Marcin Bukowski

• Dr
• Jagiellonian University

Previous studies have reported fewer social biases in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, it is unclear whether the expression of social biases varies across the bilingualism spectrum. This article investigates the connections between different dimensions of bilingual experience and the expression of explicit bias. We analyzed the respons...

Sharp disagreements about social issues have raised concerns about increasing societal polarization in democracies worldwide. While diversity of opinion is vital for democratic engagement and can promote innovative solutions, social science research shows that such disagreements can undermine social cohesion and erode social trust if they turn into...

Introduction: The need for control is a fundamental human motivation, that when deprived can lead to broad and substantial changes in human behavior. We aimed to assess the consequences of control deprivation in a real-life situation that poses a severe threat to personal control: a prolonged unemployment. Methods: Using a sample N = 1055 of unempl...

In many Western societies, conflicts between non-Muslims and Muslims are fueled by the perception of Muslim identity and the national identity as a supposed pair of opposites. It can be assumed that this distinct categorization into ingroup and outgroup can reinforce the effect of salient threat to control on increased ingroup bias and can thus lea...

The construct of personal control is crucial for understanding a variety of human behaviors. Perceived lack of control affects performance and psychological well-being in diverse contexts-educational, organizational, clinical, and social. Thus, it is important to know to what extent we can rely on the established experimental manipulations of (lack...

Previous studies have reported fewer social biases in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, it is unclear whether this tendency is a by-product of being bilingual or whether it is driven by specific bilingual experiences. This paper investigates the connections between different dimensions of bilingual experience and explicit bias expressio...

Research has shown that more efficient executive control (EC) is related to reduced expression of social biases, and this relation is influenced by participants’ motivation to respond without prejudice. Previous studies have shown that some forms of life experience are linked to more efficient EC. One such type of experience is bilingualism. Can th...

People desire agentic representations of their personal and collective selves, such as their own nation. When national agency is put into question, this should increase their inclination to restore it, particularly when they simultaneously lack perceptions of personal control. In this article, we test this hypothesis of group-based control in the c...

In today’s elections, abundantly available polls inform voters what parties lead and what parties trail. This allows voters to accurately predict the likely outcomes of elections before the final results are in. Voters may react to these ex-ante election outcomes by shifting their votes either toward leading parties, often termed the “bandwagon eff...

Global threats are often perceived as triggers of intergroup conflict and prejudice. However, threats that jointly affect in- and outgroup members can also enhance intergroup cooperation and decrease prejudice. In this research, we investigated how different appraisals of threat (to personal vs. social identity motives) and different forms of coope...

Research has shown that when control is threatened, people are more likely to turn to groups that are perceived as particularly agentic. However, the question of under what conditions control threat can mobilize individuals to join problem-focused, activist groups remains unresolved. In the present research, we propose that strength of involvement...

Research has shown that when control is threatened, people are more likely to turn to groups that are perceived as particularly agentic. However, the question of under what conditions control threat can mobilize individuals to join problem-focused, activist groups remains unresolved. In the present research, we propose that strength of involvement...

Even though taking part in elections is one of the most direct tools to influence the socio-political system, many people choose not to vote. Research shows that this problem is especially prevalent among those citizens who do not believe they have control over social and political issues, but the question remains as to what could encourage their v...

In the present study, we analyse the influence of goal maintenance and goal change on the efficiency of executive control. Although there is empirical evidence on the impact of goal maintenance and task-switching on executive control, little is known about the consequences of changing between processing goals (e.g., speed or accuracy goals). We ass...

According to the principle of energy-conservation principle, effort investment is usually reduced in situations that are perceived as uncontrollable. This is because when success is recognized as impossible, any effortful actions are no longer justified. However, we predicted that individual differences in uncertainty tolerance, i.e., the need for...

Even though taking part in elections is one of the most direct tools to influence the socio-political system, many people choose not to vote. Research shows that this problem is especially prevalent among those citizens who do not believe they have control over social and political issues, but the question remains as to what could encourage their v...

W niniejszym rozdziale dokonujemy przeglądu oraz integracji dwóch różnych perspektyw badania poczucia (braku) kontroli i sprawczości: perspektywy behawiorystycznej oraz fenomenologicznej. Naszym celem jest próba zrozumienia, w jaki sposób doświadczenie obiektywnego braku wpływu na otoczenie kształtuje subiektywne poczucie, że jesteśmy autorami nasz...

Prolonged deprivation of personal control induces cognitive, motivational, and affective impairments that can lead to learned helplessness syndrome. Research on cognitive mechanisms involved in responding to uncontrollable events reveals a critical role of lack of contingency between one’s action and outcomes. However, the impact of experienced unc...

The relationships between subjective status and perceived legitimacy are important for understanding the extent to which people with low status are complicit in their oppression. We use novel data from 66 samples and 30 countries (N = 12,788) and find that people with higher status see the social system as more legitimate than those with lower stat...

The relationships between subjective status and perceived legitimacy are important for understanding the extent to which people with low status are complicit in their oppression. We use novel data from 66 samples and 30 countries (N = 12,788) and find that people with higher status see the social system as more legitimate than those with lower stat...

Prolonged deprivation of personal control induces cognitive, motivational and affective impairments that can lead to learned helplessness syndrome. Research on cognitive mechanisms involved in responding to uncontrollable events reveals a critical role of lack of contingency between one’s action and outcomes. However, the impact of experienced unco...

Uncontrollability has been often associated with impaired or rigid cognitive processing. However, perceived stability of uncontrollable events modulated some of these detrimental effects on cognition. We investigated whether the experience of sequential control loss and restoration can enhance cognitive flexibility. We manipulated uncontrollability...

Traditional roles are problematic for women because they constrain their life choices. Therefore, women have a vested interest in challenging them. We argue that women can resist pervasive traditional roles by showing automatic ingroup bias. In two studies we used an associative procedure to expose two groups of women to stereotypical vs. counter-s...

When personal control is threatened, people often turn to their own group and show negativity towards others. In three studies, we tested an alternative prediction that the salient lack of personal control (vs. control) experienced in the context of unemployment can lead to connectedness and more positive perception of similar others (e.g., members...

A study was carried out to determine if the potentiating effects of early bilingualism in populations with Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) were maintained. A neuropsychological battery was administered to 122 adolescents from northern Argentina and southern Paraguay who included the task Stroop, Trail Making Test and Verbal Fluency Tests to evaluate...

Some prior research indicated that self-image threat may lead people to stereotyping and prejudiced evaluations of others. Other studies found that self-image threat may promote less stereotypical thinking and unprejudiced behavior. In a series of three studies, we demonstrate that self-image threat may lead to either more or less stereotypical per...

Some prior research indicated that self-image threat may lead people to stereotyping and prejudiced evaluations of others. Other studies found that self-image threat may promote less stereotypical thinking and unprejudiced behavior. In a series of three studies, we demonstrate that self-image threat may lead to either more or less stereotypical per...

Economic crises can threaten individuals’ sense of control. At the same time, these crises often result in collective responses, such as class-based protest (e.g., the 99%), but also nationalism or xenophobia. We investigated how personal consequences of economic crises lead to both intragroup and intergroup responses and the role of control for th...

Coping with Lack of Control in a Social World offers an integrated view of cutting-edge research on the effects of control deprivation on social cognition. The book integrates multi-method research demonstrating how various types of control deprivation, related not only to experimental settings but also to real life situations of helplessness, can...

In this research, we examined how people cope with threats to personal control related to the global economic crisis. Three studies (one correlational and two experimental) tested the prediction that blaming social outgroups could serve as a means to restore a threatened sense of personal control. We found that outgroup blaming attributions are rel...

We propose that reactance to threats to individual freedom can be broadened to include threats to group identity and its associated values and norms. In two studies we primed women and men with (counter)stereotypical roles and measured implicit activation of reactance vs. acceptance goals, task persistence, and support for system justification beli...

This article presents the cross-cultural validation of the Entitlement Attitudes Questionnaire, a tool designed to measure three facets of psychological entitlement: active, passive, and revenge entitlement. Active entitlement was defined as the tendency to protect individual rights based on self-worthiness. Passive entitlement was defined as the b...

This article presents the cross-cultural validation of the Entitlement Attitudes Questionnaire, a tool designed to measure three facets of psychological entitlement: active, passive, and revenge entitlement. Active entitlement was defined as the tendency to protect individual rights based on self-worthiness. Passive entitlement was defined as the b...

Need for closure (NFC), defined as a desire for a quick and unambiguous answer to a question and an aversion to uncertainty, usually leads to a more structured, persistent, and rigid cognitive style. We suggested that this cognitive characteristic could be related to differences in a simple sensory gating control mechanism as reflected in event-rel...

We investigate the phenomenon of complementary stereotyping of ethnic minorities in Poland and its relationship to system justification. Using results from a nationally representative survey we test the hypothesis that complementary stereotypes—according to which ethnic minorities are seen as possessing distinctive, offsetting strengths and weaknes...

The study examined the relationship between epistemic motivation, which is the need for closure (NFC), and positive attitudes towards a negatively stereotyped outgroup (i.e., Gypsies). Although extensive research has revealed that NFC is related to derogatory behavioural tendencies and negative emotions towards stereotyped groups, it is proposed th...

We propose that reactance to threats to individual freedom can be broadened to include threats to group identity and its associated values and norms. In two studies we primed women and men with (counter) stereotypical roles and measured implicit activation of reactance versus acceptance goals, task persistence, and support for system justification...

Two experiments were conducted to explore the effects of experiencing uncontrollability on the efficiency of attentional control. The experience of uncontrollability was induced either by unsolvable tasks (Experiment 1) or by tasks in which non-contingent feedback was provided (Experiment 2). A version of the Attentional Network Test-Interactions w...

The aim of this research was to examine the impact of two specific negative emotions of anger and fear on intergroup attitudes. In Study 1 we measured emotions of anger and fear and in Study 2 we evoked these emotions incidentally, that is independently of any intergroup context. In both studies we measured attitudes towards the ingroup (Polish) an...

In the present study the impact of need for cognitive closure (NFC) manipulations via time pressure and explicit closure goal activation on executive control was investigated. Although there is some evidence that NFC, measured as an individual variable, is related to better performing in attentional tasks involving executive control, these results...

One of the key research areas in the embodied cognition field is role of metaphors in creating abstract notions. One of such metaphors is vertical dimension (UP-DOWN) used e.g. for conceptualising positive and/or negative emotions. Its importance has been confirmed by many empirical findings, but some of them arouse methodological concerns regardin...

On the basis of findings obtained from students samples from 27 countries (N = 6192) applicability of three-dimensional entitlement model on individual and cultural level were tested. In the article we present theoretical model allowing for cross-cultural comparisons of entitlement attitudes and its relations to socio- economic development of societ...

It is well documented that motivation toward closure (NFC), defined as a desire for a quick and unambiguous answer to a question and an aversion to uncertainty, is linked to more structured, rigid, and persistent cognitive styles. However, the neurocognitive correlates of NFC have never been tested. Thus, using event-related potentials, we examined...

We examined the influence of interdependence goals on the accessibility of implicit gender stereotypical associations. Participants were asked to cooperate with or compete against a woman on a mathematical abilities task and subsequently the relative activation of positive and negative warmth and competence traits was measured using a primed catego...

The present study addressed the question whether bilinguals are characterised by increased cognitive flexibility. Mechanisms of cognitive flexibility were compared between a group of Hungarian-Polish bilinguals and a group of Hungarian monolinguals. The first task explored the effects of temporal orienting (ability to voluntarily orient attention t...

In a set of two studies, we tested whether gender-stereotypical associations are automatically activated by Spanish women in a categorization task, and how this process is conditioned by the context in which the target is presented (kitchen vs. office). We hypothesized that gender stereotypes would be activated implicitly when the target (men vs. w...

The role of need for cognitive closure (NFCC) in reasoning about social relations was investigated. Participants learned pairwise liking/disliking relations between people who could also be categorised on the basis of nationality and then had to group them into social cliques. The social clique structures were either consistent or inconsistent with...

We examined the influence of exposure to traditional gender roles on the activation of gender stereotypes in Spanish women. An associative procedure was used to expose participants to stereotypical vs. counterstereotypical gender roles, and a word categorization task with stereotypically feminine communal/warmth and stereotypically masculine agenti...

The impact of background category information on the creation of social cliques: The role of need for cognitive closure and decisiveness This article focuses on the role of need for cognitive closure in the process of mental model creation about social relations (i.e. social cliques). We assumed that high (vs. low) need for closure participants ten...

The present study tested the role of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), terrorist threat, and sociopolitical 'climate' as predictors of support for governmental anti-terrorism policies and actions. Two dimensions of analysis were defined: the presence versus absence of al-Qaeda attacks, and adherence to surveillance versus anti-surveillance mainstr...

In complex social interactions, such as co-operation or competition with another person on an ability test, people tend to activate stereotypes strategically in order to achieve their self-enhancement goals. If multiple ways of categorizing the target person are available, the selected stereotypical traits that serve their motives might also depend...

The two present studies tested the relationships between the negative emotions of fear, anger, and sadness and the social attitudes of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO). It was hypothesized that these specific emotions interact with the social attitudes exerting an influence on prejudice toward outgroups with...

An experimental study was conducted with a sample of 43 Psychology students who volunteered for it. The main goal was to measure gender stereotypical dimensions activation using a priming paradigm as an indirect measure, and under highly restrictive experimental conditions that reduce the availability of cognitive resources to maximize the use of a...

Se realizó un estudio experimental, en el que participaron 43 estudiantes de Psicología voluntarios, con el fin de medir la activación de las dimensiones estereotípicas de género, mediante un paradigma de priming como medida indirecta de la estereotipia de género, y bajo condiciones experimentales que limitaban los recursos cognitivos disponibles,...