...elevated stress levels
may have a stronger impact on women’s sexual functioning, as engaging in reproductive behavior under higher stress may be less advantageous" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"experience sampling with adolescents...being good leads to being well...virtues like compassion, patience, and self-control might benefit their possessors" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

"study supports a putative universality of attractiveness halo effects and also contributes to a deeper understanding of subtle variations in the halo effects of men’s and women’s attractiveness in more individualistic versus more collectivistic cultures"

"False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long...several evolutionary psychological hypotheses have generated specific, falsifiable predictions; undergone multiple empirical tests; and been refuted" psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

"I don’t buy predictions of second civil war...Americans are better than that...As nation shudders on the edge of his police state, we’re gaining stronger unity against it and taking more responsibility for the well-being of each other. In the darkness of Trump, we’re finding the light of America."

I just signed the bsky.app/profile/tamu... petition: Defend Academic Freedom at Texas A&M University! Sign here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/de...

One specific form of insecurity is significantly lower among singles who have casual sex A new study suggests that single adults engaging in casual sex often report higher sexual satisfaction and a stronger sense of their own desirability. The findings challenge the idea that casual encou...

MacLab work on sex and singlehood featured in PsyPost. www.psypost.org/one-specific...

"results provide preliminary objective evidence that regardless of what position title or rank a teacher is thought to have, their teaching effectiveness will be rated similarly"
lnkd.in/gX8NqERi

"men more averse to female breadwinning in Kenya, Nigeria, Tajikistan, Libya, Russia...women more averse to female breadwinning than men in Uruguay, Brazil, Germany, Peru, Mexico...challenges widespread belief men always more traditional views than women" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"despite strong evidence physically attractive individuals receive systematic advantages in domains like hiring, pay, and legal outcomes, “lookism” attracts far less moral outrage than race- or gender-based discrimination...blind spot in how people scan outcomes for bias" doi.org/10.1037/pspa...

Male and female empathy across 24 countries and 60 latitudinal degrees..."individualism/collectivism associated positively with sex differences in empathic concern" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

⏰Last call!
Submissions for #HBES2026 close today.
If you’re planning to submit an abstract, now’s the moment

airess.fgses-um6p.ma/hbes2026

See you in Rabat!