Fluctuations in arousal reflect latent state transitions that facilitate behavioural optimization

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 05 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02533-1Li, Marble et al. examine how moment-to-moment fluctuations in arousal optimize behaviour by signalling environmental transitions and facilitate rapid adjustments of mental context.

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Interaction with AI companions and psychological well-being

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 04 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02516-2In this mixed-methods study, Zhang et al. examine AI companionship and psychological well-being, finding that the association depends on usage patterns and users’ offline social contexts.

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Negative influence of early social media use on school outcomes

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 03 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02523-3A longitudinal study of Italian students revealed a significant negative effect of early use of social media on later academic performance during lower-secondary school years (grades 6 to 8 in Italy, corresponding to ages 11–14 years old) in mathematics and Italian compared with later social media adoption.

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Longitudinal effect of early social media use on standardized learning outcomes during school career

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 03 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02522-4Analysing data from 5,227 students from northern Italy, this article finds causal evidence that early engagement with social media adversely affects learning outcomes.

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A life-course map of health risks associated with exposure to second-hand smoke

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 31 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02481-wWe synthesized evidence from 111 meta-analyses to map the comprehensive health risks that are associated with second-hand smoke exposure (SHSE) throughout the life course. Our analyses confirm the strong association of SHSE with lung cancer, cardiovascular disease and a range of adverse fetal and child health outcomes. Moreover, we identify research gaps that should be addressed to inform targeted tobacco control.

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Insights from climate psychology for misinformation research

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 20 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02530-4Climate change and misinformation are interconnected global crises shaped by tensions between individual, collective and vested interests. Drawing on climate psychology, we distil six insights for misinformation research to strengthen policy relevance, systems thinking and resilience to attacks.

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Association of traumatic experiences with depressive symptoms among LGBTQ+ population in China

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 16 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02518-0Yang et al. found that trauma is highly prevalent among LGBTQ+ individuals in China and linked to depression. Unhealthy behaviours, low social support and negative coping partly explain this relationship, highlighting key targets for intervention.

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Tuning tasks to how we learn

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 15 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02508-2Practicing components of a problem often improves later performance in the full problem, but can also hinder it. Mi and Summerfield suggest that ‘divide and conquer’ approaches succeed when the components are well aligned with inexpensive heuristic learning strategies and can enable the learner to recruit more complex, optimal strategies.

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AI detection risks undermining academic integrity

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 13 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02528-yAI detection risks undermining academic integrity

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The unspoken tensions that AI brings to academic collaboration

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 13 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02529-xThe unspoken tensions that AI brings to academic collaboration

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Online consumer reviews can no longer be trusted

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 13 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02527-zFrom fake reviews that harm businesses, to humorous reviews that mock consumerism, to culture-war review bombing, some online reviews cannot be trusted to provide objective evaluations. Once a source of sincere advice, online review platforms have spawned new forms of disingenuous behaviour that may hurt consumers.

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Why using AI as a learning coach can improve education

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 13 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02524-2Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming classrooms, and promising adaptive teaching and personalized education. However, AI tools may also weaken students’ ability to think and learn independently. Schools and universities should use AI as a coach to support self-regulated learning.

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Common and rare genetic variant associations with cognitive performance across development in British birth cohorts

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 10 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02491-8Associations between polygenic indices and cognitive ability in children increase with age while rare damaging variant associations attenuate, with differential effects across the cognitive ability distribution.

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Smallpox in colonial Australia

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 09 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02517-1Colonial-era epidemics reshaped Aboriginal communities, yet the origins and spread of the 1789 smallpox outbreak remain contested. Nitschke et al. use stochastic modelling to suggest the outbreak heavily affected southeastern Australia, and that much of the continent may not have experienced epidemic-scale smallpox in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

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Stochastic models indicate rapid smallpox spread and mass mortality of Indigenous Australians after colonial exposure

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 09 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02504-6Nitschke and colleagues use historical data and epidemiological modelling to examine evidence for the 1789 smallpox epidemic in Australia. Their results indicate a likely southeastern origin, high mortality and limited spread.

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Individual gaze is linked to neural tuning and perceptual skills

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 08 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02499-0Gaze behaviour is marked by striking individual differences. We used eye tracking and brain imaging to decipher the mechanisms that underlie these differences, which revealed that the individual tendency to look at faces or text is systematically linked to how well the visual brain can process these stimuli.

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Active vision is linked to category selectivity in the individual brain

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 07 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02494-5In this Article, Kollenda et al. find that individual differences in gaze are linked to neural tuning in individual brains: stronger tendencies to look at faces or text correlate with more distinct neural representations of the corresponding category.

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Two roads to prosociality

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 06 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02442-3A large-scale study reveals that children as young as three years old show stable prosocial intuitions when making social decisions. As children grow older, deliberative reasoning increasingly supports prosocial choices, and converges with intuition by the age of eight — thus illuminating how gut feelings and reflective thought jointly shape the development of human cooperation.

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Bridging the divide in motor learning research

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 06 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02519-zMotor learning research has developed into two largely separate communities, one focused more on basic and the other more on applied research. Grießbach et al. examine this divide in tasks, theories and culture and outline opportunities for an integrated science of how we learn movement skills.

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Stable intuition and the rise of deliberative prosociality in childhood

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 06 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02487-4In children aged 3–10 years, intuitive responses lead to more prosocial choices in early childhood, while deliberate reasoning increasingly supports cooperative, fair and honest decisions with age.

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Many conferences lack clear information about disability access

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 03 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02514-4The logistics and structural barriers of many research conferences prevent full participation of people with disabilities. We review the websites of 161 conferences and show that there is substantial room for improved communication about barriers. We also suggest ideas for quick and low-budget stopgap accessibility improvements.

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Trusting the body and self-harm

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 01 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02498-1Self-injurious thoughts and behaviours are difficult to predict and treat. A meta-analysis by Liu et al. examines how interoception (the sensing of internal bodily signals) relates to self-injury risk, and points to bodily trust as a potential protective factor.

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Interoception in self-harm and suicide: a scoping review and meta-analysis

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 01 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02490-9The authors synthesize the evidence on the links between interoception and self-harm and suicide. The results are heterogeneous for the four examined dimensions of interoception. Neural evidence points to insula and prefrontal involvement, though still preliminary.

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Genome-wide association studies of infant and toddler temperament in European and multi-ancestry populations

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 01 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02486-5A genome-wide association study of infant and toddler temperament in up to 78,000 infants found new genetic loci. Infant and toddler temperament showed significant single-nucleotide polymorphism heritability and genetic overlap with later life outcomes.

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An effort recalibration framework for digital media use and cognition

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 01 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02500-wThis framework suggests that digital media affects cognition by recalibrating how effort is valued and allocated. The authors suggest that digital media make low-effort rewards more appealing, thereby reducing sustained focus.

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Secondhand smoke exposure and human health: an umbrella review

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 01 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02480-xThis umbrella review synthesizes evidence from 111 meta-analyses to map the potential health associations of secondhand smoke exposure (SHSE) across the human lifespan.

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Building capacity for unity in diversity

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 01 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02509-1A large randomized controlled trial in India finds that an educational programme promoting identification with all humanity reduces discriminatory attitudes and behaviours, enhances prosocial actions and boosts civic engagement among youth across social divides.

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Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 29 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02505-5Mental health concerns among early-career researchers are increasingly gaining attention. This preregistered systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis quantifies psychological distress among early-career researchers, contributing to a better understanding of the prevalence and severity of mental health issues.

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