The recent surge of Large Language Models (LLMs) has led to claims that they are approaching a level of creativity akin to human capabilities. This idea has sparked a blend of excitement and apprehension. However, a critical piece that has been missing in this discourse is a systematic evaluation of LLMs’ semantic diversity, particularly in comparison to human divergent thinking. To bridge this gap, we leverage recent advances in computational creativity to analyze semantic divergence in both state-of-the-art LLMs and a substantial dataset of 100,000 humans. These divergence-based measures index associative thinking—the ability to access and combine remote concepts in semantic space—an established facet of creative cognition. We benchmark performance on the Divergent Association Task (DAT) and across multiple creative-writing tasks (haiku, story synopses, and flash fiction), using identical, objective scoring. We found evidence that LLMs can surpass average human performance on the DAT, and approach human creative writing abilities, yet they remain below the mean creativity scores observed among the more creative segment of human participants. Notably, even the top performing LLMs are still largely surpassed by the aggregated top half of human participants, underscoring a ceiling that current LLMs still fail to surpass. We also systematically varied linguistic strategy prompts and temperature, observing reliable gains in semantic divergence for several models. Our human-machine benchmarking framework addresses the polemic surrounding the imminent replacement of human creative labor by AI, disentangling the quality of the respective creative linguistic outputs using established objective measures. While prompting deeper exploration of the distinctive elements of human inventive thought compared to those of AI systems, we lay out a series of techniques to improve their outputs with respect to semantic diversity, such as prompt design and hyper-parameter tuning.

In psychiatry and medicine, there is a long history of framing placebo effects primarily as nuisance factors and focusing on how they should be minimised in clinical trials. However, a new view on placebo effects has emerged with advances in understanding their complex neurobiology and observations of unexpectedly large placebo responses in recent psychiatric trials. In particular, novel therapeutic device trials for depression have shown placebo-group remission rates nearing 50%. Instead of considering these studies as a failure and moving on, questions should be raised on how such responses are possible and how these effects can be harnessed for the benefit of patients. There have also been important new insights into the mechanisms of nocebo effects and analogous questions on how best to mitigate the effect of negative expectations on symptoms and medication side-effects. In this Review, paper 1 of 2 on reconceptualising placebo and nocebo effects, we discuss the rationale, strategies, and ethical considerations related to harnessing placebo effects and mitigating nocebo effects in clinical practice, including discussion of target patient populations, traditional pure and impure placebos, authorised deception, honest open-label placebo, pharmacotherapy dose reduction via conditioned placebo, nocebo education, nocebo reframing, and other ways to apply principles underlying placebo and nocebo effects, such as shifting mindsets and enhancing the therapeutic context. Lastly, we highlight the centrality of this topic to psychiatry, but explore how better understanding the interactions of mind, brain, and body—epitomised by placebo and nocebo effects—has crucial relevance across medicine.

The digital age has brought increasing concern about the negative effects of smartphones, which has led to dozens of measures of problematic smartphone use. Almost all of these measures, however, may be too long for contexts such as large-scale surveys. Here, we introduce a single-item measure that probes agreement with the statement: ‘I am addicted to my smartphone’. Across 10,786 participants aged 5 to 89 from 149 countries, 37% agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. Their agreement strongly correlated (r = .65 to .70) with scores on the short version of the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS-SV), the most widely used scale in the field. Younger women had the highest scores on both measures and tended to somewhat underestimate their addiction on the single-item scale. Overall, our results suggest that most people have an accurate self-assessment of their problematic smartphone use. This new 1-item scale (SAS-1) can therefore serve as a brief measure of problematic smartphone use when space is limited.

Choice blindness (CB)-failing to detect that one 's selected choice has been replaced by an alternative-can change attitudes with little resistance. To explore its clinical utility, we tested whether CB could reduce negative beliefs about experiential avoidance and whether these effects generalized to improve well-being (depression and life satisfaction). We also tested whether deception is necessary for these changes. In this preregistered study, 145 students completed baseline questionnaires and then explained their answers to three experiential avoidance items. Control participants explained their own responses, CB participants explained responses that we covertly modified to indicate less avoidance, and no-deception participants knowingly explained hypothetical responses that were similarly modified. Both experimental conditions reported lower experiential avoidance beliefs on the manipulated items 1 week later, but these results did not generalize to the other outcomes. We also did not find large differences between the CB condition and its nondeceptive counterpart, which carries implications for the clinical utility of CB and its underlying mechanisms.

Expectancy theory of hypnosis posits that any procedure can serve as a hypnotic induction provided it is labelled as “hypnosis”. The present study explored this hypothesis by contrasting the effects of two conventional and two unconventional (placebo) hypnotic inductions on hypnotic experiences and electrophysiological correlates. In a 2x2 balanced placebo design, all participants were exposed to four conditions: conventional induction labeled as “hypnosis”, conventional induction labeled as “control”, unconventional induction labeled as “hypnosis”, and unconventional induction labeled as “control”. EEG was recorded from 61 channels. We computed EEG features that were identified in previous studies as correlates of hypnosis or hypnotizability. Consistent with the predictions of expectancy theory, we found that labeling of the procedure was most influential in determining subjective hypnosis depth, and one of the unconventional (placebo) inductions, “white noise hypnosis”, evoked comparable hypnosis depth to the conventional hypnotic inductions. However, contrary to its predictions, “embedded hypnosis”, another unconventional induction, evoked smaller hypnosis depth reports than the other three inductions. Both relaxation and embedded induction procedures showed decreased gamma power in the midline occipital area. Most EEG features we explored were comparable between conventional and unconventional induction conditions, but labeling also seemed to have no effect on EEG changes, which is contrary to the prediction of the expectancy theory. Possible exceptions were a negative effect of conventional induction on functional connectivity between the O1-Pz channels in the theta band, and a decrease in anterior and posterior alpha power in trials labeled “hypnosis”. However, these effects were inconclusive. Overall, our results provide only partial support for the expectancy theory of hypnosis. The most promising EEG correlate of hypnosis based on our results is decreased occipital gamma power. However, our findings should be considered exploratory. Confirmatory research is required to strengthen our confidence in these effects.

Background and aims First responders such as firefighters and police officers often experience traumatic events as part of their work. As a result, they are more likely to have mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety compared to the general population. Psychedelic-assisted therapy has emerged as a promising avenue to alleviate these issues, but little is currently known about first responders' interest in, and barriers to, these treatments. Here, we aimed to document first responders' attitudes towards LSD-assisted therapy and previous use of psychoactive drugs. Methods We recruited 102 participants through mailing lists of first responders' unions. Respondents were typically male firefighters in western Canada; others were police officers, paramedics, and military personnel across Canada and the United States. They were asked about their attitudes towards LSD- and marijuana-assisted therapies, previous psychiatric diagnoses, psychosocial impairments, and substance use. Results Respondents showed higher rates of distress and illicit drug use compared to the general population. Of those who sought professional treatment, a minority reported that the treatment had helped them. The respondents were generally interested in taking part in therapy or research involving LSD or marijuana. The setting (e.g., at home vs. a clinic), therapist presence, and drug dose were commonly reported to influence this participation. Conclusions First responders may particularly benefit from psychedelic therapy given their high interest in psychedelic drugs and high rates of treatment-relevant disorders. Better understanding the needs of this population will help inform future clinical trials and psychedelic therapies.

Creative ideation and its adaptive value in reacting to new events are critical to advancing scientific and technological innovation. Software development, at its core, is a problem-solving endeavor that inherently demands creativity. Yet, the available research on creativity in software engineering is fragmented and limited. We present the first empirical evaluation of the role of creativity in software engineering (SE) tasks. We conducted an empirical study with 77 participants to objectively assess the effect of creativity---quantified via established psychometric tests---on developers' performance and behavior through the problem-solving strategies they used during programming. We find that participants with higher creativity scores employed diverse strategies with significant variations, adding extra game features and multiple animations. Additionally, we report a notable correlation between task time and divergent creativity scores, as participants with higher DAT scores exhibit extended task times. Our findings can inform educational and training strategies in SE, fostering innovative approaches and boosting developer performance and engagement.

Various books and popular media outlets claim that mindless smartphone use can impair creativity, yet few studies have tested this idea. We conducted a survey and three correlational studies focused on divergent thinking, the mindful ability to generate creative responses to open-ended problems. Most of the 48,000 participants surveyed thought that smartphone use reduced creativity. This view was consistent with the negative correlations we found between divergent thinking and both screen time and problematic smartphone use (rs = −.27 to −.35) in an exploratory sample of 62 university students. However, in two pre-registered replications with larger and more diverse samples (N = 294 and 16,932), we found at most tiny correlations between measures of divergent thinking or creative achievement and several types of smartphone use (rs = −.09 to .09). Thus, the link between smartphone use and creativity may be weaker or more nuanced than is commonly believed.

Objective: Shift work causes circadian rhythms to misalign with the demands of the environment, which has been associated with sleep difficulties and cognitive impairments. Although bright light exposure during night shifts can improve circadian alignment, its implementation is often infeasible. Here, we tested whether light exposure in the evening, before the night shift, could improve fatigue, work performance, mood, and sleep. Methods: Fifty-seven healthy nurses who worked full-time rapidly rotating shift schedules completed the study. In a mixed-design randomised controlled trial, participants completed a baseline observation period before following one of two interventions. The experimental intervention aimed to improve circadian alignment using evening light exposure and morning light avoidance; the control intervention aimed to improve alertness and reduce sleep disturbances by modifying diet. Every morning and evening for 30 days, participants completed measures of fatigue, work-related errors, sleepiness, mood, sleep duration, and sleep quality. Results: Compared to the baseline observation period, the experimental intervention reduced errors by 67% while the control intervention reduced them by only 5%. This reduction was partially mediated by fatigue; experimental participants reported less fatigue on work days than control participants (d = 0.25 [0.12, 0.38]). The experimental group also showed a small improvement in mood. Both groups showed reductions in fatigue (d = .29 [.20, .35]) and sleepiness (d = 0.21 [0.13, 0.29]) as well as a small increase in sleep duration. Conclusion: Interventions based on evening light may thus be a feasible and effective strategy to reduce fatigue and errors in night shift workers.

ABSTRACT: Placebo-controlled trials are the gold standard of evaluating treatment efficacy in clinical research. Neuromodulation is emerging as an important treatment pathway for many neuropsychiatric conditions, and placebo control arms of these trials require careful design with unique considerations (e.g., sham devices that mimic active stimulation, blinding effectiveness). Inherent to placebo-controlled trials are ethical concerns, such as deception, and potential harm of not receiving the active treatment. In this article, we outline important ethical considerations of placebo-controlled trials across neuromodulation approaches and provide recommendations on how ethical principles can be adhered to going forward. We specifically address issues of autonomy and respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. Within the context of this ethical framework, we also discuss factors influencing placebo effects in neuromodulation, the importance of adequate blinding, and alternative trial designs that could be considered.

Most studies of problematic smartphone use focus on younger participants in a single country, which makes global comparisons difficult. Here, we administered the Smartphone Addiction Scale (Short Version) to 50,423 participants aged 18 to 90 from 195 countries and subdivisions. The results showed that women scored 3.22 units higher than men, each year of age predicted a decrease of 0.18 units, and global scores increased by 0.66 units per year. Among the 41 countries with at least 100 participants, almost all showed a consistent pattern: women scored higher than men ( B = -0.19 to 6.07), and there was a downward slope with age ( B = -0.38 to -0.03 ), though the shape of the slope varied across countries. The highest problematic smartphone use scores were around Southeast Asia, and the lowest were in Europe. This global sample, currently the largest in the field, helps clarify the relationships between sex, age, and smartphone use.

Background: Tailoring interventions to patient subgroups can improve intervention outcomes for various conditions. However, it is unclear how much of this improvement is due to the pharmacological personalisation versus the non-specific effects of the contextual factors involved in the tailoring process, such as the therapeutic interaction. Here, we tested whether presenting a (placebo) analgesia machine as personalised would improve its effectiveness. Methods: We recruited 102 adults in two samples ( N 1 =17, N 2 = 85) to receive painful heat stimulations on their forearm. During half of the stimulations, a machine purportedly delivered an electric current to reduce their pain. The participants were either told that the machine was personalised to their genetics and physiology, or that it was effective in reducing pain generally. Results: Participants told that the machine was personalised reported more relief in pain intensity than the control group in both the feasibility study (standardised β =−0.50 [–1.08, 0.08]) and the pre-registered double-blind confirmatory study ( β =−0.20 [–0.36, –0.04]). We found similar effects on pain unpleasantness, and several personality traits moderated the results. Conclusions: We present some of the first evidence that framing a sham treatment as personalised increases its effectiveness. Our findings could potentially improve the methodology of precision medicine research and inform practice. Funding: This study was funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (93188) and Genome Québec (95747).

Exercise is an evidence-based treatment for depressive symptoms, yet it often requires specialised knowledge, equipment, or professional supervision. Lay people in certain contexts, for example in remote locations or under pandemic restrictions, often lack these resources and thus cannot use exercise to manage their depressive symptoms. We developed a two-week home exercise program that bypasses these barriers and tested it in university students during pandemic restrictions. In an online study, we recruited 49 participants to complete a week of baseline symptom monitoring then follow the exercise program for 2 weeks (6 sessions) at home. The exercise program involved aerobic and resistance training; each session lasted approximately 45 min. After 2 weeks of the intervention, participants reported lower depressive (standardised β = −0.71 [−1.05, −0.38]) and anxiety (β = −0.87 [−1.19, −0.55]) symptoms. Although we cannot make causal conclusions, our results suggest that the brief home exercise program may have potential to reduce depressive symptoms in young adults.

Abstract Mentalism is a magic genre that deals with mind reading, clairvoyance, prophecies, and thought insertion. Magicians often proclaim (performances, lectures), that they can insert specific thoughts into people’s minds, or unconsciously manipulate their behaviour. For example, magicians may give the illusion that they influence a person’s thoughts through telepathy or psychological priming (e.g., Derren Brown). In most instances, these demonstrations rely on a secret method that simply mimics thought insertion. These fake demonstrations can misinform the public and researchers about what may or may not be possible. This chapter will present in three sections how magicians provide the illusion that there are inserting thoughts into people’s minds and the recent scientific studies showing (1) magicians’ techniques that significantly influence simple thoughts and behaviours and (2) why magic provides a useful tool to mimic thought insertion and (3) how to mimic thought insertion with magic. We will try to distinguish fact from fiction and provide some insight into the type of thoughts magicians can or cannot reliably insert in people’s minds, and discuss the benefits of using magic to induce thought insertion-like symptoms in non-clinical populations.

Problematic smartphone use is rising across the world. We tested an intervention with ten strategies that nudge users to reduce their smartphone use, for example by disabling non-essential notifications and changing their display to greyscale. Participants first completed baseline measures of smartphone use, well-being, and cognition before choosing which intervention strategies to follow for 2 to 6 weeks. Study 1 ( N=51 ) used a pre–post design while study 2 ( N=70 ) compared the intervention to a control group who monitored their screen time. Study 1 found reductions in problematic smartphone use, screen time, and depressive symptoms after 2 weeks. Study 2 found that the intervention reduced problematic smartphone use, lowered screen time, and improved sleep quality compared to the control group. Our brief intervention returned problematic smartphone use scores to normal levels for at least 6 weeks. These results demonstrate that various strategies can be combined while maintaining feasibility and efficacy.

Smartphone ownership and screen time are increasing across the world, but there have been few attempts to quantify smartphone addiction on a global scale. We conducted a meta-analysis of studies published between 2014 and 2020 that used the Smartphone Addiction Scale, the most common measure of problematic smartphone use. We focused on adolescents and young adults (aged 15 to 35) since they tend to have the highest screen time and smartphone ownership rates. Across 24 countries, 83 samples, and 33,831 participants, we demonstrate that problematic smartphone use is increasing across the world. China, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia had the highest scores while Germany and France had the lowest. We suggest that the clinical interpretation of these scores should be updated given current global trends.

Bright light exposure at night can help workers adapt to their shift schedules, but there has been relatively little research on evening light. We conducted a systematic review of studies that manipulated light exposure in the evening (broadly defined as 16:00–22:00) before real or simulated night shifts. Across the five eligible studies, evening light produced phase delays in melatonin, body temperature, and sleep propensity; it also improved sleep quality, sleep duration, memory, and work performance. There were mixed effects for mood, no changes in sleepiness, and no negative effects. The confidence in these results ranged from moderate for physiological markers of circadian phase delays to very low for mood. Future studies should compare the relative effectiveness and safety of evening versus night-time light exposure. Overall, the benefits of evening light for shift workers are tentative yet promising.

Objective: Shift work causes circadian rhythms to misalign with the demands of the environment, which has been associated with sleep difficulties and cognitive impairments. Although bright light exposure during night shifts can improve circadian alignment, its implementation is often infeasible. Here, we tested whether light exposure in the evening, before the night shift, could improve fatigue, work performance, mood, and sleep. Methods: Fifty-seven healthy nurses who worked full-time rapidly rotating shift schedules completed the study. In a mixed-design randomised controlled trial, participants completed a baseline observation period before following one of two interventions. The experimental intervention aimed to improve circadian alignment using evening light exposure and morning light avoidance; the control intervention aimed to improve alertness and reduce sleep disturbances by modifying diet. Every morning and evening for 30 days, participants completed measures of fatigue, work-related errors, sleepiness, mood, sleep duration, and sleep quality. Results: Compared to the baseline observation period, the experimental intervention reduced errors by 67% while the control intervention reduced them by only 5%. This reduction was partially mediated by fatigue; experimental participants reported less fatigue on work days than control participants (d = 0.25 [0.12, 0.38]). The experimental group also showed a small improvement in mood. Both groups showed reductions in fatigue (d = .29 [.20, .35]) and sleepiness (d = 0.21 [0.13, 0.29]) as well as a small increase in sleep duration. Conclusion: Interventions based on evening light may thus be a feasible and effective strategy to reduce fatigue and errors in night shift workers.

Recent developments in neuroscience and artificial intelligence have allowed machines to decode mental processes with growing accuracy. Neuroethicists have speculated that perfecting these technologies may result in reactions ranging from an invasion of privacy to an increase in self-understanding. Yet, evaluating these predictions is difficult given that people are poor at forecasting their reactions. To address this, we developed a paradigm using elements of performance magic to emulate future neurotechnologies. We led 59 participants to believe that a (sham) neurotechnological machine could infer their preferences, detect their errors, and reveal their deep-seated attitudes. The machine gave participants randomly assigned positive or negative feedback about their brain's supposed attitudes towards charity. Around 80% of participants in both groups provided rationalisations for this feedback, which shifted their attitudes in the manipulated direction but did not influence donation behaviour. Our paradigm reveals how people may respond to prospective neurotechnologies, which may inform neuroethical frameworks.