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Politeness from AI Does Not Yet Mean Understanding

Modern artificial intelligence can respond so sympathetically that it sometimes creates the impression of genuine understanding. It chooses careful words, acknowledges our feelings, and keeps the conversation going. But can it do more than talk about emotions — can it actually recognize them from our voice and movements? On September 3, 2026, Scientific Reports published the results of a study by David Piterman and colleagues on the ability of generative AI to recognize nonverbal expressions of emotion. The researchers tested three multimodal models from the Gemini family and compared their accuracy with that of people performing similar tasks.

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AI Anxiety Turned Out to Be Far from Uniform

Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly visible part of our lives, and with it comes talk of a new wave of anxiety. We worry about losing our jobs, about the security of our personal data, about not being able to keep up with new technologies, and about how far the development of AI may ultimately go.

All of these concerns are often grouped under a single expression — “AI anxiety.” However, a new study suggests that this label hides different kinds of worries that may arise independently of one another.

Researchers from the Universities of Pisa and Bergen developed a special scale called AISAS, designed to measure stress and anxiety related to AI. The work consisted of two preregistered studies conducted among adults in the United Kingdom. The samples were constructed to reflect the country’s population in terms of age, sex, and ethnicity.

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Mutual connections help us stay connected with people who think differently

It is commonly assumed that information bubbles are created mainly by social media algorithms. They show us content similar to what we have already been interested in and gradually surround us with familiar opinions. But a new study reminds us that we also help create these bubbles ourselves when we decide whom to stay connected with and whom it may be better to unfollow.

Researchers from the University of Michigan and Duke University created an experimental social network in which participants could learn about one another’s views on various social issues. The study involved 373 people. Altogether, they made 7,328 decisions about whether to maintain a connection with another user or break it.

The result was quite expected: participants were significantly more likely to cut contact with people whose beliefs differed from their own. The greater the disagreement, the higher the probability that the connection would be broken.

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Behavioral Activation for Depression: Why Action Sometimes Comes Before Motivation

When we feel bad, we often expect our energy, interest, and desire to do anything to return first — and only then do we think we will be able to start going out again, socializing, working, or returning to our usual activities. However, research on behavioral activation suggests that this sequence can also work in reverse: sometimes a small action comes first, and only then does our state gradually begin to change.

In August 2026, the journal Clinical Psychology Review published the largest review to date of research on behavioral activation for depression. The authors combined the results of 105 randomized studies involving almost 14,000 patients.

Behavioral activation is a form of psychotherapy based on gradually bringing back into our lives activities that may be important, useful, or capable of giving us at least a small sense of satisfaction. With depression, these activities usually become fewer and fewer. We meet loved ones less often, abandon familiar routines, move less, and become increasingly distant from what once gave our lives meaning.