Barnabas Szászi

Eötvös Loránd University · Department of Affective Psychology

Ideal partner preferences (i.e., ratings of the desirability of attributes like attractiveness or intelligence) are the source of numerous foundational findings in the interdisciplinary literature on human mating. Recently, research on the predictive validity of ideal partner preference matching (i.e., Do people positively evaluate partners who mat...

Prior research suggested that financial-scarcity-related cues disproportionately impede the cognitive performance of the poor, but later studies questioned the extent and even the existence of this effect. In the present paper, we conducted a systematic review and a Bayesian meta-analysis with the aim to resolve the inconsistencies in the literatur...

The misperception of income inequality is often touted as a critical barrier to more widespread support of redistributive policies. Here, we examine to what extent and why (mis)perceptions vary systematically across the income distribution. Drawing on data from four studies (N = 2,744)—including a representative sample and preregistered incentive-c...

Many-analysts studies explore how well an empirical claim withstands plausible alternative analyses of the same dataset by multiple, independent analysis teams. Conclusions from these studies typically rely on a single outcome metric (e.g. effect size) provided by each analysis team. Although informative about the range of plausible effects in a da...

Ideal partner preferences(i.e., ratings of the desirability of attributes like attractiveness or intelligence)are the source of numerous foundational findings in the interdisciplinary literature on human mating. Recently, research on the predictive validity of ideal partner preference-matching (i.e., do people positively evaluate partners who match...

A pszichológiai kutatások számos területén hasznosítható a felügyelt gépi tanulás, amelynek alkalmazásával összetettebb adatok elemzése válik lehetségessé. Célunk, hogy bemutassuk a felügyelt gépi tanulás fajtáit, működését és használatát a pszichológiai kutatásokban. Áttekintjük a gépi tanulás előnyeit, valamint a túlillesztés, torzítási hiba és a...

The rise of online sports betting, facilitated by technological innovations such as the cash-out feature, has transformed the gambling landscape. While cash-outs have been suggested to intensify problematic gambling behaviors, empirical studies to date have been correlational, leaving a gap in determining causal evidence. In the present Registered...

Many-analysts studies explore how well an empirical claim withstands plausible alternative analyses of the same data set by multiple, independent analysis teams. Conclusions from these studies typically rely on a single outcome metric (e.g., effect size) provided by each analysis team. Although informative about the range of plausible effects in a...

The importance of context in behavioral interventions is undeniable, yet few intervention studies begin with a systematic investigation of the contextual factors that influence the behavior in question. This is largely due to the lack of a reliable method for doing so. In recognition of this gap in the field, we have developed a procedure called th...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.191375.][This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.2500.].

The low reproducibility rate in social sciences has produced hesitation among researchers in accepting published findings at their face value. Despite the advent of initiatives to increase transparency in research reporting, the field is still lacking tools to verify the credibility of research reports. In the present paper, we describe methodologi...

Ideal partner preferences (i.e., ratings of the desirability of attributes like attractiveness or intelligence) are the source of numerous foundational findings in the interdisciplinary literature on human mating. Recently, research on the predictive validity of ideal partner preference-matching (i.e., do people positively evaluate partners who mat...

Voluntary isolation is one of the most effective methods for individuals to help prevent the transmission of diseases such as COVID-19. Understanding why people leave their homes when advised not to do so and identifying what contextual factors predict this non-compliant behavior is essential for policymakers and public health officials. To provide...

Prior research suggested that financial-scarcity-related cues disproportionately impede thecognitive performance of the poor, but later studies questioned the extent and even theexistence of this effect. In the present paper, we conducted a systematic review and a Bayesianmeta-analysis to resolve the inconsistencies in the literature to predict whe...

The COVID-19 pandemic (and its aftermath) highlights a critical need to communicate health information effectively to the global public. Given that subtle differences in information framing can have meaningful effects on behavior, behavioral science research highlights a pressing question: Is it more effective to frame COVID-19 health messages in t...

In this Registered Report, we investigated the impact of a poverty alleviation program on cognitive performance. We analyzed data from a randomized controlled trial conducted on low-income, high-risk individuals in Liberia where a random half of the participants (n=251) received a $200 lump-sum unconditional cash transfer - equivalent approximately...

Significance Communicating in ways that motivate engagement in social distancing remains a critical global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study tested motivational qualities of messages about social distancing (those that promoted choice and agency vs. those that were forceful and shaming) in 25,718 people in 89 countries...

Subjective perceptions of inequality can substantially influence policy attitudes, public health metrics, and societal well‐being, but the lack of consensus in the scientific community on how to best operationalize and measure these perceptions may impede progress on the topic. Here, we provide a theoretical framework for the study of subjective pe...

Open scholarship has transformed research, and introduced a host of new terms in the lexicon of researchers. The ‘Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Teaching’ (FORRT) community presents a crowdsourced glossary of open scholarship terms to facilitate education and effective communication between experts and newcomers.

In this comment, we highlight a difference of opinion with "Mertens, S., Herberz, M., Hahnel, U. J., & Brosch, T. (2022). The effectiveness of nudging: A meta-analysis of choice architecture interventions across behavioral domains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(1)."

Knowing who to target with certain messages is the prerequisite of efficient public health campaigns during pandemics. Using the COVID-19 pandemic situation, we explored which facets of the society—defined by age, gender, income, and education levels—are the most likely to visit social gatherings and aggravate the spread of a disease. Analyzing the...

Background The amount and value of researchers’ peer review work is critical for academia and journal publishing. However, this labor is under-recognized, its magnitude is unknown, and alternative ways of organizing peer review labor are rarely considered. Methods Using publicly available data, we provide an estimate of researchers’ time and the s...

Knowing who to target with certain messages is the prerequisite of efficient public health campaigns during pandemics. Using the COVID-19 pandemic situation, we explored which facets of the society - defined by age, gender, income, and education levels - are the most likely to visit social gatherings and aggravate the spread of a disease. Analyzing...

We present consensus-based guidance for conducting and documenting multi-analyst studies. We discuss why broader adoption of the multi-analyst approach will strengthen the robustness of results and conclusions in empirical sciences.

The flexibility allowed by the mobilization of technology disintegrated the traditional work-life boundary for most professionals. Whether working from home is the key or impediment to academics’ efficiency and work-life balance became a daunting question for both scientists and their employers. The recent pandemic brought into focus the merits and...

Background The amount and value of researchers’ peer review work is critical for academia and publishing. However, it is rarely recognized, its magnitude is unknown, and alternative ways of organizing peer review labor are rarely considered.Methods In this paper, we provide an estimate of researchers’ time and the salary-based contribution to the p...

The extent of inequality that people perceive in the world is often a stronger predictor of individual and societal outcomes than the level of inequality that actually exists. It is therefore imperative for researchers to theoretically conceptualize and empirically operationalize perceived inequality in a coherent and consistent manner. However, th...

The extent of inequality that people perceive in the world is often a better predictor of individual and societal outcomes than the level of inequality that actually exists. As such, scholars from across the social sciences, including economics, sociology, psychology, and political science, have recently worked to understand individuals’ (mis)perce...

In this tutorial, we descibe an expert consensus procedure for scientific projects. Following such a procedure can achieve two main aims: (1) to decrease the chance that the product will be subject to conceptual or methodological mistakes, and (2) to increase the chance that the product of the project would be acceptable by the stakeholders on the...

The role of context in behavioral interventions is indisputable, yet few intervention studies start with a systematic mapping of the influencing contextual factors. This is mostly due to the lack of a methodology that researchers can employ for this aim. Recognizing this current limitation of the field, we developed a procedure, the Choice Context...

The flexibility allowed by the mobilization of technology disintegrated the traditional work-life boundary for most professionals. Whether working from home is the key or impediment to academics’ efficiency and work-life balance became a daunting question for both scientists and their employers. The recent pandemic brought into focus the merits and...

As part of the Many Labs 5 project, we ran a replication of van Dijk, van Kleef, Steinel, and van Beest’s (2008) study examining the effect of emotions in negotiations. They reported that when the consequences of rejection were low, subjects offered fewer chips to angry bargaining partners than to happy partners. We ran this replication under three...

Risen and Gilovich (2008) found that subjects believed that “tempting fate” would be punished with ironic bad outcomes (a main effect), and that this effect was magnified when subjects were under cognitive load (an interaction). A previous replication study (Frank & Mathur, 2016) that used an online implementation of the protocol on Amazon Mechanic...

The current research investigates whether higher economic inequality disproportionately intensifies the financial hardship of low-income individuals. We propose that higher economic inequality increases financial hardship for low-income individuals by reducing their ability to rely on their community as a buffer against financial difficulties. This...

COVID-19—and the ensuing economic fallout—exposed society’s vast inequalities. Current stimulus plans and ongoing debates revolve around restoring society to its pre-COVID-19 state, a singular focus driven by a prevalent status quo bias. We propose that policymakers should adopt a more ambitious goal: to take advantage of the change momentum of COV...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository.

As part of the Many Labs 5 project, we ran a replication of Van Dijk, Van Kleef, Steinel, & Van Beest’s (2008) study “A social functional approach to emotions in bargaining: When communicating anger pays and when it backfires,” which examined the effect of emotions in negotiations. Van Dijk et al. (2008) report that when the consequences of rejecti...

The low reproducibility rate in social sciences lead researchers to hesitate to accept published findings at their face value. It became apparent that the field is lacking the tools necessary both to demonstrate and to verify credibility of research reports. In the present paper, we describe tools and methodologies that let researchers craft highly...

Does higher economic inequality have a particularly adverse effect for those that can afford it the least? An influential policy perspective, the “rising tide lifts all boats” view, is sanguine about rising economic inequality: as long as the incomes of the poor increase, it does not matter if the rich get richer—the poor will benefit regardless. I...

In this study, we aimed to explore whether action execution is an inherent part of the decision-making process. According to the hypothesis of embodied choice, the decision-making process is bidirectional as action dynamics exert their backward influence on decision processes through changing the cost and value of the potential options. This influe...

In the traditional statistical framework, nonsignificant results leave researchers in a state of suspended disbelief. In this study, we examined, empirically, the treatment and evidential impact of nonsignificant results. Our specific goals were twofold: to explore how psychologists interpret and communicate nonsignificant results and to assess how...

Dijksterhuis and van Knippenberg (1998) reported that participants primed with an intelligent category (“professor”) subsequently performed 13.1% better on a trivia test than participants primed with an unintelligent category (“soccer hooligans”). Two unpublished replications of this study by the original authors, designed to verify the appropriate...

In this study, we aimed to explore whether action execution is an inherent part of the decision-making process. According to the hypothesis of embodied choice, the decision-making process is bidirectional as action dynamics exert their backward influence on decision processes through changing the cost and value of the potential options. This influe...

Most decision-making models describing individual differences in heuristics and biases tasks build on the assumption that reasoners produce a first incorrect answer in a quick, automatic way which they may or may not override later and that the advantage of high capacity reasoners arises from this late correction mechanism. To investigate this assu...

In the traditional statistical framework, nonsignificant results leave researchers in a state of suspended disbelief. This study examines, empirically, the treatment and evidential impact of nonsignificant results. Our specific goals were twofold: to explore how psychologists interpret and communicate nonsignificant results, and to assess how much...

In this paper, we provide a domain-general scoping review of the nudge movement by reviewing 422 choice architecture interventions in 156 empirical studies. We report the distribution of the studies across countries, years, domains, subdomains of applicability, intervention types, and the moderators associated with each intervention category to rev...

Previous studies have shown that retrieval practice leads to better long-term memory than additional study of a material (a phenomenon termed the testing effect). In this study, we compared the effectiveness of these learning strategies when the final test occurs under stress (such as in an exam). Participants studied word pairs; then half of the m...

Quantifying evidence is an inherent aim of empirical science, yet the customary statistical methods in psychology do not communicate the degree to which the collected data serve as evidence for the tested hypothesis. In order to estimate the distribution of the strength of evidence that individual significant results offer in psychology, we calcula...

People often fail to solve deceptively simple mathematical problems, a tendency popularly demonstrated by the bat-and-ball problem. The most prominent explanation of this finding is that, to spare cognitive effort, people substitute the difficult task with an easier one, without being aware of the substitution. Despite this latter assumption, recen...

In an anonymous 4-person economic game, participants contributed more money to a common project (i.e., cooperated) when required to decide quickly than when forced to delay their decision (Rand, Greene & Nowak, 2012), a pattern consistent with the “social heuristics” hypothesis proposed by Rand and colleagues. The results of studies using time pres...

Individuals’ propensity not to override the first answer that comes to mind is thought to be a crucial cause behind many failures in reasoning. In the present study, we aimed to explore the strategies used and the abilities employed when individuals solve the cognitive reflection test (CRT), the most widely used measure of this tendency. Alongside...

In an anonymous 4-person economic game, participants contributed more money to a common project (i.e., cooperated) when required to decide quickly than when forced to delay their decision (Rand, Greene & Nowak, 2012), a pattern consistent with the “social heuristics” hypothesis proposed by Rand and colleagues. The results of studies using time pres...

Pachur and Spaar (2015) provide an important addition to the literature of decision style, suggesting that its traditional domain-general approach should be enriched with a domain-specific perspective. While I also emphasize the importance of the domain-specific approach, I discuss that it is crucial to disentangle the influence of preference for i...

The role of history in negotiations is a double-edged sword. Although parties can develop trust over time, there are also countless examples of protracted feuds that developed as a result of conflicting interpretations and invocations of history. We propose that, due to biased invocations of the past, history is likely to play a pernicious role in...