The Behaviour in Crisis Lab

@bcrisislab.bsky.social

Welcome to the Bluesky account of The Behaviour in Crisis Lab! 🌍✨ We are researchers from diverse fields at Jagiellonian University, Kraków, exploring the mechanisms shaping behavior during global crises. We are here: https://becrilab.id.uj.edu.pl/en_GB

What an inspiring day at the annual Behavior in Crisis Lab conference! Huge thanks to our keynotes Nataša Jokić-Begić, John Drury, and Dominic Abrams, and to all our speakers and panelists for their insights. Special gratitude to Anna Potoczek for the organization.

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Great talk last Wednesday by SWPS University’s Dominika Bulska (PhD) on how agency, morality, status, and perpetratorhood shape blatant dehumanization—showing agency matters more for low-status groups, while morality matters more for perpetrator groups.

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Great discussion at the BiC – Behaviour in Crisis Lab! Tomasz Besta presented cross-cultural research (58 countries, N=16,829) on personality traits like sadism and psychopathy and their links to violent political collective action. Thanks to everyone who joined!

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Tomorrow, Katarzyna Jaśko (PhD) will present their work on Motivational Analysis of the Role of Expectancy in Collective Action. She uses insights from motivational psychology to understand extreme vs. moderate political behaviors and social change.

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It has been a beautiful summary of an incredible 2.5 years Thank you to all our collogues who came to celebrate with us. We truly felt your support, warmth, and friendship all around. This gives us the strength and motivation to keep inspiring and conducting research for you.

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Check out the interactive exhibition DigiPatch LivingLAB at the Copernicus Science Centre — prepared by our team as part of the project DigiPatch. At LivingLAB, visitors don’t just observe — they become participants in real social-science research. Read more below.

Gabriela Czarnek, a researcher at our lab, has co-authored an article in Nature. “Persuading Voters Using Human-AI Dialogues” shows that even brief conversations with an AI chatbot can shift voters’ preferences—more effectively than traditional political advertising.

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Thrilled to share our new publication in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations! We found that fear of war can strengthen support for refugee policies when empathy is present. What truly undermines support are symbolic threats, which erode empathy and fuel hostility.

We’re excited to announce the return of Open Meetings! Last week, we welcomed Prof. Jan Brzozowski from the Faculty of International and Political Studies at JU. He gave us a very informative talk on "The determinants of economic integration among Ukrainian refugees and economic migrants in Poland".

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The 48th ISPP Meeting in Prague—one of the top conferences in political psych—featured strong representation from Jagiellonian University, with several presenters from our lab! 🔹 27 paper presentations 🔹 1 blitz talk 🔹 6 poster sessions Proud of everyone who contributed and represented us so well!

📢 New publication in PSPB! We tracked Poles over 3 waves to examine how closeness to Ukrainian refugees and threat perceptions shape each other. Feeling closer reduced both threat types—but only realistic threat (e.g. jobs, services) predicted less closeness over time. 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/0146...

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This Wed, join BiC Lab’s open talk with Halime Ünver Aba: After the Earthquake: How Disaster & Media Shaped Turkey’s Refugee Debate? The study reveals how face-to-face contact and media narratives compete to shape empathy, fear, and social cohesion. MS Teams link below ->

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Tomorrow, Erica Molinario will give a talk on how our fundamental need to feel significant, whether fulfilled or frustrated, plays a crucial role in shaping migration decisions. Join us to explore how these insights could change the way we think about migration today! link below

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On May 30, we held the Annual Meeting of Behaviour in Crisis Lab: "Facing Crisis: Preparedness and Social Response." With three panels, expert talks, and engaging discussions, we explored how to empower vulnerable groups and strengthen societal responses to crises. Thank you to all involved!

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Such a joy to chair the migration crisis panel at @UJ_BCrisisLab’s annual meeting! Grateful to amazing panelists Ewa Szumoswska, Jan Brozowski, Marek Palace & Yuliia Lesyshak (we missed Ewa Morlinaro!) for sharing their research, policy takeaways and insights 🌍✨

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We will be hosting Anna Kende (Eötvös Loránd University) for our next meeting! This talk will build on critique of research focusing primarily on prejudice reduction among advantaged group members, and on the distinction between social change oriented vs. benevolent allyship.

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Today, our lab member Dr. Anna Potoczek presented her research “Why and When Extremists Win: The Appeal of Radical Political Candidates”—a timely and thought-provoking talk featuring a series of well-designed experiments. Great work, Anna! 👏

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Join our upcoming open meeting on how young people build financial resilience in uncertain times. 🎙️ Guest: Dr. Žan Lep (Univ. of Ljubljana) 🗓️ Topic: Financial socialisation, literacy & well-being 📍 Room 5.01, Inst. of Psychology, JU All welcome!

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