Gabriela Czarnek is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University. She is also a Research Affiliate at Massachussets Institute of Technology. Gabriela earned her PhD at Jagiellonian University under the supervision of Prof. Małgorzata Kossowska and Prof. Michael Richter in 2018. Her research focuses on political and science-related beliefs, including how people form these beliefs, respond to information and persuasive communication, and how ideology shapes attitudes toward science and scientists, climate change, and public policy. Her work combines experiments, survey data analysis, psychophysiological measures, and automated text analysis.

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gabriela.czarnek@uj.edu.pl

Research projects

Current projects
  1. Updating beliefs regarding science and politics: The role of motivation and information processing strategies. Grant awarded to Gabriela Czarnek from the National Science Centre in the Sonata scheme (2022-2025, no. UMO-2021/43/D/HS6/03353).
  2. Human-AI dialogues in climate change communication. Project in collaboration with prof. David Rand and researchers from MIT and Cornell University. Funded by The 2030 Project: A Cornell Climate Initiative.
  3. Eliciting willingness to pay for domestic and international climate change policies. Project coordinate by Hendrik Vrijburg with researchers from Leiden University, University College Dublin, and Jagiellonian University, funded by  Una Europa – Kiem grant.
Past projects
  1. The role of doubt in belief updating: a motivational perspective. NAWA BEKKER (2023-2025, #BPN/BEK/2022/1/00295) to fund stay at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  2. Well-being in older age: investigation using automatic content analysis of social media texts. MOBILNOŚĆ PLUS grant (2018-2019, #1614/MOB/V/2017/0) received from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland. Project is carried out at Psychometrics Centre, Cambridge Judge Business School, Cambridge University
  3. Motivational, affective, and cognitive sources of knowledge formation process: Implications for intrapersonal, interpersonal and intergroup phenomena.  MAESTRO Grant awarded to prof. Małgorzata Kossowska by the National Centre for Science.
  4. The impact of age on in-group bias: EEG study with minimal group paradigm. In co-operation with Raffaella Rumiati, Francesco Foroni, & Luca Piretti from SISSA (Trieste, Italy).
  5. Political intolerance as an effect of value threat. Grant for young researchers sponsored by the Faculty of Philosopy at Jagiellonian University (DSC grant). In co-operation with Małgorzata Kossowska and Paulina Szwed.

Publications in English

  1. Blum, A., Czarnek, G., & Berinsky, A.J., Rand, D. G. (in press). After the takeover: Rebuilding trust in public media through institutional reform. Political Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-026-10127-w
  2. Lin, H., Czarnek, G., Lewis, B., White, J, P., Berinsky, A, J., Costello, A., Pennycook, G., Rand, G, D. (2025). Persuading voters using human–artificial intelligence dialogues. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09771-9
  3. Czarnek, G., Jaśko, K., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2025). Blissful Ignorance: A Motivated Cognition Perspective on Information Avoidance. Current Opinion in Psychology, 102139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102139
  4. Czarnek, G., Hornsey, M. J., Bucki, S., & Kossowska, M. (2025). As countries become more affluent, climate change attitudes are more politically polarised. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 103, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2025.102579
  5. Czarnek, G., & Kossowska, M. (2024). Strong correlational but no causal evidence on the link between the perception of scientific consensus and support for vaccination. PLOS ONE, 19(1), e0296066. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296066
  6. Czarnek, G., & Stillwell, D. (2022). Two is better than one: Using a single emotion lexicon can lead to unreliable conclusions. PLOS ONE, 17(10), e0275910. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275910
  7. Legate, N., Ngyuen, T. V., Weinstein, N., Moller, A., Legault, L., Vally, Z., … & Ogbonnaya, C. E. (2022). A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119, e2111091119 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2111091119.
  8. Czarnek, G., Kossowska, M., Richter, M. (in 2021). Stereotyping and Effort Mobilization in Older Age: The Role of Self-involvement. In Sędek, G., Hess, T., & Touron, D. (Eds.) Multiple pathways of cognitive aging: Motivational and contextual influences. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 
  9. Czarnek, G., Kossowska, M., & Szwed, P. (2021). Right-wing ideology reduces the effects of education on climate change beliefs in more developed countries. Nature Climate Change, 11, 9–13. doi: 10.1038/s41558-020-00930-6  Full text available here
  10. Czarnek, G., & Kossowska, M. (2021). The Effects of Needs for Security and Certainty on Economic Beliefs: The Role of Political Engagement and the Welfare State Model. Social Psychological and Personality Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620977621
  11. Czarnek, G., Richter, M., & Strojny, P. (2021). Cardiac Sympathetic Activity During Recovery as an Indicator of Sympathetic Activity during Task Performance. Psychophysiology. 58(20), e13724. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13724
  12. Kossowska, M., Szwed, P., Czarnek, G. (2021). Ideology shapes trust in scientists and attitudes towards vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Group processes & Intergroup Relations, 24(5):720-737. doi:10.1177/13684302211001946
    Preprint available at https://psyarxiv.com/hcbmw/
  13. Wang K., Goldenberg A., Dorison, C.A., Miller, J.K., Uusberg, A., Lerner, J.S., Gross, J.J., Agesin, B.B., Bernardo, M., Campos, O., Eudave, L., Grzech, K., Ozery, D.H., Jackson, E.A., Luis Garcia, E.O., Drexler, S.M., Jurković, A.P., Rana, K., Wilson, J.P., … Moshontz, H. (2021) A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Human Behavior https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01173-x 
  14. Czarnek, G., Strojny, P., Strojny, A., & Richter, M. (2020). Assessing engagement during rescue operation simulated in virtual reality: a psychophysiological study. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 36(5), 464-476.  doi: 10.1080/10447318.2019.1655905
  15. Jaśko, K., Pyrkosz-Pacyna, J., Czarnek, G., Dukała, K., & Szastok, M. (2020).  A comparison of men and women graduating from STEM. Job outcomes, attributions for success, and desired job characteristics. Journal of Social Issues, 76(3), 512-542. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12392
  16. Szumowska, E., Czarnek, G., Dragon, P., & de Keersmaecker, J. (2020). Correction after misinformation: Does engagement in media multitasking affect attitude adjustment? Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology, 4(2), 199-226. https://doi.org/10.1080/23743603.2021.1884495
  17. Czarnek, G., Szwed, P., & Kossowska, M. (2019). Right‐and Left‐wing Prejudice Toward Dissimilar Groups in Cultural and Economic Domains. European Journal of Social Psychology, 49, 807-823. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2548 Full text available here
  18. Czarnek, G., Kossowska, M., Richter, M. (2019). Aging, effort, and stereotyping: The evidence for the moderating role of self-involvement. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 138, 1-10. DOI 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2019.01.009
  19. Kossowska., M., Szwed, P., Wyczesany, M., Czarnek, G., i Wronka, E. (2018). Religious fundamentalism modulates neural responses to error-related words: The role of motivation towards closure. Frontiers in Psychology. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00285 Full text available here
  20. Kossowska, M., Szwed, P., Wronka, E., Czarnek, G., Wyczesany, M. (2016). Anxiolytic function of fundamentalist beliefs: Neurocognitive evidence. Personality and Individual Differences, 101, 390-395. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.039 Full text available here.
  21. Czarnek, G., Kossowska, M., i Sędek G. (2015). The Influence of Aging on Outgroup Stereotypes: The Mediating Role of Cognitive and Motivational Facets of Deficient Flexibility. Experimental Aging Research, 41(3),303-324. doi: 10.1080/0361073X.2015.1021647 Full text available here.
  22. Kossowska, M., Czarnek, G., Wyczesany, M., Wronka, E., Szwed, P., & Bukowski, M.(2015). Electrocortical indices of attention correlate with need for closure. NeuroReport, 26, 285-290. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000345  Full text available here.
  23. Kossowska, M., Bukowski, M., & Czarnek, G. (2014). Two routes to closure: Time pressure and goal activation effects on executive control. Polish Psychological Bulletin, 45, 268-274.
  24. Kossowska, M., Czarnek., G., Wronka, E., Wyczesany, M., & Bukowski, M. (2014). Individual differences in epistemic motivation and brain conflict monitoring activity. Neuroscience Letters, 570,  38–41. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2014.04.002

 

Publications in Polish

Czarnek, G., Dragon, P., Szwed, P., & Wojciszke, B. (2017). Kwestionariusz przekonań politycznych: własności psychometryczne [Political Beliefs Questionnaire: Psychometric properties]. Psychologia Społeczna, 41, 205–222. doi: 10.7366/1896180020174108 Full text available here

Chapters in English

Czarnek, G., Kossowska, M., Richter, M. (in press). Stereotyping and Effort Mobilization in Older Age: The Role of Self-involvement. In Sędęk, G., Hess, T., & Touron, D. (Eds.) Multiple pathways of cognitive aging: Motivational and contextual influences. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 

Chapters in Polish

Czernatowicz-Kukuczka, A., Kossowska, M., Czarnek, G., Szumowska, E., & Szwed, P. (in press). Radzenie sobie z niepewnością na poziomie przekonań i sądów społecznych [Dealing with uncertaitny at the level of social judgments and beliefs]. In M. Kofta and A. Rędzio (eds.), Poczucie kontroli i niepewność: Konsekwencje dla rozumienia świata społecznego [The sense of control and uncertainty: Consequnces for understanding the social world]. Warszawa: Liberi Libri.

Reports

Please check the report from the study on political beliefs (in Polish): REPORT. Reported study was founded by a Faculty of Philosophy (Jagiellonion University) grant for PhD students and young researchers no K/DSC/002533 awarded to Gabriela Czarnek.