Goran Knezevic

University of Belgrade · Department of Psychology

A growing body of evidence suggests that questionable health behaviors- not following medical recommendations and resorting to non-evidence based treatments—are more frequent than previously thought, and that they seem to have strong psychological roots. We thus aimed to: 1) document the lifetime prevalence of intentional non-adherence to medical r...

Background: Traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) encompasses a wide range of healthcare practices that are typically not part of “conventional” medicine and that are widely used in general populations. The aim of the study was to test for the most appropriate latent structure of a comprehensive instrument measuring TCAM use an...

Objective: This paper investigates the potential of cardiogram-derived traits from electrocardiogram (ECG) and impedance cardiogram (ICG) for biometric identification. Additionally, the influence of induced emotions on cardiogram attributes and their impact on identification accuracy is explored. Method: We conduct a comparative evaluation of 7 mac...

Irrational beliefs encompass a broad set of beliefs that lack verifiable empirical evidence and contradict scientific principles, often grouped into conspiratorial, pseudoscientific, and paranormal domains. This paper investigated whether these beliefs are rooted in a set of cognitive biases. Across four studies, low socioeconomic status, right-win...

Background: In the REASON4HEALTH project, we explored the structure, prevalence, and psychological factors predicting intentional non-adherence to official medical recommendations (iNAR) and the use of traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TCAM) in Serbia. Methods: Focus groups with clinicians and TCAM practitioners and a literature...

This study investigated the robustness of the seven-factor HEXACO–Disintegration (HEXACOD) personality model in children and adolescents, across three age groups (10–13, 14–15, and 16–18 years). Using exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), we assessed the invariance of the proposed seven-factor model. The results supported the HEXACOD mod...

Apophenia – the tendency to perceive meaningful patterns in randomness – has been proposed as a unifying framework for Openness and Psychoticism. While there is substantial evidence supporting a positive correlation between apophenia and susceptibility to psychotic-like experiences, the hypothesized connection to Openness lacks empirical support. I...

This study’s objective was to conduct a reliability generalization meta-analysis of the DELTA scale capturing Disintegration, i.e., proneness to psychotic-like experiences and behaviors. Eligible studies applied various versions of the DELTA scale; 573 α coefficients nested in 76 reports were identified. The pooled effect of all included α coeffici...

Our study aimed to link personality traits (Big Five plus proneness to psychotic-like experiences and behaviors, conceptualized as Disintegration) with clinical characteristics (gender, age, density of episodes, average antipsychotic doses, functionality, and symptom scores). We analyzed 137 patients with psychotic disorders (ICD-10: F20–F29) who h...

Background The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) score ≥ 10 balances best sensitivity and specificity when detecting probable depression in patients. In the general population, different cut-offs are suggested. European studies on general populations validating the PHQ-9 against a diagnostic interview to detect depression are rare. Methods This...

Introduction We will launch a national survey in Serbia to document the prevalence of two types of questionable health behaviours: (1) intentional non-adherence to medical recommendations and (2) use of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine practices, as well as the relation between the two. We will also investigate their psychologica...

People resort to various questionable health practices to preserve or regain health - they intentionally do not adhere to medical recommendations (e.g. self-medicate or modify the prescribed therapies; iNAR), or use traditional/complementary/alternative (TCAM) medicine. As retrospective reports overestimate adherence and suffer from recall and desi...

Objectives: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was followed by the widespread proliferation of conspiracy beliefs (CBs) regarding the origin and harmfulness of the virus and a high level of hesitancy to vaccinate. We aimed to test a series of hypotheses on the correlates of CBs and vaccination, including socio-demographic factors, personality d...

We will launch a national survey in Serbia to document the prevalence of two types of questionable health behaviors: 1) intentional non-adherence to medical recommendations (iNAR) and 2) use of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) practices, as well as the relation between the two. We will also investigate their psychological...

People resort to various questionable health practices to preserve or regain health - they intentionally do not adhere to medical recommendations (e.g., self-medicate or modify the prescribed therapies;iNAR), or use traditional/complementary/alternative (TCAM) medicine. As retrospective reports overestimate adherence and suffer from recall and desi...

Objective: Disintegration is a recently proposed broad, trait-like reconceptualization of the proneness to psychotic-like experiences/behaviors. Methods: We tested the assumption that the 6-factor model (Five-Factor traits plus Disintegration) was the most adequate one and that it was invariant across clinical and non-clinical populations. The c...

Despite insufficient evidence base for some of its practices, traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TCAM) use is rapidly growing; psychological roots of this trend are still under-studied. Based on previous research, input from TCAM practitioners, and content analysis of online media, we developed a comprehensive instrument to measu...

Aim The Covid-19 pandemic may be associated with an increase in mental disorders and mental distress. However, there are no representative studies testing the impact of stressors directly related to Covid-19. We aimed to determine whether Covid-19-related stressors were associated with mental disorders, depressive and anxiety symptoms in the second...

Affect is involved in many psychological phenomena, but a descriptive structure, long sought, has been elusive. Valence and arousal are fundamental, and a key question-the focus of the present study-is the relationship between them. Valence is sometimes thought to be independent of arousal, but, in some studies (representing too few societies in th...

The relationships between Momentary Psychotic-Like Experiences (MPLEs) and HEXACO—complemented by the proneness to PLEs conceptualized as a basic personality trait (Disintegration), and a maladaptive trait (PID-5 Psychoticism)—were investigated in a prospective study that includes experience-sampling methodology (ESM). The main goal was to investig...

Background: The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic was followed by the widespread proliferation of conspiracy beliefs (CBs) regarding the origin and harmfulness of the virus and a high level of hesitancy and resistance to vaccination. We aimed to test a series of hypotheses on the correlates of CBs and vaccination. Methods: The sample (N=1203), was...

Aim. The Covid-19 pandemic may be associated with an increase in mental disorders and mental distress. However, there are no representative studies testing the impact of stressors directly related to Covid-19. We aimed to determine whether Covid-19 related stressors were associated with mental disorders and mental distress in the second year of the...

The goal of the study is to investigate the relationship between the HEXACO personality model and Disintegration-representing a broad spectrum of psychotic-like experiences and behavioral tendencies (Perceptual Distortions, General Executive/Cognitive Impairment, Enhanced Awareness, Paranoia, Mania, Flattened Affect, Apathy/Depression, Somatoform D...

This study aimed to examine the role of socio-political attitudes and motivational tendencies supposed to mark closed-mindedness, as well as other relevant variables of individual differences (Disintegration, i.e., proneness to psychotic-like experiences/behaviors and Death Anxiety), in the Militant Extremist Mindset (MEM). A community sample of 60...

Background Based on the known relationship between the human emotion and standard surface electrocardiogram (ECG), we explored the relationship between features extracted from standard ECG recorded during relaxation and seven personality traits (Honesty/humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness, and Disintegra...

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have a prolonged impact on mental health (MH); however, the long-term MH effects of the COVID-19 pandemic remain unknown. The Serbian national survey—CoV2Soul.RS—was launched to document the MH status of the Serbian population following the COVID-19 pandemic and to contribute to an international evide...

A process model of narcissism proposes two positively related but distinct subdimensions of grandiose narcissism: admiration (agentic/bright) and rivalry (antagonistic/dark). We explore the relationship between narcissism and the Big Five personality dimensions plus disintegration, that is, the dispositional tendency to psychotic-like experiences....

The objective of the study was to investigate the validity of IAT in the assessment of the Big five personality traits. We employed the Multi-Trait Multi-Method (MTMM) approach on a sample of 146 respondents. We collected measures on IATs assessing Big five personality traits, self-reports, and two ratings of close others of different gender on NEO...

This study aimed to examine the role of socio-political attitudes and motivational tendencies supposed to mark closed-mindedness, as well as other relevant variables of individual differences (Disintegration, i.e., proneness to psychotic-like experiences/ behaviors and Death Anxiety), in the Militant Extremist Mindset (MEM). A community sample of 6...

This study investigates group differences in Militant Extremist Mindset (MEM) measures of Pro-violence, Divine Power, Utopianism, Vile World, and West, together with several variables building its nomological network. The study was based on groups from domicile population living within and outside the conflict zone and a sample of refugees/asylum s...

The goal of the study is to investigate the relationship between the HEXACO personality model and Disintegration – representing a broad spectrum of psychotic-like experiences and behavioral tendencies that are reconceptualized as a personality trait. In this pre-registered study, we predicted that the Disintegration factor would separate from HEXAC...

The study aimed to investigate the role of personality, thinking styles, and conspiracy mentality in health-related behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., recommended health behaviors according to COVID-19 guidelines and engagement in pseudoscientific practices related to COVID-19. Basic personality space was defined by the HEXACO model comp...

This study investigates the attitudinal and motivational bases of militant extremist beliefs in a postconflict society ( N = 600; 51% female). Militant extremist mindset (MEM) measures of proviolence, divine power, utopianism, vile world, and West, together with the Ethos of Conflict- Grudge Scale (EOC-grudge), were used to assess militant-extremis...

Electrogastrography (EGG) is a non-invasive technique that can be used for the assessment of gastric myoelectrical activity that further could be beneficial for the assessment of emotionally induced disturbances in the gastrointestinal system. In this paper, we aimed to acquire preliminary insights into its efficacy and performance. This was done b...

The process of personality judgment occurs in daily social interactions and represents an attempt to identify characteristics of someone else's personality, in the way to explain past and predict future behaviors. The results of this process have implications on future decisions and actions of people. This research aimed to examine the accuracy of...

The study aimed to investigate the role of personality, thinking styles, and conspiracy mentality in health-related behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., recommended health behaviors according to COVID-19 guidelines and engagement in pseudoscientific practices related to COVID-19. Basic personality space was defined by the HEXACO model comp...

The ambulatory assessment offers a wide range of methods enabling researchers to investigate psychological, behavioral, emotional, and biological processes. These methods enable us to gather data on individual differences in language use for psychological research. Two studies were conducted with an aim to evaluate and compare the temporal stabilit...

Open science initiatives and practices are gaining almost universal support. For example, the registered report manuscript format, designed with the aim to increase transparency and quality of science, is starting to make an impact across different fields. The second line of action focuses on creating standards for sharing research materials, analy...

This short communication presents a Serbian version of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS). The ANPS is a self-report measure assessing individual differences in primary emotional systems as derived from Jaak Panksepp’s Affective Neuroscience Theory. As a recent work by Montag & Panksepp (2017a) confirmed the original demonstration...

Eysenck's model of personality (PEN) was one of the most influential personality models in the 20th century. A unique characteristic of this model is the claim of psychosis-proneness being incorporated into it as one of its three basic traits - Psychoticism. The main goal of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to find out the associations b...

We provide evidence on the convergence of language-based questionnaire and biological perspectives on personality traits. The first study, conducted on Serbian students, provided evidence on the position of Panksepp’s Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) in the personality space defined by HEXACO facets. The second, replicatory study wa...

Schizotypy is a construct used to describe a group of persons with symptoms which do not fulfill criteria for schizophrenia, but have some similarities with this complex and heterogeneous psychiatric disorder. ICD-10 describes schizotypy as a state (schizotypal disorder), while DSM-5 labels it as a trait marker (schizotypal personality disorder). C...

Earlier research suggested that militant extremists could have certain aspects of psychopathic and psychotic characteristics. Relying on these studies, we investigated whether the Militant Extremist Mind-Set (MEM) could be explained by psychopathy, sadism, and Disintegration (psychosis proneness), as subclinical manifestations of amoral, antisocial...

We conducted preregistered replications of 28 classic and contemporary published findings, with protocols that were peer reviewed in advance, to examine variation in effect magnitudes across samples and settings. Each protocol was administered to approximately half of 125 samples that comprised 15,305 participants from 36 countries and territories....

We conducted preregistered replications of 28 classic and contemporary published findings with protocols that were peer reviewed in advance to examine variation in effect magnitudes across sample and setting. Each protocol was administered to approximately half of 125 samples and 15,305 total participants from 36 countries and territories. Using co...

We conducted preregistered replications of 28 classic and contemporary published findings, with protocols that were peer reviewed in advance, to examine variation in effect magnitudes across samples and settings. Each protocol was administered to approximately half of 125 samples that comprised 15,305 participants from 36 countries and territories....

The Big Five taxonomy describes basic aspects of human personality. Nevertheless, it seems necessary to extend the Big Five as there is new empirical evidence supporting the existence of a continuous distribution of psychotic-like experiences in the general population. Particularly, the lexical approach, which is constitutive for the Big Five tax...

Which is more enjoyable: trying to think enjoyable thoughts or doing everyday solitary activities? Wilson et al. (2014) found that American participants much preferred solitary everyday activities, such as reading or watching TV, to thinking for pleasure. To see whether this preference generalized outside of the United States, we replicated the stu...

Vandalism, the intentional act to destruct or to deface a property not one's own, has received surprisingly little attention in psychological research so far. The present contribution addresses this gap and applies a basic personality perspective to vandalism. Here, we focused on one specific manifestation of vandalism, that is, destroying things f...

Background: Research results on dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate ester (DHEAS) in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are inconsistent. We hypothesized that personality traits could be the confounders of DHEAS levels and disease symptoms, which could in part explain the discrepancy in findings. Method: This study was a part of a broader project...

Much controversy exists regarding the phenomenon of faking questionnaires. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to investigate the contribution of personality, intelligence and the social desirability scale (SDS) in detecting faking, where the possible interfering variables of gender and prior knowledge of psychology are explored. The sample consi...

Četvrta revizija Vekslerove skale za procenu inteligencije kod odraslih (WAIS-IV) je klinički instrument koji se zadaje individualno i koji je konstruisan za procenu intelektualnih sposobnosti adolescenata i odraslih. WAIS-IV se sastoji od 15 suptestova (10 sržnih i 5 dopunskih) koji procenjuju kognitivno funkcionisanje u četiri domena - verbalno r...

This paper presents new data and reviews the available evidence pointing to the existence of three main ingredients of militant extremist mindset (MEM). Three different methods of item development identified factors that we have labeled Nastiness, Grudge, and Excuse. In other words, there are in our midst nasty people who are more prepared than oth...

A nine-facet hierarchical taxonomy of “Disintegration”, a trait-like disposition that causes variations in psychotic-like behavior, is proposed, along with the scales to assess it. Strong correlations were demonstrated in students (n = 466) between lower-level dimensions, independent of the assessment method. Disintegration lay beyond the Five- Fac...

In public goods situations, a specific destructive behavior emerges when individuals face the possibility of punishing others: antisocial punishment, that is, costly punishing cooperative individuals. So far, little is known about the (intuitive or reflective) processes underlying antisocial punishment. Building on the Social Heuristics Hypothesis...

Relying on a recent re-conceptualization of psychosis proneness as a personality trait, its relations with the Big Five traits were investigated in a meta-analytic study. This re-conceptualized trait – named Disintegration – is articulated as a broad, hierarchically organized, nine-faceted behavioral disposition. Disintegration is postulated to be...

Faking on Amoral dimension of the HEDONICA personality inventory was incited by the context simulation instructions: fake good (S2), fake bad (S3) and be honest (S1). Simultaneously, under instruction S1, the scores of respondents were measured on the Amoral facets of Self-concept scale (GSC), the Balanced social desirability scale (BIDR) and the c...

This meta-analytic study investigates the relations between Disintegration-like phenomena (i.e., various aspects of symptomatology with the prefix “schizo-”, both at the clinical and the sub-clinical level) and the traits of the Psychobiological Model of Personality (PBMP). The empirically based benchmark for assuming the distinctness of the trait...

Introduction: Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that includes alterations of almost all mental functions. Numerous tests of cognitive functioning have demonstrated that generalized cognitive dysfunction exists in patients with schizophrenia. These deficits are related to attention, executive functions, working memory and visouspatial memory...

Empirically analyzing empirical evidence One of the central goals in any scientific endeavor is to understand causality. Experiments that seek to demonstrate a cause/effect relation most often manipulate the postulated causal factor. Aarts et al. describe the replication of 100 experiments reported in papers published in 2008 in three high-ranking...

A disturbed beta-endorphin system can be a part of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression allostasis. Study subjects (N=392) included those with PTSD and/or (stress-induced) depression, and healthy controls with and without traumas. The aim of the study was to examine the network of relations centered around plasma beta-endorphin....

In this paper we seek to gain an improved understanding of the structure of cognitive biases and their relationship with measures of intelligence and relevant non-cognitive constructs. We report on the outcomes of a study based on a heterogeneous set of seven cognitive biases — anchoring effect, belief bias, overconfidence bias, hindsight bias, bas...

The aim of the present study was to examine whether healthy individuals with higher levels of neuroticism, a robust independent predictor of psychopathology, exhibit altered facial emotion recognition performance. Facial emotion recognition accuracy was investigated in 104 healthy adults using the Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task (DFAR). Par...

Although large international studies have found consistent patterns of sex differences in personality traits among adults (i.e., women scoring higher on most facets), less is known about cross-cultural sex differences in adolescent personality and the role of culture and age in shaping them. The present study examines the NEO Personality Inventory-...

The objective of this study was to examine the relations between psychopathy – as assessed by ratings (PCL-R) and by self-report (SRP3) – on one side, and The Five-Factor personality Model – expanded to include the traits Amorality and Disintegration – on the other. Both methods examined four traits of psychopathy: interpersonal, affective, lifesty...

Some authors state that one of the functions of explicit homophobia is defensive, and that it has roots in latent attraction towards same sex. Large body of evidence suggests that implicit techniques enable assessment of those cognitions hidden from conscious awareness. Sample of 277 heterosexuals completed several implicit (Implicit Association Te...

Background The hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis self-regulation is achieved via cortisol binding to mineralocorticoid (MR) and glucocorticoid receptors (GR). It is often disturbed in mental disorders, particularly in those where traumatic stress has been implicated, such as posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. Although dexam...

Numerous studies have documented subtle but consistent sex differences in self-reports and observer-ratings of five-factor personality traits, and such effects were found to show well-defined developmental trajectories and remarkable similarity across nations. In contrast, very little is known about perceived gender differences in five-factor trait...

U ovom istraživanju proveravana je validnost desetoajtemskog upitnika BFI-10, namenjenog proceni crta ličnosti iz modela Velikih pet. Ispitivanje je obavljeno na uzorku od 112 ispitanika i njima bliskih osoba ( N = 203). Proveravana je pouzdanost ukupnih rezultata na skalama upitnika, kao i konvergentna, divergentna i prediktivna validnost. Skale O...

The aim of this study was to examine the structure and intensity of relationships between dimensions of sexual behavior and personal characteristics in the context of sexual dimorphism. The sample included 233 participants (both genders, mean age 29,34). Dimensions of sexual behavior were measured using the Sexual Behavior Questionnaire, and per...