David Lacko

The Czech Academy of Sciences | AVCR · Institute of Psychology

This article investigates cross-cultural differences in analytic/holistic cognitive styles among participants from 11 countries: Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Ghana, Philippines, Slovakia, Taiwan, and Türkiye. Using a preregistered design, 993 university students were assessed with three perceptual tasks based on Navon’s h...

Introduction Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in communication, social interaction, and repetitive behavior. The declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 resulted in significant changes in daily life due to restrictive measures. This period posed particular challenges for familie...

Background and Objectives: The objective of this longitudinal study was to address the inconsistencies in the existing literature and determine the nature of the relationship between accepting reality and depressive symptoms, as well as the circumstances under which this relationship manifests over time. In our exploration of moderators influencing...

Introduction The assessment of online health‐related information presents a significant challenge for today's youth. Using the Processing of Commercial Media Content (PCMC) model, we investigated the impact of advertising on the perceived credibility of informational content concerning fitness (in boys) and dietary supplements (in girls). Methods...

The associations between exposure to violent video games (VVG) and aggression/empathy have been extensively studied. VVG are often depicted as triggers for increased aggression and decreased empathy in line with the General Aggression Model. However, longitudinal evidence that distinguishes within- and between-person effects and focuses on various...

The study tested how the use of positive- (e.g. beautiful) and negative-valenced (e.g. horrible) words in natural language and its change in time affects the severity of depression and anxiety symptoms among depressed and non-depressed individuals. This longitudinal mixed methods study (N = 40 participants, n = 1440 narratives) with three measureme...

This article investigates the links between the Big Five personality traits and self‐efficacy, perceived stress, and life satisfaction during the COVID‐19 pandemic on a large sample of Czech university students and lecturers ( N = 11,824). The study's findings indicate that during the pandemic, negative emotionality was strongly associated with bot...

The associations between exposure to violent video games (VVG) and aggression/empathy have been extensively studied. VVG are often depicted as triggers for increased aggression and decreased empathy in line with the General Aggression Model. However, longitudinal evidence that distinguishes within- and between-person effects and focuses on various...

The current study investigates attitudes toward one form of sex for resources: the so-called sugar relationships, which often involve exchanges of resources for sex and/or companionship. The present study examined associations among attitudes toward sugar relationships and relevant variables (e.g., sex, sociosexuality, gender inequality, parasitic...

When spatial information is depicted on univariate or multivariate maps, different visualization designs should be considered to fit the designs to suit the target audience and define the map’s general purpose and therefore also the map user’s expected cognitive processes. Although multivariate maps have attracted research for decades, only several...

Despite the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, it provided the opportunity to investigate factors associated with compliance with public health measures that could inform responses to future pandemics. We analysed cross-country data (k = 121, N = 15,740) collected one year into the COVID-19 pandemic to investigate factors related to comp...

We examined theories of cross‑cultural differences in cognitive style on a sample of 242 participantsrepresenting five cultural groups (Czechia, Ghana, eastern and western Turkey, and Taiwan). Theexperiment involved immersive virtual environments consisting of two salient focal objects and acomplex background as stimuli, which were presented using...

A preregistered meta-analysis, including 244 effect sizes from 85 field audits and 361,645 individual job applications, tested for gender bias in hiring practices in female-stereotypical and gender-balanced as well as male-stereotypical jobs from 1976 to 2020. A “red team” of independent experts was recruited to increase the rigor and robustness of...

Background Understanding the formation of body image is critical for the prevention and treatment of eating disorders, especially in adolescence, when body image develops significantly. One of the important facets of body image is body appreciation, which consists of positive feelings and attitudes towards the body regardless of its perceived “flaw...

Despite the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, it provided the opportunity to investigate factors associated with compliance with public health measures that could inform responses to future pandemics. We analysed cross-country data (k = 121, N = 15,740) collected one year into the COVID-19 pandemic to investigate factors related to comp...

This eye-tracking research investigates cross-cultural similarities and differences in visual attention in complex scenes free-viewing perception. The study utilizes 70 real-world photos with one or two focal objects as stimulus materials. The study examines the amount of time spent on focal objects, saccadic lengths, temporal changes in saccadic l...

Previous research associated smartphone use with worsened sleep among adolescents. However, the prior findings were mainly based on cross-sectional, self-reported data, and a between-person level of analysis. This study examined between- and within-person associations for adolescents’ smartphone use and multiple sleep outcomes: sleep onset time, sl...

This paper investigates cross-cultural differences in analytic/holistic cognitive styles among participants from eleven countries: Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Ghana, Philippines, Slovakia, Taiwan, and Türkiye. Using a pre-registered design, 993 university students were assessed with three perceptual tasks based on Navon...

This interdisciplinary study examines the cross-cultural differences between the perceived legitimacy of antipandemic measures during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis in three Central European countries and four independent samples (West Germany, East Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia). A total of 2,752 participants completed a newly develop...

Reading strategies and cognitive styles have been the objective of many researchers. However, the relation between these two concepts remains unclear. This paper is focusing on three goals. Firstly, we verify the reliability of the eye-tracking indicators of risky and conservative reading style. Secondly, we aim to explore an additional eye-trackin...

In the past 10 years, live-streaming services have gained huge popularity. Streamers usually play video games and complement their performance with commentary. We examine the role of this streamer commentary on state aggression in Czech adolescents who were randomly assigned into one of the three experimental groups (i.e. aggressive commentary, non...

In three cross-sectional and one longitudinal studies in Switzerland and Czechia, we investigated predictors of intergroup contact; namely ideological variables, empathy (Study 1 & 2) and personality traits (Study 3 & 4). In Study 1 (N = 859 Swiss), those with a left-wing political orientation reported more frequent positive (and less negative) con...

This article investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a large sample of Czech university students and lecturers (N = 11,824), focusing on the links between the Big Five personality traits and self-efficacy, perceived stress, and life satisfaction. The study’s findings indicate that during the pandemic, neuroticism was strongly associated...

Cognitive styles are commonly studied constructs in cognitive psychology. The theory of field dependence-independence was one of the most important cognitive styles. Yet in the past, its measurement had significant shortcomings in validity and reliability. The theory of analytic and holistic cognitive styles attempted to extend this theory and over...

The world is witnessing the highest level of displacement of people on record. Public discourse often uses labels to describe people on the move such as ‘migrants’, ‘asylum seekers’, or ‘refugees’ interchangeably. A preregistered study in nine countries (Australia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U...

Objective: Vaccines are an effective means to reduce the spread of diseases, but they are sometimes met with hesitancy that needs to be understood. Method: In this study, we analyzed data from a large, cross-country survey conducted between June and August 2021 in 43 countries (N = 15,740) to investigate the roles of trust in government and science...

Objective: Vaccines are an effective means to reduce the spread of diseases, but they are sometimes met with hesitancy that needs to be understood. Method: In this study, we analyzed data from a large, crosscountry survey conducted between June and August 2021 in 43 countries (N = 15,740) to investigate the roles of trust in government and science...

Importance: Approximately 7% to 30% of children contend with handwriting issues (HIs) in their school years. However, research studies to define and quantify HIs, as well as practical assessment tools, are lacking. Objective: To confirm the validity and reliability of two screening scales for HIs: the Handwriting Legibility Scale (HLS) and the C...

Objective: Vaccines are an effective means to reduce the spread of diseases, but they are sometimes met with hesitancy that needs to be understood. Method: In this study, we analyzed data from a large, cross-country survey conducted between June and August 2021 in 43 countries (N = 15,740) to investigate the roles of trust in government and science...

Although the change in the electoral system used in elections to the Chamber of Deputies has attracted the attention of lawyers, political scientists, and sociologists, we still lack a comprehensive comparative analysis of the new system with the original one or other alternatives. The main reason for this is the lack of empirical data. This articl...

Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2; Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015) is a routinely used measure of body appreciation, which is a concept that encompasses positive feelings and attitudes towards the body regardless of its perceived “flaws”. The present study provides evidence for the validity of the BAS-2 among Czech adolescents. Specifically, the study...

This doctoral thesis consists of four research articles dealing with how cultural influences shape cognitive processes. The first article describes cross-cultural differences in analytic-holistic cognitive style, individualism/collectivism and map reading. The next two articles describe the psychometric properties of the methods measuring behaviora...

Triangulation of the various methodological approaches towards the rule of law is highly desirable since it allows the combination of benefits and elimination of problematic aspects in each. The present article triangulates the conceptualizations of three approaches relating to the rule of law, namely Bedner’s review of the rule of law theories, th...

During a pandemic, it is vital to identify factors that motivate individuals to behave in ways that limit virus transmission (i.e., anti‐COVID‐19 behaviour). Fear has been suggested to motivate health‐oriented behaviour, yet fear of the virus (i.e., fear of COVID‐19) could have unintended consequences, such as an increase in anti‐immigrant prejudic...

Through a re-analysis of survey data collected with a sample of 9,731 youth aged 11–17 from 10 European countries, the article explores how some of the most popular online activities for children and young people (i.e., informational, social, and entertainment activities) relate to different types of perceived digital skills, as well as individual...

Objective: Vaccines are an effective means to reduce the spread of diseases, but they are sometimes met with hesitancy that needs to be understood.Methods: In this study, we analysed data from a large, cross-country survey conducted between June and August 2021 in 43 countries (N = 15,740) to investigate the roles of trust in government and science...

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVIDiSTRESS Consortium launched an open-accessglobal survey to understand and improve individuals’ experiences related to the crisis. a year later,we extended this line of research by launching a new survey to address the dynamic landscape of thepandemic. this survey was released with the goal of addr...

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVIDiSTRESS Consortium launched an open-access global survey to understand and improve individuals' experiences related to the crisis. a year later, we extended this line of research by launching a new survey to address the dynamic landscape of the pandemic. this survey was released with the goal of a...

Meeting the principles and satisfying the demands posed by the rule of law is essential for any legal system to function well in society. The article introduces an analytical framework of empirically measurable constructs of legal consciousness and legal literacy consisting of formal and substantive components and shows how they resemble the demand...

The rapid outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has affected citizens' daily lives in an unprecedented way. To curb the spread of the pandemic, governments have taken numerous measures such as social distancing and quarantine, which may be associated with psychological consequences, namely stress and loneliness globally. To understand diff...

In the past 10 years, live-streaming services have gained huge popularity. Streamers usually play videogames and complement their performance with commentary. We examine the role of this streamer commentary on state aggression in Czech adolescents who were randomly assigned into one of three experimental groups (i.e., aggressive commentary, non-agg...

Individualism and collectivism are some of the most widely applied concepts in cultural and cross-cultural research. They are commonly applied by scholars who use arithmetic means or sum indexes of items on a scale to examine the potential similarities and differences in samples from various countries. For many reasons, cross-cultural research impl...

The study of maladaptive traits has a rich history within industrial psychology. Most commonly the object of the interest is the traits of dark triad or tetrad. In this contribution, we present preliminary psychometric characteristics of CAT-PD, a method based on the forced-choice format, that captures broad maladaptive traits. This psychometric st...

Cognitive styles are commonly studied constructs in cognitive psychology. The theory of field dependence-independence was one of the most important cognitive styles. Yet in the past, its measurement had significant shortcomings in validity and reliability. The theory of analytic and holistic cognitive styles attempted to extend this theory and over...

Resumé: Článek přináší výsledky průzkumu zaměřeného na vnímání prestiže knihovnického povolání, image knihoven, důvěryhodnosti a komunitní role knihoven veřejností v České republice. Dotazníkový průzkum proběhl na vzorku 1012 respondentů při sledování reprezentativnosti dle pohlaví, věku, vzdělání, kraje a velikosti místa bydliště. Mezi nejzajímavě...

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVIDiSTRESS Consortium launched an open-access global survey to understand and improve individuals’ experiences related to the crisis. A year later, we extended this line of research by launching a new survey to address the dynamic landscape of the pandemic. This survey was released with the goal of a...

Triangulation of the various methodological approaches towards the rule of law is highly desirable since it allows the combination of benefits and elimination of problematic aspects in each. The present article triangulates the conceptualizations of three approaches relating to the rule of law, namely Bedner’s review of the rule of law theories, th...

The research aimed to determine the level of work engagement and its relationship with selected psychological aspects (work meaningfulness, burnout syndrome, and overall life satisfaction). The research sample included 662 high school teachers. Engagement was measured by the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) and the Engaged Teachers Scale (ETS...

In the risky-choice framing effect, different wording of the same options leads to predictably different choices. In a large-scale survey conducted from March to May 2020 and including 88,181 participants from 47 countries, we investigated how stress, concerns, and trust moderated the effect in the Disease problem, a prominent framing problem highl...

This manuscript aims to present a novel behavioral impulsivity test ImGo, which is suitable for impulsivity assessment in the general population. A series of three studies was conducted to validate its psychometric qualities. In Study 1 we describe the principles of ImGo and verify its test-retest and split-half reliability and its convergent valid...

This theoretical paper introduces approaches that can be used to support a null hypothesis. We introduce the four most promising techniques of equivalence testing: two one-sided tests (TOST), second-generation p-value (SPGV), Bayes Factor (BF), and region of practical equivalence (ROPE). The following paper clarifies the logic of the null hypothesi...

This article introduces a validation study of the Czech version of an independent and interdependent self-construal questionnaire (SCS, Vignoles et al., 2016) conducted on 330 Czech subjects. In this study, the reliability, convergent validity and factor validity were verified. However, the confirmatory factor analysis revealed unsatisfactory facto...

The aim of this study was to compare the performance of two bivariate visualizations by measuring response correctness (error rate) and response time, and to identify the differences in cognitive processes involved in map-reading tasks by using eye-tracking methods. The present study is based on our previous research and the hypothesis that the use...

In the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vital to identify factors increasing behaviors that limit the transmission of COVID-19 (i.e., anti-COVID-19 behavior) and factors protecting against the negative consequences of the pandemic on societies (i.e., prejudice). A simultaneous investigation of a change in anti-COVID behavior and prejudice during the pandem...

Individualism and collectivism are some of the most widely applied concepts in cultural and cross-cultural research. They are commonly applied by scholars who use arithmetic means or sum indexes of items on a scale to examine the potential similarities and differences in samples from various countries. For many reasons, cross-cultural research impl...

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, copin...

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, copin...

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, copin...

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173,429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, copin...

This article reports on a conducted systematic review focused on conceptualization and measurement methods of legal consciousness, which can be understood as the equivalent for the legitimacy of law. A systematic search identified 2,054 articles, resulting in the inclusion of 156 relevant articles after two phases of the screening process. Articles...

This N = 173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey-an open science effort to improve understanding of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavir...

In the risky-choice framing effect, different wording of the same options leads to predictably different choices. In a large-scale survey conducted from March to May 2020 and including 88,181 participants from 47 countries, we investigated how stress, concerns, and trust moderated the effect in the Disease problem, a prominent framing problem highl...

This report is based on further analysis of the EU Kids Online data collected across 19 European countries in 2017–19 (Smahel et al., 2020), and aims to identify the antecedents and consequences of digital skills among children. More specifically, in Section 3, "The antecedents of digital skills", we tested the relationship between individual chara...

This article reports on a conducted systematic review focused on conceptualization and measurement methods of legal consciousness, which can be understood as the equivalent for the legitimacy of law. A systematic search identified 2,054 articles, resulting in the inclusion of 156 relevant articles after two phases of the screening process. Articles...

This article introduces three unsuccessful attempts to adapt Independent and Interdependent Self Scale (IISS) and Self-Construal Scale (SCS) into Czech. The article consists of three studies using secondary analysis of unpublished data in order to estimate their psychometric properties, especially reliability and factor structure. The first study w...

The theory of holistic and analytic cognitive style is currently one of the most prominent theories with the ambition to describe and explain cross-cultural differences in perception and cognition. This paper is focused on four newly adapted methods of cognitive style measurement trying to establish convergent validity of these methods with already...