Traditional and “existential” wellness vary significantly between US regions

Early US colonizers might continue to have significant impact on today’s wellness patterns

PLOS

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This map illustrates the regional division of North America into distinct cultural nations as proposed by Colin Woodard in his 2011 book “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America”. The model divides the continent into several “nations,” each with its own unique cultural identity shaped by the settlement patterns, historical events, and prevailing ideologies of the first settlers in those regions.

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Credit: Samson et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Northeastern and Midwestern residents tend to have higher physical, social, and financial—i.e., “traditional”—wellness, while Southern residents have higher “existential” wellness, involving a sense of purpose and community identity, per an analysis of survey data from more than 325,000 U.S. residents. David Samson of the University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on September 10, 2025.

A growing body of research explores factors that may be linked with traditional and existential wellness. Many such factors, such as healthcare access and economic opportunities, vary according to where one lives. Meanwhile, scholars have proposed that the first settlers to colonize a region may play a major role in shaping its future cultural trajectory.

On the basis of these ideas, Samson and colleagues hypothesized that wellness may vary between U.S. regions that have distinct cultural norms and ideologies resulting from distinct colonization settlement patterns—an idea called the “First Settler Wellness Effect.” To explore this possibility, they analyzed data on the wellness of 325,777 U.S. residents who participated in surveys as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index between 2009 and 2016. The analysis followed the American Nations Model, which divides the U.S. into different cultural regions stemming from early settlement patterns.

The researchers found that wellness levels varied between different regions as defined by the American Nations Model. For instance, Northeastern and Midwestern regions had higher traditional wellness, while Southern regions had higher existential wellness. The researchers propose that these differences may stem from stable health infrastructure and economic security in the Northeast and Midwest, and an honor-based emphasis on personal autonomy, loyalty, and social reputation in the South.

Taking a closer look at minority racial populations, Black and Hispanic residents also had relatively higher traditional wellness in the Northeast and Midwest and had higher existential wellness in Southern regions. Compared to White residents, Black residents consistently exhibited lower traditional wellness across regions, and in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions, they also fared particularly poorly in existential wellness. The researchers say these findings may reflect limitations of material wealth, and suggest that systemic disparities may be offset in Southern regions by robust cultural or community support.

This work could help inform public health efforts and policies to boost wellbeing. Future research could examine what mechanisms may underlie the observations.

The authors add: “Our analysis shows that first-settler cultural legacies still shape how Americans feel and function today. These regional ‘folkways’ predict both traditional wellbeing (social support, community trust) and existential wellness (purpose and meaning) even after accounting for socioeconomic factors.”

“What struck us most was the durability of culture—centuries-old settlement patterns continue to forecast modern lived experience. This doesn’t imply destiny; it suggests policy works best when it aligns with local cultural ecologies.”

 

 

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: http://plos.io/3Vv2ybr

Citation: Samson DR, Oesch N, Woodard C (2025) Wellbeing across the American Nations: First Settler Effects influence traditional and existential wellness. PLoS One 20(9): e0327972. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327972

Author countries: Canada, U.S.

Funding: This research was supported through Discovery Grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2020-05942 to D.R.S.). Additional support was provided by the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Mississauga and The Pell Center’s Nationhood Lab.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0327972 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Wellbeing across the American Nations: First Settler Effects influence traditional and existential wellness

Article Publication Date

10-Sep-2025

Benchmark study tracks trends in dog behavior

Virginia Tech

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A new study that seeks to understand the link between dog behavior and health compiles four years of owner-reported data from over 47,000 dogs.

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Credit: Photo courtesy of Courtney Sexton.

A new Virginia Tech study published in PLOS One establishes a crucial baseline for understanding dog behavior on a large scale. 

The research, led by Courtney Sexton, a postdoctoral associate in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, and her colleague Yuhuan Li from the University of Washington, utilized four years of owner-reported data from over 47,000 dogs in the Dog Aging Project, a large-scale initiative involving over 40 institutions. 

"Most importantly, with these data, we're excited to now have a starting point from which we can continue to follow changes in the behaviors of tens of thousands of dogs as they age, which will ultimately help us understand how behavior and health are linked," Sexton said.

This study's power lies in its sheer size. 

Sexton said, "When you have a data set this big, you really do have power in numbers. While we can't understand all the factors, when we find statistical significance, there is likely something there worth thinking about in its real-world context."

The original motivation: Find out how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the well-being of our canine companions. The researchers analyzed four years of owner-reported data from 2020-23, specifically examining trends in fear, attention/excitability, aggression, and trainability.

It turns out, dogs are adaptable.

"We saw that certain factors, such as a dog's life stage, sex, and size had some influence on their behavior," said Sexton. "Interestingly, we found that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic time period, there were not substantial changes in dogs' overall behavioral profiles from year to year despite what we might have expected given the changes in environment and routines that many were experiencing at that time."

The study did, however, reveal one small but notable exception: trainability. Dogs enrolled in the study after 2020 had lower average trainability scores. This was in contrast to dogs already enrolled in 2020 as adults that likely benefited from pre-pandemic training experience. 

While the data doesn't offer a definitive cause, researchers speculate that the pandemic's unique circumstances — such as more dogs being adopted from shelters or owners being more stressed and less able to dedicate time to training — could be contributing factors. 

“What was interesting was that the difference in reported trainability between the first year and the last year was the smallest of any in the averages,” said Sexton. “It’s a small statistical significance but could show that dogs, or their owners, are bouncing back.”

Future work will explore how factors such as a dog's location or their health status might influence behavior over time. The goal is to better prepare dogs and their owners for whatever life throws at them, whether it's a pandemic or just the challenges of everyday life.

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Journal

PLOS One

Article Publication Date

9-Sep-2025

The pandemic may have influenced the trainability of dogs, as reported by their owners

Age, breed, sex, and size were also associated with differing dog behavior, per survey of almost 50,000 owners

PLOS

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Establishing dogs' baseline behaviors across categories such as Fear, Attention, Aggression, and Trainability can help understand how behavioral changes affect dogs as they age.

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Credit: Bruce Warrington, Unsplash, CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

Dogs reportedly became harder to train as the pandemic progressed, though this seemed to improve by the time it was ending, according to a study publishing September 10, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Courtney Sexton of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, U.S., Yuhuan Li of the University of Washington, U.S., and colleagues.

Understanding dog behavior can help owners to improve their relationships with their pets and to monitor their health and welfare. To investigate general patterns of dog behavior, researchers analyzed data from a survey completed by 47,444 U.S. dog owners between 2020 and 2023, while enrolling their pets in a long-term study of dog health, the Dog Aging Project.

Average trainability scores — measuring dogs’ responsiveness to training, and comfort with being touched — were higher in dogs included in the 2020 survey intake, but lower in 2021, 2022, and 2023 — perhaps reflecting the difficulties of training a “pandemic puppy” acquired early in the pandemic. Notably, by 2023, those averages did start inching back closer to the 2020 scores, meaning dogs (and owners) may have started getting the hang of training routines as the world returned to “normal”.

In reviewing average behaviors across four main categories including fear, attention, aggression, and trainability in each year, the researchers also found other factors associated with dogs’ behaviors as reported by owners. On average, mixed breed dogs in the study population tended to be more fearful, needed more attention and displayed more aggression-related behaviors than single-breed dogs, according to their owners. The authors suggest this difference might be because mixed breed dogs are more likely to have been adopted from shelters and rescues and therefore may have experienced a stressful or traumatic past.

Age, sex, and body size were also associated with differences in dogs’ behavior. Puppy owners reported that they required more attention, and were less fearful and aggressive, but also less trainable, than dogs at other life stages. On average, male dogs tended to be less fearful, more aggressive, and more difficult to train than females. Smaller dogs also tended to be more fearful, more aggressive and less trainable than larger dogs.

Dog owners that participated in the survey in 2020 reported higher levels of aggression in their pets compared to owners who completed the survey in 2023. This might be due to stress in the dogs’ home environment during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as fewer opportunities for social interaction during lockdowns.

This study is the first to analyze average behavioral characteristics from a large-scale survey that will continue to follow the same dogs as they age. The authors say that their analysis provides important baseline data that can be used to track changes in dog behavior over time, which will ultimately help them assess how behavior and health are linked.

The authors add: “In this study we saw that certain factors, such as a dog's life stage, sex, and size had some influence on their behavior. Interestingly, we found that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic time period, there were not substantial changes in dogs' overall behavioral profiles from year-to-year, despite what we might have expected given the changes in environment and routines that many were experiencing at that time. Most importantly, with these data, we're excited to now have a starting point from which we can continue to follow changes in the behaviors of tens of thousands of dogs as they age, which will ultimately help us understand how behavior and health are linked.”

 

 

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: http://plos.io/45PXsvr

Citation: Li Y, Sexton CL, DAP Consortium, Fitzpatrick A, Ruple A (2025) An analysis of behavioral characteristics and enrollment year variability in 47,444 dogs entering the Dog Aging Project from 2020 to 2023. PLoS One 20(9): e0330257. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0330257

Author countries: U.S.

Funding: This research is based on publicly available data collected by the Dog Aging Project, under U19 grant AG057377 (PI: Daniel Promislow) from the National Institute on Aging, a part of the National Institutes of Health, and by additional grants and private donations, including generous support from the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, the Tiny Foundation Fund at Myriad Canada, and the WoodNext Foundation.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0330257 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

An analysis of behavioral characteristics and enrollment year variability in 47,444 dogs entering the Dog Aging Project from 2020 to 2023

Article Publication Date

10-Sep-2025

 

The withdrawal of U.S. funding for tuberculosis could lead to up to 2.2 million additional deaths between 2025 and 2030 inclusive

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Impact of a US Aid freeze and cut on tuberculosis deaths across 26 HBCs from 2025–2030

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Credit: Carel Pretorius, adapted from Mandal et al., 2025, PLOS Global Public Health, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

 

Article URL: https://plos.io/423TG0g

Article Title: A deadly equation: The global toll of US TB funding cuts

Author Countries: Switzerland, United States

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

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Journal

PLOS Global Public Health

DOI

10.1371/journal.pgph.0004899 

Article Publication Date

10-Sep-2025

 

A ‘universal’ therapy against the seasonal flu? Antibody cocktail targets virus weak spot

Unusual immune strategy protects against all tested flu strains and prevents viral escape

Jackson Laboratory

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An unusual therapy developed at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) could change the way the world fights influenza, one of the deadliest infectious diseases.

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Credit: The Jackson Laboratory

An unusual therapy developed at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) could change the way the world fights influenza, one of the deadliest infectious diseases. In a new study in Science Advances, researchers report that a cocktail of antibodies protected mice—including those with weakened immune systems—from nearly every strain of influenza tested, including avian and swine variants that pose pandemic threats.

Unlike current FDA-approved flu treatments, which target viral enzymes and can quickly become useless as the virus mutates, this therapy did not allow viral escape, even after a month of repeated exposure in animals. That difference could prove crucial in future outbreaks, when survival often depends on how quickly and effectively doctors can deploy treatments and vaccine development will take about six months.

“This is the first time we’ve seen such broad and lasting protection against flu in a living system,” said Silke Paust, an immunologist at JAX and senior author of the study. “Even when we gave the therapy days after infection most of the treated mice survived.”

The insights challenge a long-held belief that for antibodies to be useful as a therapy against viruses they must be “neutralizing” antibodies that bind directly to viruses and block them from infecting cells. Instead, the team engineered “non-neutralizing” antibodies, which don’t prevent infection but tag infected lung cells and recruit the body’s immune system to clear the infection. This new approach could reshape how scientists design treatments for other viruses.

“The majority of antibodies our bodies make are non-neutralizing, but medicine has largely ignored them,” Paust explained. “We show they can be lifesaving. Even with lethal strains like H5 and H7 avian flu, this therapy saved lives long after infection had taken hold.”

The team focused on a small, highly conserved region of the influenza A virus’s Matrix Protein 2, called M2e. This part of the virus is essential for its life cycle and remains nearly unchanged across infected cells in all flu strains, including human, avian, and swine variants.

The therapy did not lead to viral resistance even after repeated exposure, and sequencing confirmed no mutations in the virus’s M2 region after 24 days of treatment. While the team tested the efficacy of the three antibodies individually, the success came from combining them, as this approach reduces the virus’ chances of escaping three different antibodies.

“The virus didn’t mutate away even when using individual antibodies,” Paust said. “But in a flu season with millions of people taking this therapy, I would be much more confident that we can prevent escape from the therapy if we use the cocktail.”

Paust and her team found that the antibodies were effective at low doses, both before and after influenza infection. The cocktail significantly reduced disease severity and viral load in lungs, and improved survival rates in both healthy and immunocompromised mice.

When testing H7N9, a type of bird flu that can be deadly to both animals and people, the team found that just one dose of the treatment reduced the amount of virus in the lungs, even when it was given four days after infection. The reduced viral loads correlated with better survival rates. All mice survived when treated with the antibody cocktail on the first three days after infection, while 70% and 60% survived on days four and five, respectively.

“We can use very low doses, which is also promising because potential therapies could be cheaper and less likely to produce adverse side effects in people,” Paust said.

While the results are preliminary, they are promising for a future where patients could have access to stockpiled therapeutics to be deployed rapidly to fight seasonal outbreaks or pandemics. Currently, flu vaccines are updated seasonally because the virus continuously mutates, making immunity to prior strains irrelevant.

“We need something that is off the shelf when we don’t necessarily have the time to make a new vaccine if we do have an outbreak or pandemic where lethality is high, so this type of therapy could be readily available for anyone in any situation,” Paust said.

The team is working on designing antibodies for clinical trials. The idea is to make a “humanized” antibody with the same specificity to target the M2 protein, but without triggering an immune response against the therapy itself or diminishing its efficacy in humans. The team envisions a future where the cocktail could work as a standalone prophylactic for elderly, immunocompromised, and other high-risk groups, in addition to serving as a therapy for those severely ill with flu.

Other authors are Teha Kim of The Jackson Laboratory; Lynn Bimler and Amber Y. Song of Baylor College of Medicine; Sydney L. Ronzulli, Scott K. Johnson, Cheryl A. Jones, and S. Mark Tompkins of the Center for Influenza Disease & Emergence Research and the Center for Vaccines and Immunology, University of Georgia.

This research was supported by The Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (grant R01AI130065), and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (grant AI053831).

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adx3505s 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Non-Neutralizing Antibodies to Influenza A Matrix Protein 2 Ectodomain Are Broadly Effective and Resistant to Viral Escape Mutations

Article Publication Date

10-Sep-2025

 

Could robots help kids conquer reading anxiety? New study from the Department of Computer Science at UChicago suggests so

University of Chicago

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For many children, the transition from learning to read to reading to learn is a crucial and sometimes nerve-wracking milestone. Reading aloud in class is intended to foster fluency and confidence, but for many students, it may spark anxiety that can hinder literacy development well into adulthood. In response to this challenge, PhD student Lauren Wright led a team of researchers—including collaborators from the University of Chicago, University of Illinois Chicago, and University of Wisconsin–Madison—through an innovative study to explore how technology might assist children in learning contexts where anxiety can be a barrier. This work emerged from Assistant Professor Sarah Sebo’s Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Lab at the University of Chicago, where researchers are investigating how technology can augment the important work teachers are doing in the classroom by providing one-on-one individualized educational assistance.

The study points to an unexpected potential ally for anxious readers: robotic reading companions. 

“Other researchers have made an interesting observation about how children engage with robot tutors: children seem to feel more comfortable making mistakes in front of a robot than a human adult,” said Sebo. “Our team wanted to study whether children really do experience less anxiety with a robot than with a person. We did, in fact, find strong evidence that children experience less anxiety with a robot when reading aloud, highlighting that children may be able to learn with robots in a unique and potentially beneficial way – free of anxiety. Rather than being worried about making a mistake in front of a person, children could focus more of their mental resources on learning the subject material in front of them.” 

Reading Aloud, Without Judgment

The study involved 52 children between the ages of 8 and 11. Each child read stories aloud in three different settings: alone, to a human adult, and to a robot called Misty. As children read, researchers monitored three classic indicators of anxiety: vocal jitter, heart rate variability, and facial temperature.

The results were striking. When reading to Misty the robot, children showed fewer physiological signs of anxiety; their voices were steadier and their heart rates less rigid when compared to reading in front of an adult. One child observed, “The robot was less stressful...the robot is easier because you feel less judged because robots don’t have feelings.” Another said, “Even when I made a mistake I knew it couldn’t be mad at me.”

“Often when we want to know how someone felt while doing a task, we just ask them in a survey,” explained Wright. “However, if you ask a 10 year old ‘were you nervous?’ they’re most likely to say no, either because they don’t want to admit it or because they’re still developing the ability to identify and name their own emotions. Physiological measures give us a more unbiased understanding of a person’s internal state of mind - for example, very few of us can intentionally control our own heart rates. In educational research, we can use these techniques to study not just how students learn under different conditions, but also how the act of learning makes them feel.”

Comfort Is Key, But Not Universal

Most children in the study preferred reading with the robot, describing it as cute, fun, and a less stressful audience. However, not all were convinced. Some students found the robot unsettling or disliked its mechanical voice, highlighting the importance of thoughtful design if robots are to become regular fixtures in classrooms.

For those who preferred Misty, a key reason was that the robot offered support and feedback without making them feel self-conscious or judged. Many children appreciated that mistakes could be pointed out in a straightforward way by the robot, helping them focus on learning rather than worrying about what others might think. Reading with the robot allowed them to feel more comfortable and less anxious about making errors, creating a more encouraging environment for building their reading skills.

Learning Outcomes and Societal Impact

While the researchers did not observe substantial differences in reading comprehension between robot and human sessions, the robot’s calming influence did not interfere with learning objectives. According to the authors, “the anxiety-mitigating effects of reading to the robot did not come at the expense of comprehension.”

This study provides objective evidence supporting what many in human-robot interaction research have suspected—that robots can offer social advantages in situations that provoke anxiety. Especially with classroom anxiety affecting many aspects of learning, from speaking up to tackling new subjects, technologies like robotic companions could help teachers create environments where students feel more comfortable taking academic risks.

The potential applications go beyond education. Robots might help patients feel more at ease when discussing sensitive issues with doctors, or support beginners in activities ranging from painting to physical therapy. In any setting where vulnerability creates barriers, a robot’s presence could make a noticeable difference. By working in partnership with educators, robots may become valuable allies for students in many learning scenarios, supporting not just literacy but confidence and participation across subjects.

Wright reflects on the promise of this technology.

“Ideally, the difficulty of practicing any skill should come from the challenge of the skill itself, not our fear of practicing. Robots occupy a very useful niche - just social enough to give us feedback, but not so social that we’re concerned about being judged. For people who avoid learning new skills because they’re nervous about how they look or sound as a beginner, robots might be one way to practice in a safe space until they gain more confidence.”

 

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Journal

Science Robotics

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Robotic Reading Companions Can Mitigate Oral Reading Anxiety in Children

Article Publication Date

10-Sep-2025