That Difficult Person in Your Life Might Be Aging You Faster New research found that hasslers, people who make your life harder, can accelerate biological aging

ASA members Byungkyu Lee @letitbk.bsky.social and Brea Perry have received lots of coverage @washingtonpost.com @nytimes.com for their recent study showing that difficult people in your social network might lead to faster biological aging. Here's a piece that's not paywalled: https://bit.ly/4dJsXwv

Distribution of Age-Accelerated GrimAge2 and DunedinPACE across chronological age groups. This figure presents the distribution of Age-Accelerated GrimAge2 (Left) and DunedinPACE (Right) across different chronological age groups. Each box plot displays the median (black line), interquartile range (dark gray box), and overall data range (whiskers). The red vertical lines indicate the reference points: 0 for Age-Accelerated GrimAge2

One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Negative social ties as emerging risk factors for accelerated aging, inflammation, and multimorbidity.” Explore the article here: https://ow.ly/V93x50YoKPE

For more trending articles, visit https://ow.ly/4yS050YoKPJ

www.hani.co.kr/arti/science...

thanks Tamkinat!!

The effect size is about 13-17% of the smoking-aging gap. Small per year, but aging compounds. And the associations extend beyond epigenetic aging to depression, anxiety, inflammation, and BMI. I am curious of your thoughts!

Paper: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Hassler exposure isn't rare nor random. About 30% of people reported at least one hassler among their closest ties. Women, daily smokers, people in poorer health, and those with more adverse childhood experiences were more likely to report hasslers. Disadvantage clusters.

Interestingly, family hasslers (parents, siblings, kids) showed the strongest effects on aging. Spouse hasslers? No significant association. Spousal conflict may be buffered by the mix of support and strain in those relationships -- family hasslers are harder to escape.

Happy to share our new paper published in PNAS!

Using epigenetic clocks and egocentric network data, we find each additional "hassler" in your close social network is associated with ~9 months of extra biological age and 1.5% faster pace of aging.

We are hiring a post-doc to study the impact of AI agents on complex social systems in Duke's Society-Centered AI Initiative and/or the Polarization Lab! Apply here:
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/314...

New postdoc position in Computational Social Science (80%) at the Institute of Sociology, University of Bern. Part of the Digital Society Lab.

Start April 2026.
Apply by Jan 31, 2026.

Official job posting: ohws.prospective.ch/public/v1/jo...

Estimating death rates in complex humanitarian emergencies using the network survival method Abstract. Reliable estimates of death rates in complex humanitarian emergencies are critical for assessing the severity of a crisis and for effectively all

Our new paper develops and tests a network-based method for estimating death rates in complex humanitarian emergencies.

Joint w/ @dennisfeehan.bsky.social and team from Geneva-based NGO @impact-initiatives.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/aje/advance-...

Mapping subnational gender gaps in internet and mobile adoption using social media data | PNAS The digital revolution has ushered in many societal and economic benefits. Yet access to digital technologies such as mobile phones and internet re...

New @pnas.org paper constructing subnational estimates of internet and mobile adoption by gender, including gender gaps, for 117 low- and middle- income countries from 2015 through 2025.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Machine Learning / AI Internships - Jobs - Careers at Apple Apply for a Machine Learning / AI Internships job at Apple. Read about the role and find out if it’s right for you.

Our Responsible AI team at Apple is looking for spring/summer 2026 PhD research interns! Please apply at jobs.apple.com/en-us/detail... and email rai-internship@group.apple.com. Do not send extra info (e.g., CV), just drop us a line so we can find your application in the central pool!

🚨It's that exciting time of year!🚨

Our team has got TWO open DPhil (PhD) positions in #datascience + #health here at @oxforddemsci.bsky.social for 2026🎉! See for details:

1️⃣ 👉 crahal.com/HDS_2026.html
2️⃣ 👉 crahal.com/pophealth_2026.html

Please share and help us to find our future teammates ❤️!

Call for two or more open-rank academic positions in Sociology

Come join me in wonderful Copenhagen! 🇩🇰

My department is looking to fill at least two positions - any specialization and any level! The University of Copenhagen aims to be the best place for the best ideas. What’s yours?

Apply by Nov 15.

we're hiring assistant professor in computational social science, applications close 26/10/2025

We're hiring an Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science ❗

📚 jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Apply before 26 October and join an internationally outstanding group of social science methodologists 🌎

✨New✨ postdoc opportunity to collaborate with @mollycopeland.bsky.social and myself on an exciting project on geography, community, and mental health at @ndsociology.bsky.social. Happy to talk to anyone interested. Please resky (or whatever retweeting is called here)!
apply.interfolio.com/169206

Hurray!

Plot showing that married LGBTQ adults with a same-sex spouse or partner rate their relationship more highly than those living with a partner

Our survey of LGBTQ adults in the U.S. found that most who are married to or living with a same-sex spouse or partner (63%) say their relationship is going very well, and married respondents are especially likely to say this.
www.pewresearch.org/...

Over at the blog, I write about a few interesting articles about place. Features of place matter for suicide rates. Features of place are really changing.

asocial.substack.com/p/inequality...

Who polices which boundaries? How racial self-identification affects external classification https://osf.io/bhrdj This study explores whether Americans agree on the ethnoracial categories that are worth policing. It evaluates how receptive White, Black, Latino, and Asian Americans are to #sociology

thanks much!!

thanks!!

I am happy to share the news that our paper received an Honorable Mention for the Best Publication Award from the Section on the Sociology of Mental Health, ASA, this year!!

Oh yes, that’s actually part of another paper I’m working on with Brea. The short answer is yes, but it’s more about how embedded family and friends are in your network. The more deeply embedded they are, the stronger their negative influence tends to be.

Associations Between Negative Social Ties and Accelerated Biological Aging, Inflammation, and Multiple Morbidities Negative social ties, or "difficult ties," are pervasive yet understudied components of social networks that may accelerate biological aging and morbidity. Using ego-centric network data and DNA methy...

"That one toxic friend" might be aging you faster!

Our new working paper shows that negative social ties are common and linked to faster epigenetic aging, higher inflammation, and poorer mental and physical health.

Link: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Associations Between Negative Social Ties and Accelerated Biological Aging, Inflammation, and Multiple Morbidities www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05....

Why I’m Resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress I cannot participate in systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging.

"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging."

Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.

I wrote about my decision in TIME.

time.com/7285045/resi...

Perceived Fairness of Couples’ Division of Housework: Evidence From a Multi-Factorial Experiment in the United States - Daniela R. Urbina, Daria Tisch, 2025 Although the ratio of women’s to men’s housework hours has declined, women still spend more time than men doing household tasks in most high-income contexts. Th...

New paper with Daria Tisch ‪(@dariatisch.bsky.social‬) on fairness perceptions of housework divisions using a multi-factorial experiment in the U.S., now out in one of my favorite journals––Gender and Society: doi.org/10.1177/0891...