Monika Kovacs

Eötvös Loránd University · Institute of Intercultural Psychology and Education

In a multinational study (61 countries; N =15,039), we examined how collective narcissists, both agentic (ACN) and communal (CCN), reacted cognitively (through endorsement of unfounded conspiracy and health beliefs) and behaviorally (via prevention, hoarding, and prosociality) to the pandemic. Higher ACN and CCN predicted greater endorsement of COV...

Collective action is a powerful tool for social change and is fundamental to women and girls’ empowerment on a societal level. Collective action towards gender equality could be understood as intentional and conscious civic behaviors focused on social transformation, questioning power relations, and promoting gender equality through collective effo...

A theoretical perspective on grandiose narcissism suggests four forms of it (sanctity, admiration, heroism, rivalry) and states that these forms conduce to different ways of thinking and acting. Guided by this perspective, we examined in a multinational and multicultural study (61 countries; N = 15,039) how narcissism forms are linked to cognitions...

Violence against women persists globally, transcending intersecting backgrounds, such as race, gender, socio-economic status, education, and ableness. The reality remains that women across diverse intersections continue to endure various forms of violence. According to a nationwide study, 30 % of women experience intimate partner violence during th...

In recent years, the integrated approach of STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has been adopted in the Middle East to improve students' scientific capacities and their formative thinking. Nevertheless, this approach encounters complications in the application, including many due to gender differences. Middle Easter...

Unfounded—conspiracy and health— beliefs about COVID-19 have accompanied the pandemic worldwide. Here, we examined cross-nationally the structure and correlates of these beliefs with an 8-item scale, using a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. We obtained a two-factor model of unfounded (conspiracy and health) beliefs with good internal struct...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to compare posttraumatic growth (PTG) of Mongolian and Hungarian survivors of intimate partner violence. Methods The study employed semi-structured interviews with fifteen women – ten Mongolian and five Hungarian survivors. Thematic analysis identified patterns and themes regarding survivors' PTG. Results PTG...

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflec...

Our research demonstrates the key role of identity content— feminist, egalitarian, or nonfeminist— in predicting solidarity-based actions towards outgroup members among women with regards to the cognitive construals of victimization—victim consciousness. Perceived similarities with other victim groups—inclusive victim consciousness—may have positiv...

We aimed at examining the differences between straight (N = 583) and gay (N = 112) people in terms of the acceptance of ambivalent sexist attitudes not only toward women (ASI) but also toward men (AMI) and how the level of perceived threat posed by men (Realistic Threat Scale) influences these attitudes' acceptance. The study results showed that ga...

Previous research has repeatedly shown a positive association between the need for relationship security and the appeal of benevolent sexism. Possibly, no studies to date had investigated the role of the need to belong with respect to a preference for the ideal partner to endorse benevolently sexist attitudes. Attachment security is considered to a...

Although earlier research had demonstrated significant links between attachment and self-concept clarity; attachment and empathy; and self-concept clarity and empathy respectively, there had been no studies examining these associations in conjunction with one another. Therefore, the present studies explored whether individual differences in self-co...

Background: A long tradition of research has shown an association between political orientation and vaccine uptake. However, we know little about political preferences and the choice of specific vaccines. Methods: We conducted two national surveys, in Hungary (Study 1, online, n = 1130) and Thailand (Study 2, on the street survey: n = 1052), tes...

Remaining in an abusive relationship is a strong risk factor for (re)victimization. Due to the relational nature of intimate partner violence attachment theory offers a useful framework for better understanding its dynamics. Within two studies we worked on individual differences regarding imagined attitudes when confronted with intimate partner vio...

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been a source of fear around the world. We asked whether the measurement of this fear is trustworthy and comparable across countries. In particular, we explored the measurement invariance and cross-cultural replicability of the widely used Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), testing community samples from 48 countri...

The spread of SARS-CoV-2 led to rapid vaccine development. However, there remains considerable vaccine hesitancy in some countries. We investigate vaccine willingness in three nations with very different vaccine histories: Israel, Japan and Hungary. Employing an ecological-systems approach we analyse associations between health status, individual c...

This article discusses a comparative case study of eight single mothers’ lockdown experiences during COVID-19 in Mongolia. The case study investigated single mothers’ experiences and the psychological impact of the lockdown. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight single mothers, four of whom were survivors of intimate partner violence...

In recent research, attachment has been addressed as a core factor that potentially contributes to resilience. However, there is still much to investigate regarding the mechanisms of this relationship. Emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping strategies may be promising pathways via which attachment associates with resilience. The present...

We argue that parental attitudes of (prospective) children's gendered behavior are influenced by sexual orientation and the given social climate. In Study 1 (N = 448), moderated mediations showed that sexual orientation predicted whether or not high-status occupations are preferred for the (prospective) children through modern sexism. For girls, ho...

The rapid international spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus 19 led to unprecedented attempts to develop and administer an effective vaccine. However, there is evidence of considerable vaccine hesitancy in some countries and sub-populations. We investigated willingness to vaccinate in three nations with historically different levels of vaccine willingnes...

Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated ge...

Abstract Objectives: The Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) capture individual differences in aversive personality to complement work on other taxonomies, such as the Big Five traits. However, the literature on the Dark Triad traits relies mostly on samples from English-speaking (i.e., Westernized) countries. We bro...

The Dark Triad (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) has garnered intense attention over the last 15 years. We examined the structure of these traits’ measure—the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (DTDD)—in a sample of 11,488 participants from three W.E.I.R.D. (i.e., North America, Australia & Oceania, Western Europe) and five non-W.E.I.R.D. (i.e....

While both cultural (Faludi, 2006; Kováts, 2018) and personal level (Rudman et al, 2012) backlash has been identified as slowing down or even turning back social change towards gender equality, several studies have documented that gender role expectations have been becoming more egalitarian - in spite of shorter slowdowns (Spence & Hahn, 1997) - fo...

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 crosscultural 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 bel...

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...

The aim of our study was to analyse the effect of candidate’s sex on evaluating well-known and un-known politicians’ trustworthiness, competence/professionalism, and suitability for a supranational (like UN) job and the attitudinal predictors of these evaluations. 162 students participated in the study fulfilling an on-line questionnaire. Accordin...

The representation of women in public office in Hungary is extremely low compared to many other European countries. Gender stereotypes and sexism can be important factors that can explain why women are not nominated or why they are not elected (or both). In our study the classic „think manager think male” paradigm was replicated for comparison of c...

Part of a series of reports prepared for the AJC's East European Curriculum Review Project. What do children in the postcommunist countries of Central and East Europe learn in the classroom about Judaism, Jewish history, the Holocaust, and Israel? Foreword Mónika Kovács's The Treatment of Jewish Themes in Hungarian Schools, which is being published...

A kutatás a társadalmi viszonyokra, kategóriákra, történeti változásokra vonatkozó - egyéni tartalmakban megjelenő, társadalmi mintázatot mutató - nézetek feltárására irányult, keresve ezek érzelmi töltetét, a bennük megjelenő közhangulatot, a személyes helyzettel, illetve a társadalmi közállapotokkal való megelégedettség összetevőit és mértékét. A...