Jonas R. Kunst

• Benningstad, Nora Cornelia Glerud; Obaidi, Milan; Anjum, Gulnaz & Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). An integrated model of climate and environmental pathways to violent extremism. Global Environmental Change. ISSN 0959-3780. 101, p. 103240–103240. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2026.103240. Full text in Research Archive
• Feroz, Faisal & Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Can AI debias the news? LLM interventions improve cross-partisan receptivity but LLMs overestimate their own effectiveness. Computers in Human Behavior Reports. 24, p. 1–25. doi: 10.1016/j.chbr.2026.101285. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Partisan news media erode cross-partisan trust, but large language models (LLMs) offer a potential means of debiasing such content at scale. Across two pre-registered experiments, we tested whether LLM-generated debiasing of liberal news headlines could improve conservative readers' trust-relevant judgments. Study 1 found that subtle lexical debiasing (replacing emotive words with moderate synonyms) had no effect on any outcome. Study 2 found that a more substantive reframing intervention significantly increased conservatives' perceived trustworthiness, completeness, and willingness to engage with liberal news headlines, without producing a backfire effect among liberals. In Study 1, the intervention produced robust effects across silicon participants simulated with six different models (o3-mini, o3, GPT-4o mini, GPT-4o, GPT-5 mini, and GPT-5), whereas it had no impact on human readers. In Study 2, the intervention's effects among silicon participants generally aligned directionally with human responses but were significantly larger for some outcomes, and three models (o3, GPT-4o mini, and GPT-4o) incorrectly predicted a liberal backfire effect absent in humans. Moderation analyses tentatively suggest that the models' implicit theory of who responds to debiasing diverged from the psychological profile that actually predicted human responsiveness. Most strikingly, in Study 2, participants simulated by each of the six models suggested that debiasing effects would be stronger among participants high in political in-group identification. Yet, no such moderation was observed among human participants. Collectively, these findings suggest that LLM-based debiasing can improve cross-partisan receptivity when the intervention targeted ideological framing but not when it was limited to the minimal surface-level substitutions tested in this research — and that current models lack both the quantitative accuracy and qualitative psychological fidelity to evaluate their own interventions without human oversight.

• Talhelm, Thomas; Wei, Liuqing; Sun, Rui; Medvedev, Danila; Martin, Álvaro San & Helmy, May [Show all 107 contributors for this article] (2026). Defining collectivism as duties in relationships rather than generalized warmth improves predictive validity in 100 cultures. Nature Human Behaviour. doi: 10.1038/s41562-026-02525-1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract Experts widely agree that East Asian cultures are more collectivistic than Western cultures. Yet 76 survey studies found no reliable difference. Our explanation is that the most-used surveys are contaminated with ‘warm fuzzy’ items, which describe warmth and prosociality towards everyone near and far. We argue that collectivism is better understood as ‘responsibilism’, which emphasizes responsibilities in close relationships. A survey found that many cultural psychologists expect collectivistic cultures to agree with warm fuzzy items. Then we developed a responsibilism scale and tested 12,247 people in 100 cultures. Results showed large cultural differences ( d  = 3.98 [2.50, 5.43]) that were previously obscured by flawed measurement. Responsibilism predicted differences across societies (such as family ties and corruption) and individuals (social class and politics) that most earlier scales missed. This study offers a solution to previous puzzling findings by distinguishing warm fuzzy prosociality from responsibilism and introducing a scale with stronger predictive validity.

• Kunst, Jonas R. & Benningstad, Nora Cornelia Glerud (2026). From Carnivore to Conscientious. In Dhont, Kristof; Sutton, Robbie & Ioannidou, Maria (Ed.), Animal and Vegan Advocacy: The Psychological Science and Practice of A. Routledge. ISSN 9781003596837. p. 46–54. doi: 10.4324/9781003596837-4. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This book provides cutting‑edge research on animal and vegan advocacy, addressing a defining moral contradiction of our time: even as concern for animals grow

• Colledge, David; Addington-Lefringhausen, K.; Dauber, D.; Zhu, Y.; Kim, K. H. & Ferenczi, N. [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2026). Harnessing Diversity: Majority-Group Acculturation Predicts Creativity and Flourishing Over Time. European Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0046-2772. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.70106. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Creativity and flourishing are core aims of higher education (HE) institutions and government initiatives globally. Large‐scale projects have linked creativity and flourishing with cultural diversity, yet their associations with majority‐group acculturation (i.e., how members of dominant culture groups adopt minority‐cultural elements and/or maintain their national culture) remain unexplored. We tested relationships between majority‐group acculturation and seven components of creativity and flourishing in UK (Study 1, N = 323) and Chinese (Study 2, N = 174) majority‐group university students and a three‐wave, English majority‐group longitudinal sample (Study 3, N at Time 1 = 219). Results found integration (i.e., adopting other cultures while maintaining one's own) predicted higher cognitive flexibility (Study 1), meaning‐in‐life (Studies 1 and 2) and quality of interpersonal relationships (Studies 1 and 2), while cultural adoption predicted higher cognitive flexibility, curiosity‐exploration and flourishing over time (Study 3). Findings align majority‐group acculturation with key priorities of HE and government programmes.

• Gibert, Lucille; Addington-Lefringhausen, Katharina; Dandy, Justine & Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). From undifferentiated to defined: a mixed-methods, data-driven investigation of the acculturation of culturally undifferentiated majority members. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. p. 1–67. doi: 10.1057/s41599-026-08549-2. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract In increasingly diverse societies, people in intercultural contact must navigate cultural diversity to find their place and sense of belonging. Yet, research on acculturation has largely focused on minority groups, leaving majority group responses to cultural change underexplored. A substantial subset of majority group members adopts an undifferentiated acculturation strategy, expressing low or neutral scores on both heritage culture maintenance and other culture adoption. This pre-registered mixed-methods study provides the first comprehensive examination of this strategy’s internal heterogeneity. We surveyed 316 undifferentiated White British participants and applied Latent Profile Analysis across psychological, ideological, and demographic variables, integrating these results with quantified qualitative data. The analysis revealed two subgroups. The larger Humanistic profile ( n  = 242) was characterised by politically liberal views, stronger identification with all humanity, and inclusive attitudes towards immigrants, and scored significantly higher—though still neutral in absolute terms—on other culture adoption. Their neutrality appeared to reflect a universalist, equality-oriented outlook rather than indifference, suggesting a cosmopolitan form of belonging grounded in global human identification. The smaller Detached profile ( n  = 74) showed higher cultural-identity reflection and cultural essentialism, and greater indifference to intercultural contact, but did not differ from the Humanistic group on heritage culture maintenance. This orientation reflected a more disengaged or ambivalent sense of belonging, marked by scepticism towards cultural identity as a basis for social connection. These findings demonstrate that the undifferentiated strategy is not monolithic but comprises at least two orientations: one grounded in inclusive, humanity-based belonging and another reflecting detachment from cultural involvement. We propose extending acculturation theory to incorporate these humanistic and detached patterns, which may represent distinct adaptations to culturally complex, globalised societies. We discuss their implications for fostering or hindering belonging among a substantial segment of majority-group members.

• Brandtzæg, Petter Bae; Alvestad, Silje Susanne; Kunst, Jonas R. & Følstad, Asbjørn (2026). Professional and community-based fact-checking show different strengths, but neither performs strongly across trust, scalability, and impact. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. 7(4), p. 1–27. doi: 10.37016/mr-2020-206. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Fact-checking on social media matters more than ever. When Meta abandoned professional fact checkers in 2025 in favour of crowd-sourced annotations, it bet that community participation could substitute for institutional expertise. Our systematic review of 21 empirical studies of social media fact-checking (2022–2025) suggests the picture is more complicated than it appears. Community-based fact-checking is faster and scalable, whereas professional fact checkers are generally more trusted but often slow. Neither model, on its own, performs strongly across trust, scalability, and impact. The evidence suggests that hybrid systems combining community speed with expert verification are likely to be the most effective approach.

• Fluit, Sam; Bierwiaczonek, Kinga; Kunst, Jonas R. & Soest, Tilmann von (2026). The mental health–politics nexus: How mental health trajectories from adolescence to midlife shape political attitudes and voting patterns. Political Psychology. ISSN 0162-895X. 47(4). doi: 10.1111/pops.70178. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract With political polarization increasing, it is important to understand the development of political preferences. Previously, adolescent mental health problems have been linked to lower adulthood voting rates, while relationships between life trajectories of mental health and political attitudes and orientations remain largely underexplored. Using longitudinal data from the population‐based cohort Young in Norway ( N  = 2215) spanning three decades, we examine associations between adolescent internalizing (depression, anxiety symptoms) and externalizing problems and 12 midlife political preferences. Latent class growth analysis identified three trajectories for internalizing and two for externalizing problems. Elevated levels of either problem type demonstrated significant associations with lower political and social trust in midlife. Elevated initial internalizing problems, regardless of subsequent development, were related to more left‐wing profiles. Conversely, persistently elevated externalizing problems showed associations with stronger right‐wing profiles. These findings demonstrate that mental health trajectories from adolescence into adulthood are systematically related to distinct political preferences in midlife.

• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Voldelig ekstremisme som både angrep og forsvar. Tidsskrift for Norsk psykologforening (Psykologtidsskriftet). ISSN 0332-6470. 63(7), p. 459–461. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  En ny spørreundersøkelse på tvers av 58 land har undersøkt ulike typer motivasjon for voldelig ekstremisme.

• Kunst, Jonas R.; Besta, Tomasz; Jaśkiewicz, Michał; Gajda, Anna Natalia; Sanden, Markus & Flatebø, Mina Marie [Show all 113 contributors for this article] (2026). The psychology of offensive and defensive intergroup violence: Preregistered insights from 58 countries. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). ISSN 0027-8424. 123(13). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2535665123. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Evolutionary theory and historical evidence suggest humans possess distinct psychological tendencies for defensive and offensive violence, which have insufficiently been considered in research. In a large-scale preregistered study across 58 countries ( N = 18,128), we demonstrate that violent extremist intentions manifest along two distinct psychological phenomena: defensive extremism, motivated by protecting one’s group from (perceived) threats, and offensive extremism, driven by establishing group dominance. We show that these dimensions a) can be reliably differentiated across diverse cultural contexts, b) are distinctively associated with psychological dispositions, and c) systematically differentiate countries varying in macrolevel sociopolitical functioning and violence. Across nations, a two-factorial structure was observed that was invariant at the scalar level. Defensive extremist intentions were consistently higher than offensive extremism in 56 out of 58 countries, suggesting greater moral acceptance of protective violence. While psychopathy was positively related to both types of violent extremist intentions, those high in Machiavellianism and narcissism demonstrated particularly higher levels of defensive extremist intentions. By contrast, those scoring high on religious fundamentalism and social dominance orientation demonstrated particularly higher levels of offensive extremist intentions. Unexpectedly, liberal political group identification was associated with higher offensive but lower defensive extremist intentions. Crucially, offensive (but not defensive) intentions were associated with macrolevel societal dysfunction, including political terror and internal conflict. These findings establish that defensive and offensive violent extremist intentions represent two conceptually different forms of extremism across a large and diverse range of countries, with consequences for research and practice.

• Kunst, Jonas R.; Obaidi, Milan; Gollwitzer, Anton; Brandtzæg, Petter B.; Hinrichs, Yannic & Saini, Neha [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2026). Intelligent Systems, Vulnerable Minds: A Framework for Radicalization to Violence in the Age of AI. Personality and Social Psychology Review. ISSN 1088-8683. doi: 10.1177/10888683261430089. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Academic Abstract Advances in AI require a revision of the psychological and socio-technical dynamics by which individuals are radicalized to embrace violent extremism. This review synthesizes process models of radicalization with research on social and personality risk factors, AI, and psychological mechanisms to propose a four-stage framework mapping the AI architecture of radicalization: (1) Exposure , where recommender systems and virality features create initial attraction to extreme content; (2) Reinforcement , where filter bubbles and group recommendations leverage biases to strengthen extremist beliefs and create echo chambers; (3) Group Integration , where ideologically homogenous clusters, AI bot swarms and companions foster group belonging and readiness for action; cumulatively resulting in (4) Violent Extremist Action . We examine how established social, cognitive, personality, and contextual vulnerability factors heighten psychological risk in the AI-driven radicalization process, as well as the emerging role of generative AI. We conclude by outlining a stage-based framework for governance and future research. Public Abstract AI-driven algorithms designed to maximize engagement on social media, compounded by generative AI, can unintentionally set the stage for radicalization. It begins with Exposure , where algorithms push users toward extreme content because it captures attention. Next, during Reinforcement , algorithms feed users personalized content while AI swarms can create a synthetic consensus that reinforces emerging biases, normalizes extremity, and insulates users from alternative views. Third, during Group Integration , individuals are absorbed into extremist networks, reinforced by human peers, AI companions, and bot swarms that validate radical beliefs and deepen identity ties. By exploiting psychological needs for belonging and certainty, this stage becomes particularly pernicious, potentially opening the door for violence. We propose policy measures that can reduce radicalization at each stage.

• Kimel, Sasha Y.; Kunst, Jonas R.; Uenal, Fatih & Kim, Viridiana (2026). ‘They're eating our pets!’: When disgust and perceived cruelty combine to heighten prejudice. British Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0144-6665. 65(2). doi: 10.1111/bjso.70063. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract Accusations that foreigners are ‘eating pets’ tap into deep fears of impurity and cruelty. Despite the dark history of such moralized disgust and evidence that purity‐ and harm‐based emotions can intensify bias, little experimental work has directly tested how these processes jointly shape prejudice. Across two main‐text experiments and one supplemental replication ( N  = 2710, United States), we tested whether hostility is greatest when cultural outgroups are portrayed as consuming meat that elicits both visceral (purity‐related) disgust and moral concern. A pretest confirmed that dog meat evoked the highest moral concern, rat the highest contamination‐related appraisals and cow was neutral, while Study 2 substituted monkey to test generalization. Prejudice and punitive intent were strongest for morally protected animals (dog, monkey), moderate for rat and lowest for cow. Visceral disgust showed more consistent association with bias, whereas compassion played a more limited role. Invoking disgust and perceived cruelty can become a potent trigger of hostility towards cultural outgroups.

• Schroeder, Daniel Thilo; Cha, Meeyoung; Baronchelli, Andrea; Bostrom, Nick; Christakis, Nicholas A. & Garcia, David [Show all 22 contributors for this article] (2026). How malicious AI swarms can threaten democracy. Science. ISSN 0036-8075. 391(6783), p. 354–357. doi: 10.1126/science.adz1697. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The fusion of agentic AI and LLMs marks a new frontier in information warfare

• Vu, Dinh Hung; Kunst, Jonas R.; Tong, Rongtian & Bierwiaczonek, Kinga (2025). Methodological challenges in cross-cultural adaptation research: insights from a large-scale meta-analysis. In Arasaratnam-Smith, Lily A. (Eds.), Handbook on Communication and Culture. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781035321599. p. 167–188. doi: 10.4337/9781035321605.00017. Full text in Research Archive
• Grzymala-Moszczynska, Joanna; Coenen, Ann-Cathrin; Gore-Gorszewska, Gabriela; Kunst, Jonas R.; Kałwak, Weronika & Jasko, Katarzyna (2025). “The whole thing is a juggling act”: Qualitative exploration of goal systems among activists and nonactivists. The Journal of Social and Political Psychology. 13(2), p. 292–310. doi: 10.5964/jspp.15491. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Drawing on goal systems theory (Kruglanski et al., 2002), this preregistered study explored the relationships between political and non-political goals among individuals with varying levels of political engagement. We conducted 40 semi-structured qualitative interviews with activists, non-activists, and former activists from Poland and Norway. We identify three recurrent relationships between political and other life goals, such as work, relationships, health, and basic psychological needs: (1) suppression, where non-political goals eclipse activism or vice-versa; (2) conflict, experienced as chronic trade-offs that often precipitate burnout; and (3) facilitation, whereby non-political goals enable sustained engagement. These relationships manifest as four distinct goal structures. Activists typically displayed either a “juggling” structure that continuously balances multiple commitments, or a “political-dominant” structure in which the cause overrides alternative goals. Non-activists most often subordinated political aims, whereas former activists described a fluctuating “all-or-nothing” structure—initial single-minded commitment followed by strategic withdrawal when costs outweighed perceived impact. Cross-nationally, Polish participants reported more multi-issue activism and acute work–activism conflicts than Norwegians, potentially reflecting longer working hours and political dissatisfaction. Our findings corroborate goal systems theory by showing how dynamic configurations of goal relations underpin trajectories of engagement, disengagement and re-engagement.

• Bierwiaczonek, Kinga; Vu, Dinh Hung; Tong, Rongtian; Cheung, Mike W.-L.; Benningstad, Nora Cornelia Glerud & Duin, Evita Willemiek van [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2025). A Meta-Analysis of Social and Contextual Correlates of Migrant Adaptation to Living in Receiving Societies. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-67468-z. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract International migration has been consistently rising in modern times, and understanding what factors are associated with the successful inclusion of migrants is urgent. This meta-analysis helps pinpoint such factors by identifying the most robust social and contextual correlates of successful migrant adaptation to living in the receiving societies. Here, we meta-analyze 5,066 effects from 1,114 primary studies among 571,260 first-generation migrants, international students, business expatriates, and refugees. We show that migrant adaptation is most strongly negatively associated with the presence of stressors, especially acculturative stressors and perceived discrimination, and positively with the availability of social resources, especially feelings of connectedness with the social context and not feeling lonely. The role of variables related to culture learning, namely exposure to social groups within the new culture, and the distance between the new culture and one’s heritage culture, was more limited. This pattern was found across the different migrant groups.

• Chen, Sau-Chin; Buchanan, Erin M.; Kekecs, Zoltan; Miller, Jeremy K.; Szabelska, Anna & Aczel, Balazs [Show all 114 contributors for this article] (2025). Investigating object orientation effects across 18 languages. Current Psychology. ISSN 1046-1310. 44(24), p. 19174–19174. doi: 10.1007/s12144-025-08304-x. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of objects mentioned in sentences. Mental representation is often measured with the sentence-picture verification task, wherein participants first read a sentence that implies the object property (i.e., shape and orientation). Participants then respond to an image of an object by indicating whether it was an object from the sentence or not. Previous studies have shown matching advantages for shape, but findings concerning object orientation have not been robust across languages. This registered report investigated the match advantage of object orientation across 18 languages in nearly 4,000 participants. The preregistered analysis revealed no compelling evidence for a match advantage for orientation across languages. Additionally, the match advantage was not predicted by mental rotation scores. In light of these findings, we discuss the implications for current theory and methodology surrounding mental simulation.

• Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Biddlestone, Mikey & Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). The Dual Impact of Believing and Spreading Conspiracy Theories: Independent and Interactive Effects on Social Perceptions and Orientations. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (QJEP). ISSN 1747-0218. doi: 10.1177/17470218251396952. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Prior research suggests that people who believe in and spread conspiracy theories are often viewed negatively, yet investigations systematically disentangling both factors are scarce. The present research addressed this gap through two pre-registered experiments with representative samples from the U.S. In Study 1, 418 participants evaluated eight fictional individuals across 3,344 trials, presented as (a) believing in and/or (b) spreading conspiracy theories in a 2 x 2 within-subjects design. Analyses revealed that both characters who believed in conspiracy theories and those who spread them were perceived as less competent, moral, and warm, and as more narcissistic, Machiavellian, and psychopathic. Moreover, both believers and spreaders were perceived as likely to engage in conspiratorial actions themselves, and participants reported lower willingness to interact with them. However, significant interactions for all variables showed that these effects were particularly pronounced for characters who spread conspiracy theories without believing in them. Notably, participants’ own conspiracy beliefs and to some extent their right-wing political orientation attenuated several effects and reversed some. In Study 2, we employed the reverse-correlation technique to model 412 participants’ mental representations of individuals who varied in belief and/or spread of conspiracy theories using a 2 x 2 between-subjects design. Results were directionally consistent with Study 1—both believers and spreaders of conspiracy theories were mentally represented less favorably—but no interactions or moderations were observed. Moreover, believing had significantly stronger effects than spreading on the rating dimensions. We discuss the social implications of these results and outline future directions.

• Renvik, Tuuli Anna; Eskelinen, Viivi; Pauha, Teemu; Jetten, Jolanda; Kunst, Jonas R. & Noll, Jolanda van der [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2025). The Role of (Non)religious Worldviews and Morality in Explaining Attitudes Towards Outgroups. The international journal for the psychology of religion. ISSN 1050-8619. p. 18–18. doi: 10.1080/10508619.2025.2568774. Full text in Research Archive
• Coenen, Ann-Cathrin; Feist, Felix J.; Imhoff, Roland; Obaidi, Milan & Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). The psychology of Querfront tactics: How protesters perceive and navigate conflicting ideologies to mobilise collectively. British Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0144-6665. 64(4). doi: 10.1111/bjso.70015. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Social scientists have developed impactful frameworks to understand who unites in protest. Yet, when exceptional circumstances arise, people are sometimes astounded by the convergence of disparate groups protesting together for an apparently unifying cause. One recent example is the COVID‐19 pandemic. A new movement protesting the containment measures rapidly evolved, gaining momentum only weeks after the measures' implementation. Strikingly, the movement included participants from, among others, the political far left and right—individuals who had protested each other only weeks earlier and would do so again after the pandemic was declared over. This context enabled a real‐life investigation of how people navigated conflicting ideologies to mobilise collectively. Drawing on 11 naturalistic protest observations and template analysis of 30 interviews with 31 protesters, we find that most participants indeed experienced the movement as ideologically diverse. At the same time, protesters used three strategies to navigate ideological conflict: (1) highlighting superordinate identities and ally utility (i.e., usefulness in advancing shared goals); (2) defending allies through in−/out‐group biases; and (3) embracing diversity. Our analysis demonstrates the combined explanatory power of social identity, social categorisation, and coalitional psychology frameworks in understanding emerging Querfront alliances, showing how protesters moved from identity construction to coalition calculus.

• Harris, Samantha Marie; Bye, Hege Høivik & Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). The Role of Norms and Acculturation in Migrants’ Willingness to Seek Mental Health Care: Results from a Large Preregistered Study. Social Science and Medicine. ISSN 0277-9536. 384, p. 1–11. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118598. Full text in Research Archive
• Obaidi, Milan; Kunst, Jonas R. & Myftari, Kledian (2025). Navigating the Threat Landscape: Understanding the Role of Threat Perceptions in Violent Extremism. In Obaidi, Milan & Kunst, Jonas R. (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781009407915. p. 345–365. doi: 10.1017/9781009407892.020. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Previous research has underscored the significance of intergroup threat perceptions in fostering prejudice and hostility toward out-groups. Nevertheless, the degree to which different types of threats – symbolic, realistic, numerical, existential, and meta-threat – remains insufficiently explored. This chapter provides a theoretically informed review of the role of these diverse threat types and synthesizes recent empirical studies demonstrating that perceptions of threat can precipitate extreme forms of out-group hostility, including violent extremism. The evidence suggests that threat perceptions not only incite violent hostility across various cultural contexts but also provoke violent defensive reactions among both majority and minority groups aiming to protect their valued traditions, scarce resources, and societal status and to avoid the perceived dread of extinction. We further discuss how cultural narratives, media portrayals, and political rhetoric shape these threat perceptions, which may fuel the process of radicalization and lead to a spiral into violent extremism. Our objective is to present a detailed analysis that can lay the groundwork for devising strategies to alleviate perceived threats leading to violent extremism. Accordingly, we propose prevention and intervention strategies designed to diminish perceived threats and curtail their violent ramifications.

• Black, Shlomo & Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Individual and community post-traumatic growth: A data-driven examination of person, process, and contextual factors. British Journal of Psychology. ISSN 0007-1269. doi: 10.1111/bjop.70021. Full text in Research Archive
• Michal, Piksa; Magdalena, Zaniewska; Agata, Cieslik-Starkiewicz; Kunst, Jonas R.; Mikolaj, Morzy & Jan, Piasecki [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2025). The link between tobacco smoking and susceptibility to misinformation. Psychopharmacology. ISSN 0033-3158. p. 1–10. doi: 10.1007/s00213-025-06802-1. Full text in Research Archive
• Allegretta, Silvia; Gavrilova, Margarita; Kartushina, Natalia; Mayor, Julien; Roch, Maja & Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Parental Attitudes and Children’s Language Development: A Cross-Cultural Evaluation of the Early Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire. Collabra: Psychology. ISSN 2474-7394. 11(1). doi: 10.1525/collabra.130882. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The Early Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire (EPAQ; Hembacher & Frank, 2020) was developed in the U.S. to assess parents’ beliefs, knowledge, ideas, and attitudes about parenting. Given the diversity of parenting practices among cultures, it is essential to establish the cross-cultural validity of the instruments used to measure them. For this reason, this study aims at (1) assessing the psychometric properties of the EPAQ in Norway, Russia, and the U.K. and (2) investigating whether the underlying structure aligns with the original one observed in the U.S. Moreover, we aimed at (3) exploring the potential relationship between parental attitudes and children’s language development using MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI; Fenson et al. 2007). Our sample consisted of 3333 parents of children between 0 and 156 months from Norway (n = 1060), the U.K. (n = 656) , and Russia (n = 1617). Analyses revealed a different factor solution in the countries of our sample, as compared to the original three-factor solution found in the original American sample. Especially in Russia, the structure of parental attitudes as measured by the EPAQ differs both from the original factor solution and from the factor solution identified in Norway and the U.K. Therefore, at least in the Russian context, different culture-sensitive scales need to be developed and, generally, new items for the EPAQ should be developed for further refinement. Moreover, our analyses highlighted a significant negative association between the factor Communicative and Emotional Detachment and vocabulary scores as a function of the child’s age in Russia.

• Philis, Curtis Edward; Miller, Jeremy K.; Buchanan, Erin M.; Williams, Amanda; Meyers, Chanel & Brown, Elizabeth R. [Show all 50 contributors for this article] (2025). Multi-region investigation of ‘man’ as default in attitudes. PLOS ONE. 20(6), p. 1–19. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0323938. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Previous research has studied the extent to which men are the default members of social groups in terms of memory, categorization, and stereotyping, but not attitudes which is critical because of attitudes’ relationship to behavior. Results from our survey (N > 5000) collected via a globally distributed laboratory network in over 40 regions demonstrated that attitudes toward Black people and politicians had a stronger relationship with attitudes toward the men rather than the women of the group. However, attitudes toward White people had a stronger relationship with attitudes toward White women than White men, whereas attitudes toward East Asian people, police officers, and criminals did not have a stronger relationship with attitudes toward either the men or women of each respective group. Regional agreement with traditional gender roles was explored as a potential moderator. These findings have implications for understanding the unique forms of prejudice women face around the world.

• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Redefining the Mainstream: A Review and Meta-Analysis of the Evolving Dynamics of Majority-Group Acculturation. European Review of Social Psychology. ISSN 1046-3283. p. 1–51. doi: 10.1080/10463283.2025.2492506. Full text in Research Archive
• Zhou, Xiaoyu; English, Alexander Scott; Wei, Liuqing; Yudiarso, Ananta; Dash, Arobindu & Tipandjan, Arun [Show all 58 contributors for this article] (2025). Understanding perceived COVID-19 changes, collectivism, and social exclusion: A cross-cultural study in 32 countries. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. ISSN 0147-1767. 107, p. 1–11. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2025.102198. Full text in Research Archive
• Petterson, Aino Lilja & Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Understanding Diversity in Norway: Ethnicity, Gender, Religion, and Social Class, Handbook of Diversity Competence - European Perspectives. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783031693076. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-69308-3. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Over the last few decades, Norway has experienced a major shift in its demographic landscape, transforming from a relatively culturally homogeneous nation-state to a diverse immigrant-receiving society. The present chapter offers an overview of the demographic and political changes that preceded this major shift. It describes the current and historical developments related to the diversity dimensions of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and social class, including the Norwegian government’s policy approach to this diversity. Further, the chapter covers some of the challenges to diversity, such as the presence of prejudice and discrimination, that remain and concludes by highlighting avenues for future research. Although the chapter is written with a social psychological outlook, research from other disciplines, including sociology and history, inform key parts of the chapter.

• Kunst, Jonas R. & Bierwiaczonek, Kinga (2025). Toward a Parsimonious Framework for Understanding Emotional Reactions to Conspiracy Theories Across Cultures. Psychological Inquiry. ISSN 1047-840X. 35(3-4), p. 229–232. doi: 10.1080/1047840X.2024.2442938. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Conspiracy theories have the capacity to evoke intense emotions that can serve as catalysts for behavioral propensities, even those of the most extreme nature (Bierwiaczonek et al., 2024), underscoring the paramount importance of a psychological understanding of this intricate process. While a number of studies have investigated the role of emotions in this context (e.g., Prooijen, 2022; van Prooijen et al., 2022; Wabnegger et al., 2024), a comprehensive framework to elucidate how different conspiracy theories elicit distinct emotions based on their appraisal has been notably absent. This lacuna in the literature makes the contribution by Pummerer et al. (2024) all the more invaluable and timely. In their review, the authors put forward the Appraisal Model of Conspiracy Theories (AMCT) to understand the diverse emotional and behavioral consequences of conspiracy beliefs. The model posits that different features of conspiracy theories, when made salient, elicit specific combinations of appraisals related to certainty, control, and pleasantness. These appraisal patterns are thought to be associated with distinct emotions such as fear, anger, disgust, pride, and schadenfreude, which in turn are connected to different action tendencies ranging from withdrawal, confrontation, aggression aimed at exclusion, to community-building. The model can be considered a seminal contribution to the field and generates many testable hypotheses for future research.

• Ackerman, Joshua M.; Samore, Theodore; Fessler, Daniel M.T.; Kupfer, Tom R.; Choi, Soyeon & Merrell, Wilson N. [Show all 115 contributors for this article] (2025). I see sick people: Beliefs about sensory detection of infectious disease are largely consistent across cultures. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. ISSN 0889-1591. 128, p. 737–750. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2025.04.020. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Identifying cues to contagious disease is critical for effectively tracking and defending against interpersonal infection threats. People hold lay beliefs about the types of sensory information most relevant for identifying whether others are sick with transmissible illnesses. Are these beliefs universal, or do they vary along cultural and ecological dimensions? Participants in 58 countries (N = 19,217) judged how effective, and how likely they were to use, cues involving each of the five major sensory modalities in an imagined social interaction during a flu outbreak. Belief patterns were strongly consistent across countries (sight > audition > touch > smell > taste), suggesting a largely universal conceptualization of the role of sensory information for interpersonal respiratory disease detection. Results also support a safe senses hypothesis, with perceivers reporting that they would use senses that function at a distance—and thus reduce pathogen transmission risk—more than would be expected given participants’ beliefs as to the efficacy of these senses for disease detection. Where societal variation did emerge, it was captured by a cohesive set of socio-ecological factors, including human development, latitude, pathogen prevalence, and population density. Together, these findings reveal a shared lens through which contagious respiratory disease is assessed, one that prioritizes minimizing risk to perceivers, and may offer leverage for designing interventions to improve public health.

• Kunst, Jonas R. & Obaidi, Milan (2025). The Future of Violent Extremism Research – 5 Recommendations Based on a Machine Learning Analysis of 34,000+ Articles. In Obaidi, Milan & Kunst, Jonas R. (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781009407915. p. 28–45. Full text in Research Archive
• Osborne, Danny; Lilly, Kieren J.; Kunst, Jonas R.; Obaidi, Milan & Bos, Kees van den (2025). The Role of Relative Deprivation in the Process of Radicalization into Violent Extremism. In Obaidi, Milan & Kunst, Jonas R. (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781009407915. p. 323–344. doi: 10.1017/9781009407892.019. Full text in Research Archive
• Benningstad, Nora Cornelia Glerud; Miles-Novelo, Andreas; Kunst, Jonas R.; Obaidi, Milan & Anderson, Craig A. (2025). Climate and Catalyst Events and Their Intersection with Violent Extremism. In Obaidi, Milan & Kunst, Jonas R. (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781009407915. p. 451–473. Full text in Research Archive
• Ozer, Simon; Obaidi, Milan & Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Globalization, immigrant acculturation expectations, and extremism. Migration Studies. ISSN 2049-5838. 13(1), p. 1–25. doi: 10.1093/migration/mnaf009. Full text in Research Archive
• Nyborg, Gunhild; Søraas, Arne Vasli Lund; Buer, Sofie; Nygaard, Anders Benteson & Kunst, Jonas R. (2024). Feilaktig fremstilling av kunnskapsgrunnlaget for post-covid condition (long covid). Tidsskrift for Norsk psykologforening (Psykologtidsskriftet). ISSN 0332-6470. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  En overveldende mengde forskning viser at long covid er en multi-organ, systemisk sykdom. Mind-Body ReprogrammeringsTerapi alene kan neppe …

• Bierwiaczonek, Kinga; Fluit, Sam; Soest, Tilmann von; Hornsey, Matthew J. & Kunst, Jonas R. (2024). Loneliness trajectories over three decades are associated with conspiracist worldviews in midlife. Nature Communications. 15(1). doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47113-x. Full text in Research Archive
• Coenen, Ann-Cathrin; Juttemeier, Marilena; Obaidi, Milan; Power, Seamus A. & Kunst, Jonas R. (2024). The role of temporal analogies in collective movements. European Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0046-2772. 54(3), p. 670–687. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.3037. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Although the importance of temporal perspectives for understanding collective movements has been theoretically emphasised, they are rarely considered in research. Focusing on the mass protests against COVID-19 policies in Germany, we investigated how protesters make use of temporal references in their protest narratives. Results from 11 multi-site protest observations and 31 interviews showed that participants (a) drew historical perpetrator and victim analogies and imagined a dystopian future, bolstering perceptions of injustice, (b) drew on resistance narratives and imagined the ideal, utopian future society, increasing their perceived efficacy and (c) countered feelings of insignificance by identifying with past heroes. Protesters living in the East of Germany drew comparatively more resistance analogies than those living in the West, who often likened those complying with the COVID-19 policies to the perpetrators of the past national-socialist and communist dictatorships. The findings empirically underline the importance of integrating historical–cultural–future perspectives into models of collective action.

• Kleppestø, Thomas Haarklau; Czajkowski, Nikolai Olavi; Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer; Vassend, Olav; Røysamb, Espen & Eftedal, Nikolai Haahjem [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2024). The genetic underpinnings of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation explain political attitudes beyond Big Five personality. Journal of Personality. ISSN 0022-3506. 92(6), p. 1744–1758. doi: 10.1111/jopy.12921. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Objective: Political attitudes are predicted by the key ideological variables of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO), as well as some of the Big Five personality traits. Past research indicates that personality and ideological traits are correlated for genetic reasons. A question that has yet to be tested concerns whether the genetic variation underlying the ideological traits of RWA and SDO has distinct contributions to political attitudes, or if genetic variation in political attitudes is subsumed under the genetic variation underlying standard Big Five personality traits. Method: We use data from a sample of 1987 Norwegian twins to assess the genetic and environmental relationships between the Big Five personality traits, RWA, SDO, and their separate contributions to political policy attitudes. Results: RWA and SDO exhibit very high genetic correlation (r = 0.78) with each other and some genetic overlap with the personality traits of openness and agreeableness. Importantly, they share a larger genetic substrate with political attitudes (e.g., deporting an ethnic minority) than do Big Five personality traits, a relationship that persists even when controlling for the genetic foundations underlying personality traits. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the genetic foundations of ideological traits and political attitudes are largely non-overlapping with the genetic foundations of Big Five personality traits.

• Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Linden, Sander van der; Piasecki, Jan; Rygula, Rafal; Noworyta, Karolina & Kunst, Jonas R. (2024). Predicting Misinformation Beliefs Across Four Countries: The Role of Narcissism, Conspiracy Mentality, Social Trust, and Perceptions of Unsafe Neighborhoods. The Journal of Social and Political Psychology. 12(2), p. 265–283. doi: 10.5964/jspp.13385. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  There are differing perspectives on the roles that social-perceptual and individual-difference factors play in explaining susceptibility to misinformation. With quota-representative samples from the U.S. (n = 492), the U.K. (n = 600), Poland (n = 558), and Germany (n = 490), we ran a comprehensive test of four social-perceptual factors (i.e., social trust, institutional trust, relative deprivation, and perceived area unsafety) and six individual-difference factors (i.e., narcissism, conspiracy mentality, closed-mindedness, need for predictability, need for order, and perceived locus of control). In terms of the social-perceptual factors, social trust and perceptions of area unsafety were consistently related to higher misinformation susceptibility across countries. In terms of individual-difference factors, narcissism and conspiracy mentality were associated with increased susceptibility to misinformation in three of the four countries. Relative deprivation and external locus of control were related to misinformation susceptibility in the pooled sample. We discuss societal implications of these findings and highlight directions for future research.

• Benningstad, Nora Cornelia Glerud; Rothgerber, Hank & Kunst, Jonas R. (2024). Development of the Passive and Active Meat-Animal Dissociation Scale (MADS). Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations. ISSN 2750-6649. 3. doi: 10.5964/phair.12975. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Many individuals like eating meat but condemn causing harm to animals. Dissociating meat from its animal origins is one way to avoid the cognitive dissonance this ‘meat paradox’ elicits. While the significance of meat-animal dissociation for meat consumption is well-established, a recent literature review suggested that it consists of two distinct tendencies. First, people may differ in the degree to which they passively disassociate meat from its animal origins. Second, they may differ in the extent to which they actively dissociate to decrease dissonance. By developing and validating a scale in three pre-registered studies using samples of American and British meat-eaters, the present investigation aimed to quantitatively establish whether these two proposed tendencies constitute distinct constructs with different relations to dietary preferences, meat-related cognition, and affect. Study 1 (n = 300) provided initial support for a normally-distributed scale with two orthogonal dimensions that were systematically and differently related to a range of individual differences and dietary preferences. In Study 2 (n = 628), both dimensions were non-responsive to short-term cues that highlight the animal-meat link but predicted dietary preferences independent of them. Finally, Study 3 (n = 231) showed that the dissociation dimensions predict dietary preferences even in people working in the meat industry who have long-term exposure to cues that connect meat with its animal origins. Together, the results of the three studies supported the notion that people’s dissociation tendencies can be divided into two qualitatively distinct tendencies. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed.

• Piksa, Michal; Noworyta, Karolina; Piasecki, Jan; Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Kunst, Jonas R. & Morzy, Mikolaj [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2024). Research Report: A Link between Sertraline Treatment and Susceptibility to (Mis)information. ACS Chemical Neuroscience. 15(7), p. 1515–1522. doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.3c00825. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R.; Lefringhausen, Katharina & Zagefka, Hanna (2024). Delineating the boundaries between genuine cultural change and cultural appropriation in majority-group acculturation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. ISSN 0147-1767. 98. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101911. Full text in Research Archive
• Ikizer, Elif G.; Fischer, Ronald; Kunst, Jonas R. & Dovidio, John F. (2024). Cultural Tightness-Looseness and Individual Differences in Non-Normativeness Predict Stigmatization of Out-Groups: A Multilevel Cross-Cultural Study. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. ISSN 0146-1672. doi: 10.1177/01461672241273285. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. & Mesoudi, Alex (2024). Decoding the Dynamics of Cultural Change: A Cultural Evolution Approach to the Psychology of Acculturation. Personality and Social Psychology Review. ISSN 1088-8683. doi: 10.1177/10888683241258406. Full text in Research Archive
• Kleppestø, Thomas Haarklau; Czajkowski, Nikolai Olavi; Vassend, Olav Mandt; Røysamb, Espen; Eftedal, Nikolai Haahjem & Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2024). Attachment and Political Personality are Heritable and Distinct Systems, and Both Share Genetics with Interpersonal Trust and Altruism. Behavior Genetics. ISSN 0001-8244. 54, p. 321–332. doi: 10.1007/s10519-024-10185-y. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The attachment and caregiving domains maintain proximity and care-giving behavior between parents and offspring, in a way that has been argued to shape people’s mental models of how relationships work, resulting in secure, anxious or avoidant interpersonal styles in adulthood. Several theorists have suggested that the attachment system is closely connected to orientations and behaviors in social and political domains, which should be grounded in the same set of familial experiences as are the different attachment styles. We use a sample of Norwegian twins (N = 1987) to assess the genetic and environmental relationship between attachment, trust, altruism, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and social dominance orientation (SDO). Results indicate no shared environmental overlap between attachment and ideology, nor even between the attachment styles or between the ideological traits, challenging conventional wisdom in developmental, social, and political psychology. Rather, evidence supports two functionally distinct systems, one for navigating intimate relationships (attachment) and one for navigating social hierarchies (RWA/SDO), with genetic overlap between traits within each system, and two distinct genetic linkages to trust and altruism. This is counter-posed to theoretical perspectives that link attachment, ideology, and interpersonal orientations through early relational experiences.

• Piksa, Michal; Noworyta, Karolina; Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Kunst, Jonas R.; Morzy, Mikolaj & Piasecki, Jan [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2024). The impact of confirmation bias awareness on mitigating susceptibility to misinformation. Frontiers in Public Health. 12. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1414864. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R.; Bierwiaczonek, Kinga; Obaidi, Milan; Fluit, Sam; Soest, Tilmann von & SAM, DAVID [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2024). Selective cultural adoption: The roles of warmth, competence, morality and perceived indispensability in majority-group acculturation. British Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0144-6665. 64(2). doi: 10.1111/bjso.12801. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Psychological research has begun considering the dynamics involved in majority-group acculturation, which is the extent to which cultural majority groups adopt the culture of immigrants and minority groups. However, previous research has predominantly concentrated on reactions to ‘immigrants’ or ‘minority groups’ as a homogenous entity, overlooking the nuanced perceptions and varied valuations attributed to different groups. Recognizing the heterogeneity among immigrant and minority groups, the present work investigated the influence of several perceived characteristics of immigrant and minority groups on majority-group members' adoption of their cultures. Specifically, in three pre-registered studies—one correlational (Nparticipants = 201, Ntrials = 2814) and two within-subjects experimental (Nparticipants = 144 and 146, Ntrials = 720 and 730) designs with close to politically representative samples from the U.K. and U.S. —majority-group members were more willing to adopt immigrant and minority-group cultures that they perceived as warm, competent and moral because these perceptions made immigrants and minority groups seem indispensable to the identity and economy of the mainstream society. Our studies highlight the importance of considering the differentiated acculturation that majority-group members have to various groups within the same national context. We discuss the societal and cultural repercussions of this selective uptake of other cultures.

• Shani, Maor; Kunst, Jonas R.; Anjum, Gulnaz; Obaidi, Milan; Leshem, Oded Adomi & Antonovsky, Roman [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2024). Between victory and peace: Unravelling the paradox of hope in intractable conflicts. British Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0144-6665. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12722. Full text in Research Archive
• Black, Shlomo; Horenczyk, Gabriel & Kunst, Jonas R. (2024). Beyond singular perspectives: Minority-group members’ acculturation expectations and tightness. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. ISSN 0147-1767. 100. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2024.101976. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R.; Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Krysińska, Izabela; Piasecki, Jan; Wójtowicz, Tomi & Rygula, Rafal [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2024). Leveraging artificial intelligence to identify the psychological factors associated with conspiracy theory beliefs online. Nature Communications. 15(1). doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-51740-9. Full text in Research Archive
• Zhou, Xiaoyu; English, Alexander Scott; Kulich, Steve J.; Zheng, Lu; Alves, Tales & Aquino, Sibele D. [Show all 59 contributors for this article] (2024). COVID-19 cases correlate with greater acceptance coping in flexible cultures: A cross-cultural study in 26 countries. Social & Personality Psychology Compass. 18(2). doi: 10.1111/spc3.12919. Full text in Research Archive
• Bierwiaczonek, Kinga; Cheung, Mike W.-L. & Kunst, Jonas R. (2023). Revisiting the integration hypothesis again: High heterogeneity complicates the interpretation of cross-sectional evidence. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. ISSN 0147-1767. 93. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101780. Full text in Research Archive
• Renvik, Tuuli Anna; Eskelinen, Viivi; Kunst, Jonas R.; Jetten, Jolanda; Noll, Jolanda van der & Rohmann, Anette [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2023). Support for religious minorities' rights among (non)religious national majority group members: A motivational approach to worldviews. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology. ISSN 1052-9284. doi: 10.1002/casp.2711. Full text in Research Archive
• Buchanan, Erin M.; Lewis, Savannah C.; Paris, Bastien; Forscher, Patrick S.; Pavlacic, Jeffrey M. & Beshears, Julie E. [Show all 340 contributors for this article] (2023). The Psychological Science Accelerator's COVID-19 rapid-response dataset. Scientific Data. 10, p. 1–15. doi: 10.1038/s41597-022-01811-7. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data.

• Treider, John Melvin Gudnyson; Kunst, Jonas R. & Vuoskoski, Jonna Katariina (2023). The influence of musical parameters and subjective musical ratings on perceptions of culture. Scientific Reports. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-45805-w. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract Recent research suggests that music can affect evaluations of other groups and cultures. However, little is known about the objective and subjective musical parameters that influence these evaluations. We aimed to fill this gap through two studies. Study 1 collected responses from 52 American participants who listened to 30 folk-song melodies from different parts of the world. Linear mixed-effects models tested the influence of objective and subjective musical parameters of these melodies on evaluations of the cultures from which they originated. Musical parameters consistently predicted cultural evaluations. The most prominent musical parameter was musical velocity, a measure of number of pitch onsets, predicting more cultural warmth, competence and evolvedness and less cultural threat. Next, with a sample of 212 American participants, Study 2 used a within-subjects experiment to alter the tempo and dissonance for a subset of six melody excerpts from Study 1, testing for causal effects. Linear mixed-effects models revealed that both dissonance and slow tempo predicted more negative cultural evaluations. Together, both studies demonstrate how musical parameters can influence cultural perceptions. Avenues for future research are discussed.

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• Obaidi, Milan & Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009407915. 500 p. doi: 10.1017/9781009407892. Full text in Research Archive

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• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Tillitskrisen i helsevesenet: Hvordan interne feilgrep driver pasienter vekk i usikre tider. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). ALGORITHMIC BATTLEFIELDS: How AI Swarms Threaten. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Et veddemål på samfunnets vegne | DN. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  KI-utbyggingen er et industriveddemål av historiske dimensjoner. Regningen havner hos strømkunder, arbeidstagere og fremtidige fagfolk – og ingen av dem er blitt spurt.

• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Når KI kan skrive avhandlingen, må doktorgraden handle om dataene. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  KI kan i dag søke opp litteraturen, gjøre analysene og skrive ut avhandlingen. Da forsvinner mye av det doktorgraden var ment å bevise. Men det er fortsatt noe maskinene i mindre grad kan: å hente nye data ut av virkeligheten selv.

• Kunst, Jonas R. & Brandtzæg, Petter Bae (2026). Aldersgrensen som glemte chatboten. doi: https:/www.morgenbladet.no/ideer/aldersgrensen-som-glemte-chatboten/10410149. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. & Bierwiaczonek, Kinga (2026). Does Cultural Training Help Expats Succeed? Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Workers’ successful cross-cultural adjustment primarily depends on whether they have strong managerial support.

• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Kan ondsinnede KI-svermer hacke selve demokratiet? [Journal]. Morgenbladet. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Tillitskrisen i helsevesenet: Hvordan interne feilgrep driver pasienter vekk. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R.; Besta, Tomasz & Obaidi, Milan (2026). Reply to Romano and De Dreu: Why violent extremism cannot be reduced to laboratory games. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). ISSN 0027-8424. 123(22). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2613434123. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). The distinct psychologies of defensive and offensive extremism. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R.; Besta, Tomasz & Obaidi, Milan (2026). Reply to Zadegan et al.: Spatial dependence is real, but not every correction travels well. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). ISSN 0027-8424. 123(21). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2613518123. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Will Paying Reviewers Ease the Peer Review Crisis? [Journal]. Inside Higher Ed. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The few journals that have experimented with offering reviewers money—one as little as $100 per piece—are reporting faster publishing times and greater quality of work. When Jonas Kunst first began his career as a social psychology researcher, he was excited to receive requests to review academic journal articles—even though he wasn’t getting paid.

• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Algorithmic battlefields: How cyborg propaganda and AI swarms threaten democracy. doi: https:/www.uio.no/forskning/satsinger/demokrati/aktuelt/arrangementer/demokratikonferansen-2026/index.html. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Can journals that pay peer reviewers succeed? [Internet]. Times Higher Education. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Professor who set up publisher four years ago to redirect revenue to those doing quality control says it has been an ‘uphill battle’

• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Paying reviewers can fix system’s ‘structural problem’, editor argues. [Internet]. ResearchProfessional News. doi: https:/www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-europe-infrastructure-2026-4-paying-reviewers-can-fix-system-s-structural-problem-editor-argues/. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. & Schroeder, Daniel Thilo (2026). How AI Swarms Weaponize Disinformation. doi: https:/www.cxotalk.com/episode/how-ai-swarms-weaponize-disinformation. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Kunstig intelligens (KI), Radikalisering | KI-forskere vil tette de digitale «kaninhullene». [Internet]. Nettavisen. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Forskere lister opp 15 forslag for å regulere digitale plattformer drevet av algoritmer og kunstig intelligens.

• Kunst, Jonas R. & Schroeder, Daniel Thilo (2026). How AI swarms manipulate public opinion and how to fend them off. [Journal]. Hello Future. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  More effective than traditional bots, AI swarms use coordinated agents to flood the public sphere and create a false sense of consensus on social media.

• Kunst, Jonas R. & Schroeder, Daniel Thilo (2026). Desinformasjon, Kunstig intelligens (KI) | Forskere advarer: KI-svermer truer demokratiet. [Journal]. Nettavisen. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Forskere avslører hvordan vi lures av brennende engasjement på sosiale medier.

• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). The Call is Coming from Inside the House: Leadership's Role in the Healthcare Trust Crisis. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. & Bierwiaczonek, Kinga (2026). Utenlandske talenter reiser hjem igjen. Problemet er sjefen, ikke «kulturkrasj» | DN. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Norske bedrifter bruker enorme summer på å rekruttere internasjonal toppkompetanse. Likevel reiser mange hjem igjen etter kort tid – på grunn av dårlig ledelse.

• Grolle, Johann; Kunst, Jonas R. & Schroeder, Daniel Thilo (2026). Künstliche Intelligenz: Experten warnen vor KI-Schwärmen, die unsere Demokratie bedrohen. Das wollen sie dagegen tun - DER SPIEGEL. [Journal]. Der Spiegel. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Bösartige KI-Agenten könnten laut Forschenden eine neue Phase im globalen Informationskrieg einläuten. Um das zu verhindern, wollen sie hart gegen die Schöpfer vorgehen.

• Posener, Alan; Kunst, Jonas R. & Schroeder, Daniel Thilo (2026). KI-Schwärme: „Die Frage ist nicht, ob es sie gibt, sondern in welchem Ausmaß sie bereits operieren“ - WELT. [Journal]. WELT. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Im Internet tobt ein erbitterter Informationskrieg. Nun heben KI-gesteuerte Chatbotnetze diesen auf ein neues Level und entfesseln das volle Potenzial digitaler Desinformation und Propaganda.

• Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Thanks, Ukrainians Say, but Please Stop Calling Us Resilient - The New York Times. [Journal]. New York Times. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Ukraine must project strength to secure continued Western support. But its people want the world to know they are not superhuman.

• Kunst, Jonas R. & Schroeder, Daniel Thilo (2026). Falske folkebevegelser truer demokratiet – Ytring. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Folkestyret er ikke forberedt på en hær av falske internettkrigere.

• Pester, Patrick; Kunst, Jonas R. & Schroeder, Daniel Thilo (2026). Next-generation AI 'swarms' will invade social media by mimicking human behavior and harassing real users, researchers warn | Live Science. [Journal]. Live Science. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Artificial intelligence experts have warned that AI "swarms" are poised to infiltrate social media by deploying agents that mimic human behavior and exploit our tendency to follow the herd.

• Gilbert, David; Schroeder, Daniel Thilo & Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). AI-Powered Disinformation Swarms Are Coming for Democracy | WIRED. [Journal]. WIRED. doi: https:/www.wired.com/story/ai-powered-disinformation-swarms-are-coming-for-democracy/. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Advances in artificial intelligence are creating a perfect storm for those seeking to spread disinformation at unprecedented speed and scale. And it’s virtually impossible to detect.

• Booth, Robert; Schroeder, Daniel Thilo & Kunst, Jonas R. (2026). Experts warn of threat to democracy from ‘AI bot swarms’ infesting social media | AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian. [Journal]. The Guardian. doi: https:/www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/22/experts-warn-of-threat-to-democracy-by-ai-bot-swarms-infesting-social-media. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Misinformation technology could be deployed at scale to disrupt 2028 US presidential election, AI researchers say

• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Boble, ikke flopp – en presisering om KI | DN. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Min advarsel handler om den finansielle boblen som nå blåses opp rundt KI-teknologien. Dette er en kritikk av markedet, ikke maskinen.

• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). KI er keiserens nye klær | DN. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Løftet var todelt: en produktivitetsrevolusjon for næringslivet og en teknologisk snarvei til å løse menneskehetens store utfordringer. Begge deler viser seg nå å være en illusjon.

• Harris, Samantha Marie; Bye, Hege Høivik & Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Innvandrere er mer åpne for psykisk helsehjelp enn vi tror – og enn de tror selv. doi: https:/www.dagensmedisin.no/forskning-psykisk-helse/innvandrere-er-mer-apne-for-psykisk-helsehjelp-enn-vi-tror-og-enn-de-tror-selv/707725. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R.; Jaffery, Lubna & Mohamed, Ammal Ahmed Haj (2025). Strategi for ytringsfrihet: Desinformasjon, ekkokammer og polarisering bekymrer. [TV]. NRK. doi: https:/tv.nrk.no/serie/helgemorgen-tv/sesong/202509/episode/DNRR62007825. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Slik blir unge ekstreme på nett. [Internet]. Forskning.no. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  – Selv i de ekstreme miljøene var de litt sjokkerte over hvordan enkelte plattformer sprer innholdet deres, sier journalist som fulgte ekstreme grupper på internett.

• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Vil vaksinere gutta mot hat­propaganda. [Journal]. Klassekampen. doi: https:/klassekampen.no/artikkel/2025-09-22/il-vaksinere-gutta-mot-hatpropaganda. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). The psychological drivers of science denialism. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). LLMTranslate: 'shiny' App for TRAPD/ISPOR Survey Translation with LLMs. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Sannhet under press? Desinformasjon, algoritmer og virkelighetsforståelse i vår tid. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). From Response to Prevention: Addressing Root Psychological Factors in Misinformation Susceptibility. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Rethinking Acculturation – The Neglected Side of Cultural Change in Majority Groups. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). Reframing Acculturation – The Neglected Aspects of Majority Group Change. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). From reactive interventions to preventive epistemology: Identifying systemic psychological vulnerabilities to misinformation and conspiracy theories. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. & Obaidi, Milan (2025). Introduction. In Obaidi, Milan & Kunst, Jonas R. (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781009407915. p. 1–8. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R. & Lefringhausen, Katharina (2024). Investigating the forgotten side of acculturation: Introduction to the special issue. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. ISSN 0147-1767. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2024.101956. Full text in Research Archive

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