People often seek new information and eagerly update their beliefs. Other times they avoid information or resist revising their beliefs. What explains those different reactions? Answers to this question often frame information processing as a competition between cognition and motivation. … Continued
We recommend an article by David Webber, Arie Kruglanski, Erica Molinario and Katarzyna Jasko from our team, recently published by ‘Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences’. The article identifies important existential and epistemic needs that motivate individuals to become ideological extremists … Continued
How do political elections affect the way people feel and why does it matter? Does winning make people more peaceful and benevolent while a defeat leads to hostility and support for violence? Katarzyna Jasko, Joanna Grzymala-Moszczynska, Marta Maj, Marta Szastok, … Continued
Katarzyna Jasko and Gary LaFree compared leaders and followers in extremist groups with regard to their engagement in political violence. In a sample of 1331 individuals who have committed ideologically motivated violence in the United States they found that even … Continued
Katarzyna Jasko from our Centre together with David Webber, Arie Kruglanski, Michele Gelfand, Muh Taufiqurrohman, Malkanthi Hettiarachchi, and Rohan Gunaratna have just published a new article in ‘Journal of Personality and Social Psychology’. The paper investigates the role of social context in violent … Continued
What motivates sacrifice for a political cause? Katarzyna Jasko, Marta Szastok, Joanna Grzymala-Moszczynska, Marta Maj, and Arie Kruglanski investigated this problem in six studies, which included diverse groups of political activists such as feminist activists engaged in Czarny Protest, environmental … Continued
Marcin Bukowski from our Centre, together with colleagues, tested an alternative prediction that the salient lack of personal control (vs. having control) experienced in the context of unemployment can lead to connectedness and more positive perception of similar others (e.g. … Continued
Our sense of control is often lost and regained many times a day. Such fluctuations might influence the way we perceive and categorize the world and other people. In this research, Marcin Bukowski from our Centre and collaborators asked how … Continued
‘Both rightists and leftists are prejudiced — but toward different groups’ – what does it mean? Eric B. Dolan on the PsyPost website asks this question discussing the new paper by Gabriela Czarnek, Paulina Szwed, and Małgorzata Kossowska from out … Continued
The majority of psychological research so far was focused on showing that people holding right-wing political beliefs, in comparison to left-wingers, are more prejudiced. Nevertheless, some researchers were questioning this assumption and showed that both rightists and leftists might be … Continued