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New research shows how VR affects mental health 🥽

If Black Mirror made you uneasy or Ready Player One made you wish you could escape to a virtual paradise, you’re tapping into a real debate. The Metaverse isn’t just fiction anymore, and researchers are now studying what it’s doing to our mental health.

A new review analysed over 40 studies on the psychological effects of Metaverse environments, narrowing it down to 12 high-quality papers.

Key findings suggest:

• Positive emotions and reduced stress were common in healthcare, education, and entertainment settings

• Social connection often improved in virtual worlds

• Cognitive skills like memory and attention sometimes got a boost

• Risks like addiction, identity loss, and cyberbullying remain

The verdict? The Metaverse can support mental wellbeing, but only if designed with care.

Read the full study here 👈

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The reason why “Joey Doesn’t Share Food” 😶 

Have you ever wondered why some people will happily offer you their last chip, while others act like they’re guarding a national treasure? As funny as it is, it turns out there’s real science behind why some people are naturally more giving.

A new study from the University of Zurich analysed data from over 90,000 people and found that personality traits have a big influence on how we engage in volunteering and charitable giving.

It was found that:

• Extraverts are more likely to volunteer their time

• Agreeable individuals are more likely to donate money

• Conscientiousness, openness, and neuroticism showed little consistent effect

Encouraging people to give back might work best when we tap into their natural strengths. Generosity, it seems, is partly written into our personality.

Developing a suicide risk model 🙏 

Many people who are struggling visit a health care provider shortly before a crisis, but their risk often goes unrecognized. A new NIH-funded study suggests that analyzing electronic health records (EHRs) could help identify those at risk earlier and more accurately.

Researchers reviewed over 331,000 health visits from 16,000 adults in the Indian Health Service. Their new EHR-based models identified people at risk for suicide 82% of the time, compared to 64% with current screening methods.

This matters deeply. Suicide remains a leading cause of death in many countries and EHR-based tools could offer a critical new way to strengthen prevention efforts within health care settings.

Read the full research here 👈

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See you in the next one,

Dan from Cognitive Crumbs