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September 16, 2025

Three ways your mental and physical health will benefit from being kinder to yourself

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jennifer Donnelly, Doctoral Researcher, Meditation-based Interventions in Clinical Settings, Centre of Positive Health Sciences, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences

Self-compassion is viewing yourself with kindness instead of judgment. feodarina/ Shutterstock

“Be kind to yourself” is a piece of advice that’s often given to people during difficult times or moments of stress. But for someone who is driven, a perfectionist or facing pressure, the idea of self-compassion can feel uncomfortable. To them, kindness might feel like letting themselves off the hook.

But research actually shows that consistently feeling shame and self-judgment can activate the body’s stress response just as strongly as physical danger. This increases cortisol and inflammation, both of which are linked to long-term health problems.

On the contrary, research suggests that being kind to yourself – known in psychology as “self-compassion” – can actually support motivation, accountability and resilience without the cost of burnout.

Self-compassion can be defined as the ability to view yourself with kindness and a mindful or balanced perspective on what’s happening to you – as opposed to viewing yourself with judgment, focusing on your mistakes or feeling like you’re alone in your experience.

The key components of self-compassion include mindful awareness (noticing your pain or struggle without denial or exaggeration), self-kindness (offering support rather than criticism) and shared humanity (remembering that everyone struggles sometimes and that imperfection is part of being human).

Self-compassion doesn’t mean letting yourself off the hook. It means staying connected to yourself in a way that supports real, healthy change.

But practising self-compassion is often easier said than done. If you’re someone who finds it difficult to be kind to yourself, here are three ways having more self-compassion can be beneficial for you – and how to increase self-compassion in your everyday life.

1. Reduces your body’s stress response

Stress is a natural part of life that our bodies are well-adapted to cope with. It allows us to perform daily tasks and be more engaged. However, consistent exposure to stress without relief may result in chronic stress. This can lead to both mental and physical health problems including cardiovascular disorders, decreased immunity and mental health challenges such as depression.

To reduce exposure to chronic stress, we need to be able to engage our brain’s parasympathetic system – the part of the nervous system that helps the body relax and also controls functions such as digestion and breathing. The parasympathetic system is often stimulated by relaxation and feelings of safety, security and comfort.

Self-compassion may be a powerful tool in helping create the feeling of security and comfort within ourselves that’s needed to stimulate this internal system. Research suggests self-compassionate thoughts can result in physiological changes such as improved heart rate variability – a marker of emotional regulation and resilience.

2. Helps you respond and adapt to feedback

Many people fear that too much self-compassion could mean they become self-centred or avoid responsibility. But when we practise self-compassion, we often become more available to others.

We model healthier coping strategies, respond better to feedback and recover faster from setbacks.

The reason this happens is because self-compassion teaches us to respond to ourselves with the same care we would offer others. Instead of saying: “I’m not good enough,” a self-compassionate person might say: “This was hard, what can I learn for next time?”

A young woman wearing glasses hugs herself. — Self-compassion can make us more empathetic towards others.
Krakenimages.com/ Shutterstock

Better yet, as we begin to show empathy towards our own imperfections and mistakes, we are better able to extend that empathy towards others.

3. Makes you more likely to succeed

Another common fear is that self-compassion will make us lazy or unambitious. But studies show the opposite to be true.

People who practise self-compassion are more likely to take responsibility for their actions, try again after failure and stay engaged with long-term goals. They procrastinate less and take more conscientious, less impulsive decisions.

By contrast, shame and negative self-esteem may drive short-term performance, but we’re less likely to maintain this motivation over time.

How to practise self-compassion

If you’d like to give self-compassion a go, the next time you catch yourself in a loop of harsh self-talk, pause and ask: if someone I loved were in this situation, what would I say to them? Then try offering yourself the same words.

And use neutral, non-judgmental language. Instead of “I shouldn’t feel this way” or “I’ve failed again,” try to make your thinking less personal. You could tell yourself instead: “This is hard” or “I’m not the only one who feels this way.” You could even try to be more forward thinking, asking yourself: “This is my situation right now, what can I do next?” These small shifts reduce emotional reactivity and help support clearer thinking under pressure.

Finally, look at the bigger picture. It’s easy to feel alone in our struggles. But everyone, regardless of culture, background or personality, experiences doubt, regret or imperfection. Remind yourself that no one is perfect and everyone has hard days. You’re not alone.

Practices such as loving-kindness meditation can also help with developing self-compassion. During this form of meditation, the focus is on sending good wishes or kind thoughts to yourself and others.

Whether you’re navigating illness, chronic stress or the pressures of daily life, being kind to yourself isn’t indulgence – it’s a skill that protects your health, your mind and your future self.

Jennifer Donnelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Three ways your mental and physical health will benefit from being kinder to yourself – https://theconversation.com/three-ways-your-mental-and-physical-health-will-benefit-from-being-kinder-to-yourself-263569

September 16, 2025

When insulation goes wrong – the science behind why botched retrofits can be so damaging

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sarah Price, Research Fellow at the Leeds Sustainability Institute, Leeds Beckett University

Insulation is designed to make heating our homes more efficient, but if it isn’t installed properly it can sometimes lead to condensation, damp and mould. Recently UK government ministers revealed the scale of the issue and reported that thousands of homes may have had botched insulation fitted since 2022 under a government scheme called the Energy Company Obligation.

Many people have also told journalists they were hoping the insulation would make their homes warmer in cold weather, and were confused and alarmed to find sub-standard installation made mould and damp worse.

To understand why, we first need to think about where moisture in our homes comes from.

There’s rain and ground water, of course, but we often forget about moisture in the air. Air is great at holding moisture. Every time we breathe, we give off carbon dioxide and water vapour. Bathing, cooking, washing-up and drying clothes indoors add even more moisture to the air.

Normally, ventilation – the flow of fresh air in and stale air out – helps carry some of this moisture away. Some people open their windows regularly and some homes are naturally “leaky”, with gaps in walls, roofs and floors that let air in and out.

Now imagine a home that was once well ventilated because it’s leaky, which then has
insulation fitted to the walls. It’s going to get more sealed up, and this can upset the balance of moisture in the air inside the home, making it more humid.

And if the occupant isn’t good at opening windows enough, particularly in the colder months, (which most of us aren’t!), this can lead to condensation, damp and mould, especially in colder corners of rooms where insulation is often missing. It takes more skill and can cost more to install insulation in corners.

Moisture is more likely to condense when there are cold surfaces inside – like a pint of beer in a pub, or a pair of glasses steaming up when you come in from outside. These cold spots, where insulation is missing, are called thermal bridges, and they stay cold while the rest of the wall warms up.

This is unfortunately a common theme in retrofitting insulation to homes. Insulation is installed, gaps in the material are left, and ventilation is forgotten about. This is why housing experts now say “no insulation without ventilation”.

Walls and moisture

There are other ways in which insulation can lead to damp and mould. These usually relate to moisture being trapped inside the building fabric. For example, if external wall insulation is not properly sealed at the top, rainwater can be absorbed into the bricks behind the external wall insulation.

The wall has a hard time releasing moisture because the external wall insulation slows down drying to the outside. The wall tries to release moisture to the inside instead, which means that the ventilation system needs to work extra hard and may get overloaded – if there even is one installed.

This is what led to the mushrooms growing in people’s homes in the 2013 Preston external wall insulation debacle. It involved a botched external wall insulation retrofit of properties with many vulnerable residents.

Moisture can also get trapped behind internal wall insulation on solid masonry walls. It makes the existing solid brick wall colder because it’s being insulated from the inside warmth of your home. Tiny gaps in the insulation system can allow warm moist air from inside the house to get to the back of the internal wall insulation and to reach the colder external brick wall. If that happens, condensation, and therefore mould, could form inside the wall.

The solution is to make sure there are no gaps in the insulation, and to use the right kind of insulation. Some types of insulation such as wood fibre or calcium silicate board are better at managing moisture. It’s also important to make sure the wall is in good condition to start with, with no cracks and to install an internal air barrier to stop any of the warm moist air getting in behind the internal insulation in the first place.

This all might sound a bit alarming, but the good news is that we’ve learned a lot about moisture in retrofit.

If you’re thinking about retrofitting your home with insulation, ask the contractor if they’ve considered the things listed in the infographic below:

List of things to consider in regards to insulation. — Sarah Price, CC BY-NC-SA

A ventilation system can be easily retrofitted to any home. It can be done before, during or after installation of the insulation. It should include extraction fans in kitchens and bathrooms to extract moisture at source, combined with supply vents or trickle vents in all the other rooms.

Research from the Leeds Sustainability Institute has shown that taking a whole-house approach to installing insulation can reduce the risk of condensation. The whole-house approach is something experts have been talking about for a while and just means thinking of the house as a system including ventilation and cold spots, and not just focusing on the bit being insulated.

Sarah Price works for Leeds Beckett University

– ref. When insulation goes wrong – the science behind why botched retrofits can be so damaging – https://theconversation.com/when-insulation-goes-wrong-the-science-behind-why-botched-retrofits-can-be-so-damaging-264916

September 16, 2025

Volcanoes can help us untangle the evolution of humans – here’s how

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Saini Samim, PhD Candidate, School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne

How did humans become human? Understanding when, where and in what environmental conditions our early ancestors lived is central to solving the puzzle of human evolution.

Unfortunately, pinning down a timeline of early human evolution has long been difficult – but ancient volcanic eruptions in East Africa may hold the key.

Our new study, published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, refines what we know about volcanic ash layers in Turkana Basin, Kenya. This place has yielded many early human fossils.

We have provided high-precision age estimates, taking a small step closer to establishing a more refined timeframe of human evolution.

Millions of years of volcanic eruptions

The Great Rift Valley in East Africa is home to several world-renowned fossil sites. Of these, the Turkana Basin is arguably the most important region for early human origins research.

This region is also within an active tectonic plate boundary – a continental rift – that has triggered volcanic eruptions over millions of years.

As early humans and their hominin ancestors walked these Rift Valley landscapes, volcanic eruptions frequently blanketed the land in ash particles, burying their remains.

Over time, many fossil layers have become sandwiched between volcanic ash layers. For archaeologists today, these layers are invaluable as geological time stamps, sometimes across vast regions.

Excellent timekeepers

Volcanic eruptions are excellent timekeepers because they happen very quickly, geologically speaking. As hot magma erupts, it cools and solidifies into volcanic ash particles and pumice rocks.

Pumice often contains crystals (minerals called feldspars) which act as natural “stopwatches”. These crystals can be directly dated using radiometric dating.

By dating the ash layers that lie directly above and below fossil finds, we can establish the age of the fossils themselves.

Volcanic ash layer (Lower Nariokotome tuff) with an embedded pumice in the famous palaeonthropological site where the most complete *Homo erectus* skeleton, the Nariokotome Boy, was found in West Turkana.
Saini Samim

Even when such minerals are absent, volcanic ash layers can still help in dating archaeological sites. That’s because ash particles from different eruptions have unique chemical signatures.

This distinct geochemical “fingerprint” means we can trace a particular eruption across large distances. We can then assign an age to the ash layer even without datable crystals.

For instance, an ash layer found in Ethiopia, or even on the ocean floor, can be matched to one in Kenya. As long as their chemical compositions match, we know they came from the same eruption at the same geological point in time. This approach has been applied in the region for many decades.

Previous landmark studies have already established the geology of the Turkana Basin.

However, the region’s frequent eruptions are often separated by just a few thousands of years. This makes many ash layers essentially indistinguishable in time. Furthermore, some ash layers have very similar “fingerprints”, making it difficult to confidently tell them apart.

These challenges have made it tricky to date the Nariokotome tuffs, three volcanic ash layers in the Turkana Basin. While it’s clear from the rock record these are three separate ash layers, their age estimates and chemical signatures are very similar. We set out to narrow them down.

The Nariokotome Tuff Complex, showing several ash layers in the Nariokotome Boy paleonthropological site, West Turkana.
Hayden Dalton

What did we find?

Compared to previous methods, modern dating tools can achieve an order-of-magnitude improvement in precision.

In other words, we can now confidently distinguish volcanic ash layers that erupted within just 1,000 to 2,000 years of each other. Applying this high-precision method to the Nariokotome tuffs, we resolved them as three distinct volcanic events, each with a precise eruption date.

However, determining the ages is not enough to fully distinguish these volcanic layers. Because the ash layers landed so close together in time – and potentially from very similar volcanoes – they also have remarkably similar major element geochemical “fingerprints”. Major elements are the most abundant elements in rocks, but they can’t always tell us much about the age and source of the rock material.

That’s where trace elements prove especially useful. These are elements that occur in very small amounts in rocks but provide much more distinctive chemical signatures.

Using laser-based mass spectrometry, we analysed the trace element composition of both the ash particles and their associated pumices. This provided us with unique trace-element fingerprints for each layer – still similar, but distinct.

Retracing human history

Once we had both precise age estimates and distinct geochemical profiles, we traced these ash layers in key archaeological sites.

For instance, the Nadung’a site in West Turkana, believed to be a prehistoric butchering site, has yielded some 7,000 stone tools. Our updated age estimates now makes this site approximately 30,000 years older than previously thought.

More importantly, we showed these refined methods can be applied beyond Kenya. We traced the ash layers of equivalent ages from Kenya to the Konso Formation in Ethiopia, indicating they came from three individual eruptions, in which material was spread across large distances.

The Nariokotome tuffs are an important case study that shows the powerful combination of high-precision dating with detailed geochemical fingerprinting. As we apply these techniques to more ash layers, both within the Turkana Basin and potentially beyond Kenya, we’ll have a better understanding of key questions in human evolution.

Did new tool technologies and species emerge gradually or suddenly? Did more than one hominin species exist simultaneously? How did shifting environments, climate and frequent volcanism affect early human evolution?

Now that we have precise geological timelines for the places where these artefacts were found, we’re a step closer to answering these long-standing questions about early humankind.

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of David Phillips and Janet Hergt to this article.

Saini Samim receives funding from the Melbourne Research Schorship provided by the University of Melbourne. She has also received funding from the Australian Research Council and the Turkana Basin Institute for this project.

Hayden Dalton receives funding from The Turkana Basin Institute via a Proof of Concept Research Grant (TBI030)

– ref. Volcanoes can help us untangle the evolution of humans – here’s how – https://theconversation.com/volcanoes-can-help-us-untangle-the-evolution-of-humans-heres-how-255013

September 16, 2025

There’s a new outbreak of Ebola in Africa. Here’s what you need to know

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC L3 Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has declared a new Ebola outbreak in Kasai Province. It’s caused by the most severe strain: Zaire Ebola virus.

This outbreak began with a 34-year-old pregnant woman who was admitted to hospital on August 20 and died five days later. Two health workers who treated her also became infected and died.

By September 15, there were 81 confirmed cases and 28 deaths, including four health workers.

The DRC has had 15 prior Ebola epidemics, with the largest in 2019 and the most recent in 2022.

But genetic analysis shows the outbreak likely began after a spillover from an animal to a human, rather than a continuation of earlier outbreaks.

How does it spread and what are the symptoms?

Ebola virus disease was first identified in 1976 in a village near the Ebola River in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Sudan (now South Sudan).

Fruit bats are the natural host of the virus. Humans may become infected after contact with animals such as bats, chimpanzees, antelope or porcupines.

Ebola mainly spreads through direct contact with blood or other body fluids. It can take between two to 21 days for symptoms to appear.

Symptoms can be sudden: fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headaches and sore throat start first, then progress to vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, rash, bleeding and shock.

Without early treatment, the death rate can reach 50–90%, and depends on the availability of high-quality health care.

Ebola can spread rapidly within families, health-care facilities and during funerals, where many people gather and the bodies are washed or touched. During the largest recorded epidemic in 2014, more than 800 health workers were infected and two-thirds died.

Nurses and other front-line staff can become infected through close contact with infected patients, needle stick injuries or due to inadequate protective gear.

Survivors can also carry the virus in certain parts of the body that are sheltered from the immune system – such as the brain, eyes or semen – for months or years.

In rare instances, Ebola can “reactivate” in a survivor and trigger new transmission chains.

Why are health authorities worried?

The largest Ebola epidemic on record began in Guinea in 2013 and spread into Liberia and Sierra Leone. It infected more than 28,000 people and killed more than 11,000.

A number of factors contributed to this high death toll: delayed detection, slow international response, weak health systems, rumours and distrust of authorities, and traditional funeral practices.

The latest outbreak is in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Ebola was first detected almost 50 years ago. The 2013-16 outbreak occured in West Africa.
Google Maps, CC BY

The DRC is currently managing multiple outbreaks at once, including a large mpox epidemic, cholera and measles, which also require staff, supplies and attention.

At the same time, armed conflict is disrupting transport and limiting access to certain communities.

Although Kasai Province is fairly remote, the risk of further spread is increased by the proximity to the provincial capital, Tshikapa city, and the neighbouring country of Angola, where people travel for trade and work.

But a vaccine adds to the defence this time

This outbreak can be prevented by the Ervebo vaccine (rVSV-ZEBOV), which showed 100% effectiveness in a clinical trial against Zaire Ebola when given immediately after exposure.

The vaccine was 95% effective if given 12 of more days after exposure.

Real-world effectiveness was 84% during the last Ebola outbreak in DRC.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting vaccination efforts, sending 400 doses, with more to follow.

“Ring vaccination” of contacts of known cases has started, as well as vaccination of front-line workers.

In addition to vaccination, Ebola outbreaks can be controlled by early isolation of suspected cases, tracing contacts and quarantining them.

Adequate hospital capacity for infected people is critical. Setting up field hospitals to increase capacity was key to controlling the 2014 West African epidemic.

Additionally, practising safer funeral rituals by avoiding traditional practices, such as washing or touching bodies, helps prevent transmission.

Early supportive care, including re-hydration, electrolyte replacement and monoclonal antibody drugs, can save lives.

Yet challenges remain. Vaccination campaigns need cold storage and safe transport to remote areas. Contact-tracing is difficult in insecure settings. And infection prevention, particularly through protective gear for staff, demands a constant supply.

Early detection is important

Open-source intelligence from news, social media and online reports of unusual disease activity can provide early warnings of disease outbreaks, such as this Ebola outbreak.

EPIWATCH, an AI-driven platform, detected a sharp rise in outbreak reports from DRC in early September, coinciding with the case report to the WHO.

EPIWATCH reports (Ebola, febrile syndromes and haemorrhagic fever) gathered between July 1, 2025 to September 12, 2025.

There were also reports of symptoms in the month leading up to the official confirmation in Kasai. These signals don’t replace lab testing but can give authorities early warning, especially when diagnostic capacity is low.

If contained quickly, this outbreak may remain localised, with limited regional or international impact. The WHO currently assesses the risk as high for DRC, moderate for the region, and low globally.

C Raina MacIntyre is the founder of EPIWATCH Global Pty Ltd which tracks global epidemics. She receives funding from NHMRC Investigator Grant 2016907 and NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence GNT2006595.

Ashley Quigley, Mohana Priya Kunasekaran, and Noor Jahan Begum Bari do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. There’s a new outbreak of Ebola in Africa. Here’s what you need to know – https://theconversation.com/theres-a-new-outbreak-of-ebola-in-africa-heres-what-you-need-to-know-264896

September 16, 2025

12,000-year-old smoked mummies reveal world’s earliest evidence of human mummification

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Hsiao-chun Hung, Senior Research Fellow, School of Culture, History & Language, Australian National University

A middle-aged woman, discovered in a tightly flexed position at the Liyupo site in
southern China, preserved through smoked mummification. Hsiao-chun Hung

Smoke-drying mummification of human remains was practised by hunter-gatherers across southern China, southeast Asia and beyond as far back as 12,000 years ago, my colleagues and I report in new research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This is the earliest known evidence of mummification anywhere in the world, far older than better-known examples from ancient Egypt and South America.

We studied remains from sites dated to between 12,000 and 4,000 years ago, but the tradition never vanished completely. It persisted into modern times in parts of the New Guinea Highlands and Australia.

Hunter-gatherer burials in southern China and Southeast Asia

In southern China and Southeast Asia, tightly crouched or squatting burials are a hallmark of the hunter-gatherers who inhabited the region between roughly 20,000 and 4,000 years ago.

Archaeologists working across the region for a long time have classified these graves as straightforward “primary burials”. This means the body was laid to rest intact in a single ceremony.

Map of southern China and southeast Asia with 95 locations marked. — Hunter-gatherer burials in a crouched or squatting posture have been found across southern China and southeast Asia.
Hung et al. / PNAS

However, our colleague Hirofumi Matsumura, an experienced physical anthropologist and anatomist, noticed some skeletons were arranged in ways that defied anatomical sense.

Combined with this observation, we often saw some bones in these bodies were partly burnt. The signs of burning, such as charring, were visible mainly in the points of the body with less muscle mass and thinner soft tissue coverage.

We began to wonder if perhaps the deceased were treated through a more complicated process than simple burial.

A casual conversation in the field

A turning point came in September 2017, during a short break from our excavation at the Bau Du site in central Vietnam.

The late Kim Dung Nguyen highlighted the difficulties of interpreting the situation where skeletons were found, likely intentionally placed and seated against large rocks. Matsumura noted problems with their bone positions.

People digging at an archaeological site. — The team excavating an ancient hunter-gatherer cemetery in Guangxi, southern China.
Hsiao-chun Hung

I remember blurting out – half joking but genuinely curious – “Could these burials be similar to the smoked mummies of Papua New Guinea?”

Matsumura thought about this idea seriously. Thanks to generous support and cooperation from many colleagues, that moment marked the real beginning of our research into this mystery.

How we identified the ancient smoked mummies

With our new curiosity, we began looking at photographs of modern smoked-dried mummification practices in the New Guinea Highlands in books and on the internet.

In January 2019, we went to Wamena in Papua (Indonesia) to observe several modern smoked mummies kept in private households. The similarity to our ancient remains was striking. But most of the skeletons in our excavation showed no outwardly obvious signs of burning.

A dressed and mummified body in a crouching posture. — A modern smoke-dried mummy kept in Pumo Village, Papua (Indonesia).
Hsiao-chun Hung

We realised we needed a scientific test to prove our hypothesis. If a body was smoked by low-temperature fire – while still protected by skin, muscle and tissue – the bones would not be obviously blackened. But they could still retain subtle signs or microscopic traces of past firing or smoking.

Then came the COVID pandemic, which led to travel restrictions, preventing us from travelling anywhere. My colleagues and I were spread across different regions, but we sought various ways to continue the project.

Eventually, we tested bones from 54 burials across 11 sites using two independent laboratory techniques called X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. These methods can detect microscopic changes in the structure of bone material caused by high temperatures.

The results confirmed the remains had been exposed to low heat. In other words, almost all of them had been smoked.

More than 10,000 years of ritual

The samples, discovered in southern China, Vietnam and Indonesia, represent the oldest known examples of mummification. They are far older than the well-known practices of the Chinchorro culture in northern Chile (about 7,000 years ago) and even ancient Egypt’s Old Kingdom (about 4,500 years ago).

Remarkably, this burial practice was common across East Asia, and likely also in Japan. It may date back more than 20,000 years in Southeast Asia.

It continued until around 4,000 years ago, when new ways of life began to take hold. Our research reveals a unique blend of technique, tradition and belief. This cultural practice has endured for thousands of years and spread across a very broad region.

A visible form bridging time and memory

Ethnographic records show this tradition survived in southern Australia well into the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the New Guinea Highlands, some communities have even kept the practice alive into recent times. Significantly, the hunter-gatherer groups of southern China and Southeast Asia were closely connected to Indigenous peoples of New Guinea and Australia, both in some physical attributes and in their genetic ancestry.

In both southern Australia and Papua New Guinea, ethnographic records show that preparing a single smoked mummy could take as long as three months of continuous care. Such extraordinary devotion was possible only through deep love and powerful spiritual belief.

This tradition echoes a truth as old as humanity itself: the timeless longing that families and loved ones might remain bound together forever – carried across the ages, in whatever form that togetherness may endure.

Hsiao-chun Hung receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DP140100384, DP190101839).

– ref. 12,000-year-old smoked mummies reveal world’s earliest evidence of human mummification – https://theconversation.com/12-000-year-old-smoked-mummies-reveal-worlds-earliest-evidence-of-human-mummification-265261

September 15, 2025

Lavender marriages: What queer unions and relationships can teach us about love and safety

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Gio Dolcecore, Assistant Professor, Social Work, Mount Royal University

Lavender marriages, traditionally entered into by LGBT+ individuals to conceal their sexual orientation, are on the rise, according to several news sources, with some even calling them a “trend.”

Historically, lavender marriages refer to unions — often between two consenting LGBT+ individuals — formed as a way of concealing same-sex attraction in a society where being openly queer could mean social ostracism, career ruin or even criminalization.

Crucially, they were not loveless. On the contrary, they were bonds of protection and safety between two people navigating the reality of bias, prejudice and discrimination of society and politics.

Lavender marriages can be confused with mixed orientation marriages, but there is a difference: in mixed-orientation marriages, partners have different sexual orientations from one another. That doesn’t mean these relationships don’t make sense — plenty of couples do well without sharing the same orientation.

But are lavender marriages actually making a comeback? The answer is complicated. While social progress has made queer lives more visible, many still fear coming out because of social, religious, cultural and political pressures.

Dating today can feel like a mix of endless swipes, red flags and shifting expectations. From decoding mixed signals to balancing independence with intimacy, relationships in your 20s and 30s come with unique challenges. Love IRL is the latest series from Quarter Life that explores it all.

These research-backed articles break down the complexities of modern love to help you build meaningful connections, no matter your relationship status.

The roots of lavender marriages

Nowhere were lavender marriages more visible than during Hollywood’s Golden Age (1930-60s), when the Motion Picture Production Code — known as the Hays Code after the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America from 1922 to 1945 — imposed restrictions on “immorality” and demanded that stars maintain a carefully constructed image.

For example, the 1933 film Queen Christina portrayed an androgynous queen who shared a kiss with another woman. If the film were released a year later than it was, the androgynous image and kiss would have had to be removed to comply with Hays Code.

Notable examples in Hollywood include actor Rock Hudson, whose studio reportedly orchestrated a marriage to shield his private life from public scrutiny, and stage actress Katharine Cornell, whose marriage to director Guthrie McClintic was widely regarded as a partnership of convenience that allowed both to live more authentically in private.

Earlier still, silent film idol Rudolph Valentino faced speculation about his sexuality, and was rumoured to have entered into marriages that offered him protection amid tabloid attacks.

For these celebrities, lavender marriages were not only about survival in a hostile era, but also a way of retaining access to their careers, audiences and cultural influence.

Queer censorship today

It is unsurprising that lavender marriages have returned to public discussion, given that similar concerns of queer censorship are currently happening.

Inside Out 2 (2024) was rumoured to remove a transgender character to avoid international backlash, while Elio (2025) was also rumoured to erase queer subtext from the movie’s final cut.

Censorship of queer culture is on the rise as political and social movements directly attack the LGBTQ+ community. Examples include book censorship policies, exclusion of queer art and rising violence against drag performances.

These realities were poignantly illustrated in the 2022 Pakistani film Joyland, which captures the grief and danger of living inauthentically when family bonds, social safety and political punishment are at stake.

Trailer for the 2022 film ‘Joyland.’

Similar stories are surfacing in real life. In 2024, People profiled a 90-year-old grandmother who came out as bisexual after her husband’s death, revealing their 63-year union had been a lavender marriage of mutual protection.

Another People story followed a woman raised in a conservative Mormon community who married a man to conform, only to come out at 35 and reconnect with her first love.

Even today, couples negotiate these dynamics in new ways — Business Insider recently highlighted a gay man and straight woman who married not to hide but to redefine love on their own terms, while rejecting the label of “lavender marriage.”

The pressure to pass as heterosexual — whether by marrying, dating or travelling with opposite-sex friends — remains a strategy of safety for many queer people around the world.

Lavender and lesbians

Cover image of a magazine titled 'Lavender woman' with an image of Alice from Alice in Wonderland kissing a chess piece with the head of a woman — November 1971 issue of Lavender Woman, a lesbian periodical produced in Chicago, Illinois, from 1971 to 1976. The title comes from lavender’s association with lesbianism dating back to the 1950s and 60s.
(Women’s Caucus of Chicago Gay Alliance)

The symbolism of lavender itself has particular resonance in lesbian culture. Throughout the 20th century, the colour became a coded reference to women who loved women, at once stigmatizing and unifying.

During the “Lavender Scare” of the 1950s, the U.S. government dismissed and persecuted lesbians and gay men in federal employment under the guise of “security risks.”

Yet lavender was also reclaimed as a badge of solidarity and resistance. Early lesbian feminists incorporated lavender into marches, protest sashes and art, using it as a way of asserting presence and pride in a culture that demanded invisibility.

The impact of concealment

Academic research consistently shows that concealment of sexual orientation remains widespread. A 2019 global public health study from estimated that 83 per cent of lesbian, gay and bisexual people worldwide hide their orientation from most people in their lives.

Research in Hong Kong found that concealment increases loneliness and diminishes feelings of authenticity, directly impacting well-being.

In Canada, a 2022 study of LGBTQ+ health professionals revealed how concealing one’s identity shapes daily decisions about disclosure, often producing stress and internal conflict in professional settings. Bisexual individuals frequently report concealing their orientation to avoid stigma from both heterosexual and queer communities.

“Passing” as straight is often a survival strategy shaped by stigma, with lasting consequences for identity, relationships and health. Lavender marriages remind us that queer lives have always been shaped by the tension between resistance and survival. Visibility itself can be an act of defiance, whether on a movie screen, in a march or in daily life.

However, visibility carries real risks: estrangement from family, discrimination or social backlash, political punishment or threats to personal safety. At the same time, concealment has often been a pragmatic choice to preserve dignity, livelihood and community.

Redefining marriage and partnership

These histories and contemporary examples reveal that marriage and partnership have never been one-size-fits-all.

For queer people, unions can be built around protection, friendship, parenting, finances or chosen kinship, just as much as romance or desire. To call them all “lavender marriages” risks oversimplifying the complex ways people craft love and survival.

Modern marriage is not bound by tradition alone; it is defined by the people who build it and by the choices they make to balance safety, authenticity and resistance in a world still learning to accept them.

This dual significance — lavender as both concealment and resistance — helps explain why the term continues to resonate today, as scholars, activists and communities revisit these marriages not simply as personal compromises, but as reflections of broader homophobia and gendered policing that continue to share queer history.

Gio Dolcecore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Lavender marriages: What queer unions and relationships can teach us about love and safety – https://theconversation.com/lavender-marriages-what-queer-unions-and-relationships-can-teach-us-about-love-and-safety-264179

September 15, 2025

2 shootings, 2 states, minutes apart − a trauma psychiatrist explains how exposure to shootings changes all of us

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Arash Javanbakht, Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University

Greater numbers of people are being exposed to horrific violence than in the past, in large part through the amplification on social media. Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images News via Getty Images

On Sept. 10, 2025, the nation’s attention was riveted by the fatal shooting of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah. At nearly the exact same time, a state away − in Colorado − an active shooting was underway on a high school campus in a sleepy mountain town, leaving two teens in critical condition and the shooter, a fellow student, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.

While differing in context, these events share devastating commonalities that will haunt many Americans for decades and possibly generations to come. And they are only the latest of a very long string of violent acts, some politically motivated and some motivated simply by the intention to harm as many people as possible.

I am a trauma psychiatrist and researcher, and I know that the direct and indirect effects of such violence reach millions. While those in the immediate surroundings are most affected, the rest of society suffers, too.

First, the immediate survivors

No two people experience exposure to public violence in the same way. The extent of the trauma, stress and fear can vary, depending on variables ranging from someone’s genetic makeup to where they were during the incident, and what they saw and heard. A hallmark of exposure to such life-threatening experiences is post-traumatic stress disorder.

PTSD is a debilitating condition that develops after exposure to serious traumatic experiences such as war, natural disasters, rape, assault, robbery and gun violence. Nearly 8% of the U.S. population deals with PTSD. Symptoms include high anxiety, avoidance of reminders of the trauma, emotional numbness, hypervigilance, frequent intrusive memories of trauma, nightmares and flashbacks. The brain switches to fight-or-flight and survival mode, and the person is always waiting for something terrible to happen. Survivors of a shooting may avoid the neighborhood where the shooting occurred or the contexts related to the shooting.

When the trauma is caused by people, as in a public shooting, the impact can be profound. The rate of PTSD in people directly exposed to mass shootings may be as high as 36% among survivors. Depression, another debilitating psychiatric condition, occurs in as many as 80% of people with PTSD. Because of the human nature of such events, avoidance often extends to all public situations. In my work as a psychiatrist, I often see people with PTSD socially debilitated to the point they cannot leave home even for grocery shopping.

People may also experience survivor’s guilt, the feeling that they failed others who died or did not do enough to help them, or just guilt at having survived.

PTSD can improve by itself, but many people need treatment. The more chronic PTSD is, the more negative the impact on the brain. Hence, it is important for those who are exposed to receive proper screening, prevention and care when needed.

Psychotherapy and medications offer effective treatments. And new advances in artificial intelligence and mixed reality technologies are allowing me and other clinicians to help people feel safe again in public situations through simulations in the clinic.

Children and adolescents, who are developing their worldview and learning how safe it is to live in this society, may suffer even more. Exposure to horrific experiences such as school shootings or related news can fundamentally affect the way children and youth perceive the world as a safe or unsafe place.

They can carry such a worldview for the rest of their lives and transfer it to their children. Research is also abundant on the long-term detrimental impact of childhood trauma on a person’s mental and physical health through their adult life.

High school age children embrace in the foreground, with other bystanders in the background. — For children and adolescents, exposure to violence can have long-term effects on their sense of safety and their worldview.
RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group & The Denver Post via Getty Images

The effect on those close by or arriving later

PTSD can also develop via indirect exposure to others’ severe trauma. People in the vicinity of a shooting may see exposed, disfigured or dead bodies. They may also see injured people in agony, hear extremely loud noises and experience chaos and terror after the shooting.

A group whose chronic exposure to horrific trauma is often overlooked is the first responders. While survivors try to run away from an active shooter, the police, firefighters and paramedics rush into the danger zone. In addition, dispatchers hear firsthand the highly disturbing details of the event as it is underway but may not receive the support needed to process the events.

Many first responders might have their own children in that school or nearby. They frequently face uncertainty; threats to themselves, their colleagues and others; and terribly upsetting post-shooting scenes. This type of exposure happens to them too frequently. As a result, PTSD has been reported in up to 20% of first responders to mass violence.

Widespread panic and pain

People who were not directly exposed to the disaster but who were exposed to the news also experience distress, anxiety or symptoms of PTSD. Every time there is a mass shooting in a new location or setting, such as a synagogue, a concert or a day care center, people may begin to believe that this type of place is no longer safe. People worry not only about themselves but also about the safety of their children and other loved ones.

Repeated media exposure to the circumstances surrounding a tragic event, including images of the aftermath of a shooting, can be highly stressful to survivors, those who lost loved ones and first responders. In my clinic, I hear from affected people that repeatedly seeing the event on the news, and others asking them about their experiences, can bring painful memories to the surface. Some first responders I’ve worked with try to hide their occupation from others to prevent being asked about such events.

However, as the graphic assassination of Kirk shows – videos of it ran unedited on many social media platforms for hours before they were taken down – exposure to violent images now reach a far wider population.

Brightly colored flowers, flags and balloons lying on the grass in front of a building. — Thousands of college-age students witnessed the public assassination of Charlie Kirk in person, while millions of other people saw it on social media.
Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images News via Getty Images

Is there any good to come of such tragedy?

In my book “Afraid: Understanding the Purpose of Fear and Harnessing the Power of Anxiety,” I explain that the combination of toxic politics, a media economy built on fear and outrage, and social media algorithms have brought Americans to a place where half of the population believes the other half is either stupid or evil.

Demonizing or attempting to eliminate those who think differently – literally or symbolically – has become a dangerous norm, which is all too evident in the wake of the Kirk shooting. This violence plays out not only in political rhetoric on the debate stage but also on the streets.

I believe events like these should be a wake-up call before it is too late, a stark agreement that as Americans we still share far more than we differ.

Americans can channel the collective agony and frustration to encourage meaningful change, cooling down the division, making gun laws safer, opening genuinely constructive discussions, informing the public about the risks and calling on lawmakers to take real action. In times of hardship, humans often can raise the sense of community, support one another and advocate for their rights, including the right to be safe at schools, concerts, churches and movie theaters.

Negative emotions carry energy. If left unchecked, they will consume us. But sadness, anxiety, anger and frustration can be channeled into actions such as becoming involved in activism and volunteering to help the survivors and society at large.

Finally, exposure to media coverage for several hours daily following a collective trauma can lead to high stress. Check the news a couple of times a day to be informed, but don’t continue seeking out coverage and exposure to graphic images and news. The news cycle tends to report the same stories without much additional information.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 26, 2021 and republished Jan. 23, 2023.

Arash Javanbakht does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. 2 shootings, 2 states, minutes apart − a trauma psychiatrist explains how exposure to shootings changes all of us – https://theconversation.com/2-shootings-2-states-minutes-apart-a-trauma-psychiatrist-explains-how-exposure-to-shootings-changes-all-of-us-265160

September 15, 2025

Why have cancer survival rates stopped improving in the UK?

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ahmed Elbediwy, Senior Lecturer in Cancer Biology & Clinical Biochemistry, Kingston University

The ten-year survival rate for many cancers has doubled in the past 50 years — but for others, there has been hardly any change. namtipStudio/ Shutterstock

More people are surviving cancer than ever before in history. Advances in cancer treatments and diagnostic tools mean we’re able to catch cancer earlier on and treat even aggressive forms of the disease.

But a major new study has shown that the steady increase in cancer survival rates that we’ve seen in England and Wales over the last 50 years has plateaued.

The researchers looked at data from over 10 million adults diagnosed with cancer over an almost 50-year period (1971-2018) in England and Wales. They found that the ten-year survival rate for patients has doubled in the past 50 years – from around 23% to 50%. That’s obviously fantastic news. But they also found that the overall increase in survival rates has begun to plateau in the past few decades.

Some cancers, including breast, bowel and cervical cancers, have seen huge improvements in diagnosis and ten-year survival rates. But other types of cancer, including pancreatic, brain, lung, stomach and oesophageal, historically have a much lower survival rate. For these cancers, there has hardly been any change in survival rate observed in the past 50 years.

There are a few key reasons that may explain why survival rates from these types of cancer have not improved.

One is lifestyle changes. Over the past 50 years, the average person’s diet has changed significantly – with ultra-processed foods making up a greater proportion of peoples’ diets. These foods tend to be high in calories and low in nutritional value.

This shift has contributed to a startling increase in global obesity rates. This obesity increase has coincided with a substantial increase in risk of obesity-related cancers, including pancreatic, kidney, colorectal, ovarian and gallbladder cancer.

Moreover, UK research has found a link between ultra-processed foods and cancer – finding that the more ultra-processed foods a person consumes, the greater their risk of developing many types of cancer, including ovarian.

Meanwhile, although smoking rates have declined over the past 50 years in England, air pollution has now become a significant concern when it comes to lung cancer. Exposure to air pollution causes around one in ten cases of lung cancer in the UK. It’s estimated that almost 6,000 people who have never smoked die of lung cancer every year in the UK.

Another possible reason for survival rates not improving is location. Some areas of the UK have better access to drugs, cancer specialists and advanced screening programmes. This “cancer postcode lottery” means that two people with the same cancer may have very different outcomes depending on where they live. Patients who live in lower socioeconomic areas face longer waits for treatment, receive poorer care, and have lower cancer survival rates.

A recent report from the Macmillan Cancer Trust found that up to 40% of UK residents have struggled to get cancer treatment and care because of where they live.

This disparity is a historic issue, which has been documented as far back as 1981. Despite measures put in place to address it, socioeconomic inequalities in cancer survival continue to be observed.

A doctor or nurse wearing blue scrubs uses a pen to point at a diagram of the pancreas. — Certain types of cancer, such as pancreatic cancer, have not received as much research investment as other types of cancer.
sasirin pamai/ Shutterstock

Another potential factor is investment in treatments and treatment costs. In these respects, pancreatic, brain, lung, stomach and oesophageal cancers have historically been underfunded compared to other types of cancer. According to the World Cancer Research Fund, these types of cancer only receive 16% of the research investment that goes to other more common types of cancer (such as breast cancer). This means we’re still behind when it comes to effectively diagnosing and treating these conditions.

Treatment cost is another significant factor. Newer cancer treatments are expensive. In order to be approved for NHS use, the drug cannot cost more than £20,000–£30,000 per patient and it must give a patient at least one year in good health after using it.

This criteria has meant that some effective cancer treatments have been rejected in the past because they didn’t meet these requirements. Given the lack of investment some types of cancers have historically seen, rejecting them for being too costly could mean that patients living with these types of cancer may have missed out on important treatments.

Improving cancer survival rates

Many of the cancers which have seen little improvement in survival rates are difficult to screen because signs and symptoms often don’t appear until the later stages of the disease. This makes it difficult to catch them earlier on, when they might be more easily treated.

So the first and most important way of increasing survival rates is by establishing more effective screening programmes. This will allow for earlier diagnosis and increase the chances of treatments working.

Media advocacy could also be used to improve awareness of these types of cancer and improve uptake of existing screening programmes. Celebrity cancer stories have brought greater awareness to many common types of cancer – such as breast, bowel and cervical cancer. This has resulted in more people seeking out diagnoses and treatment, which may partly explain why these types of cancer have seen continued improvements in survival rates over the past 50 years.

Encouragingly, research is advancing in the field of hard-to-treat cancers. Greater investment will only further help us understand these difficult to treat cancers and develop more effective treatments for them.

Greater investment into the NHS is also vital. This will help us to reduce waiting times for diagnosis and treatment, which is critical for effective treatment and cancer survival. The UK government plans to release their national cancer plan later this year, which will outline the key ways they plan to improve cancer care and survival rates.

On the whole, we’re better able to treat and diagnose cancer than we were 50 years ago. With continued investment and research, it’s hoped we can further improve the prospects for those types of cancer whose survival rates have lagged behind.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Why have cancer survival rates stopped improving in the UK? – https://theconversation.com/why-have-cancer-survival-rates-stopped-improving-in-the-uk-264443

September 15, 2025

Israel’s strike on Qatar was a serious blow against diplomacy in the Middle East

Source: The Conversation – UK – By M. Waqas Haider, PhD Researcher, Lancaster University

The recent Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, where they had gathered to discuss a US-brokered peace proposal, has triggered substantial repercussions throughout the Middle East and beyond. Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, characterised it as a “justified” operation against a militant organisation.

But, by conducting the strike against a nation widely acknowledged as a neutral facilitator in peace negotiations, Israel has not only intensified its confrontations with Hamas but also destabilised the delicate framework of diplomacy and conflict resolution in the region.

The BBC headlined its report by veteran Middle East correspondent: “diplomacy in ruins”. The strike event raises urgent questions about the future of mediation, the erosion of international norms on sovereignty, and the trust required for both governments and armed groups to engage in negotiations.

Its implications go beyond the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. It will affect the very principles of how peace efforts are carried out in today’s divided world. It is also likely to affect the future of the Abraham Accords, the agreements by which Israel has been normalising relations with Arab states.

To fully understand why Israel’s strike against a target in Qatar was such a significant disruption, it helps to consider Qatar’s historical role in international diplomacy. For 20 years, Qatar has served as a neutral platform for diplomatic negotiations in the Middle East.

The city has hosted talks between the Taliban and the United States, contributed to mediating Sudan’s civil conflict, and consistently facilitated indirect discussions between Israel and Hamas amid crises regarding Gaza ceasefires.

Qatar’s compact size and substantial wealth position it as an unparalleled global hub for dialogue and diplomacy. Its reputation as a secure and neutral meeting place attracts rivals and world leaders alike, especially when other venues are unavailable or unsuitable for any of the parties involved.

This strategic role not only bolsters Qatar’s international influence but also offers the global community a vital platform for meaningful engagement and conflict resolution.

The strike in Doha undermines this carefully cultivated image. If even Qatar cannot assure safety to those involved in negotiations, other groups and governments might start doubting the worth of such mediation entirely.

Equally significant is the impact on sovereignty. International law makes it clear that using force inside another country’s borders without permission is a breach of that country’s sovereignty. This principle is a cornerstone of international relations, designed to protect weaker states from the actions of stronger ones.

For smaller states such as Qatar, who offer their territory for negotiations, this raises a troubling dilemma. Can they still provide a safe and neutral venue for peace talks if their sovereignty is not respected?

If mediating states are no longer seen as safe hosts, fewer will be willing to take on the role. That leaves the world with fewer neutral venues at a time when conflicts are multiplying and diplomacy is more necessary than ever.

The damage is not only legal but psychological. Peace talks rely on trust – both in the process and in the safety of the participants. For non-state actors such as Hamas, or others considering talks, the Doha strike signals that negotiations may expose them to deadly risk.

This perception could make groups less willing to engage in dialogue, even when talks are the only realistic path to de-escalation. The Taliban, for example, only agreed to negotiate with the US because they believed Doha was a safe zone. Without that confidence, the 2020 peace deal might never have been reached.

Geopolitical ripple effects

The strike also complicates broader regional politics. The US, for example, has long depended on Qatar as the host of its largest military bases in the Middle East – a vital centre for its operations in the region. Washington now has to balance its strong alliance with Israel against its strategic reliance on Qatar.

Iran, meanwhile, is likely to interpret the strike as evidence of Israeli aggression, using it to bolster relations with groups opposed to Israel. Other Gulf states, some of which have been cautiously normalising relations with Israel, may pause to reconsider whether such actions promote stability or introduce new risks. Such actions also act as spoilers in the peace process, increasing the relative motivation of such groups not to accede to the demands.

Rather than creating space for dialogue, this strike has pushed both sides further from the negotiating table — leaving the peace process in tatters. To compound matters, Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to rule out further strikes abroad targeting Hamas leaders.

More broadly, the incident illustrates how modern conflicts are increasingly spilling into areas once reserved for diplomatic efforts, and these actions also extend beyond the bounds of “coercive diplomacy”.

This is a carrot-and-stick approach to diplomacy which relies on positive inducements as well as threats of force to modify or influence the adversary’s behaviour. Israel’s strikes were not coercive diplomacy, but an act of war – an attempt to decapitate Hamas leadership. The attack shows how the boundary between war and negotiation has become increasingly blurred – with military actions now directly disrupting peace efforts.

The challenge facing the international community must not be understated. In the absence of secure and impartial venues, such as Doha, organising peace negotiations becomes significantly more complex. Multilateral organisations such as the United Nations, in conjunction with major powers, have a duty to strengthen safeguards for mediating nations and to denounce infringements on sovereignty that jeopardise them.

Qatar’s credibility as a mediator may have been damaged, but the principle it embodies remains vital. If neutral venues fail, the foundations of diplomacy also crumble. This would result in more conflicts having no peaceful solutions and lead the world closer to endless confrontation.

M. Waqas Haider does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Israel’s strike on Qatar was a serious blow against diplomacy in the Middle East – https://theconversation.com/israels-strike-on-qatar-was-a-serious-blow-against-diplomacy-in-the-middle-east-265313

September 15, 2025

Racism isn’t innate – here are five psychological stages that may lead to it

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Steve Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett University

Sadly, there are signs that racism is increasing across the world.

Research from Europe and Australia in recent years has found a rise in the number of people experiencing racism. Reports from the US and UK have indicated that most ethnic minority participants felt racism was getting worse. And a global study has found rising incidents of discrimination.

Animosity to those who appear different to us seems easy to arouse, especially in times of hardship and upheaval. Throughout history, human groups have scapegoated minorities, such as Jews, the Roma and immigrants.

Some scientists have suggested that racism is an innate human trait that evolved in the distant past. According to the evolutionary psychologist Pascal Boyer, racism is “a consequence of highly efficient economic strategies” that enables us to “keep members of other groups in a lower-status position, with distinctly worse benefits”.

In other words, why would our ancestors decrease their own chances of survival by sharing resources with other groups?

Another theory from evolutionary psychology is that racism may have evolved as an “energy-saving” strategy. To interact or mate with ethnically different groups would have involved a lot of time and energy, through coordinating with different social norms. Therefore, we developed a tendency to view different groups as different species to avoid, saving ourselves “costly interaction with outgroup members”.

However, I argue the above theories are dubious. First of all, evidence suggests that, due to tiny populations, there was an abundance of resources for early human beings, and so no need to actively deny others from accessing food and water. Second, the above theories don’t fit with what anthropology tells us about the behaviour of early human groups.

There is a great deal of anthropological and archaeological evidence showing that prehistoric groups didn’t avoid each other. They often intermarried, frequently mixed and changed membership. The same pattern is shown by an absence of territorial behaviour and a strikingly low level of warfare.

Alternative explanations

Maybe other areas of psychology can provide a better explanation. Research shows a link between prejudice and poor psychological functioning, including poor relationships with insecurity and aggression. This can often be traced back to a disturbed and insecure childhood. Other research has shown a link between racism and anxiety, demonstrating that people become more prejudiced during challenging times.

More generally, studies demontrate that when people are made to feel insecure or anxious, they are more likely to identify with their national or ethnic groups. This enhances their self-esteem and their sense of identity, as a defence against insecurity and anxiety.

There are clearly social and economic factors that encourage racism, such as hierarchy and inequality. But the above research suggests that racism is largely a psychological defence mechanism against anxiety and insecurity.

Five stages to racism

From this psychological perspective, it’s possible to identify different stages in the development of racism. According to the theory I propose in my book DisConnected, the process begins when a person lacks a sense of security and identity, which generates a desire to affiliate themselves with a group. This affiliation strengthens their identity and provides a sense of belonging.

What’s wrong with this? Why shouldn’t we take pride in our national or religious identity, and feel a sense of brotherhood or sisterhood with others who share our identity?

Milwaukee, WI., USA - July 15, 2024: Demonstrators with the Coalition to March on the RNC protest the nomination of Donald Trump for president on the first day of the Republican National Convention — Tensions have been rising in the US for many years.
Vic Hinterlang/Shuttestock

Because group identity often leads to a second, more dangerous stage. In order to further strengthen their sense of identity, members of a group may develop antagonism towards other groups. Such hostility may make the group feel more defined and cohesive, as if they can see themselves more clearly in opposition to others.

A third stage of the process is when members of a group withdraw empathy from members of other groups, limiting their concern and compassion to their peers. They may act benevolently towards members of their own group but be indifferent or callous to anyone outside it. As I show in DisConnected, the withdrawal of empathy turns other human beings into objects, and enables cruelty and violence.

Fourth is the homogenisation of individuals belonging to other groups. People are no longer perceived in terms of their individual personalities or behaviour, but in terms of prejudices about the group as a whole. Any member of the group is a legitimate target and can be punished for the alleged transgressions of other individuals from the group. In contemporary terms, any asylum seeker can be punished for the alleged crime of an individual asylum seeker.

Finally, people may project their own psychological flaws and personal failings onto another group, as a strategy of avoiding responsibility. Other groups become scapegoats, and consequently are liable to attacked or even murdered. People with strong narcissistic and paranoid personality traits are especially prone to such projection, since they struggle to accept their personal faults, instead searching for others to take the blame.

In other words, racism is a symptom of psychological ill-health, a sign of anxiety and of a lack of identity and inner security. Psychologically healthy people with a stable sense of identity and security are very rarely (if ever) racist. They ultimately have no need to strengthen their sense of self through group identity.

In my view, racism is an aberration, not an innate human trait. It’s also worth remembering that the very concept of race is baseless. There is no genetic or biological basis for dividing the human race into distinct “races”.

There are just groups of human beings — all of whom came from Africa originally — who developed slightly different physical characteristics over time as they travelled to, and adapted to, different climates and environments.

Steve Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Racism isn’t innate – here are five psychological stages that may lead to it – https://theconversation.com/racism-isnt-innate-here-are-five-psychological-stages-that-may-lead-to-it-264391