Ronald Fischer

Instituto D’Or de Pesquisa e Ensino | IDOR · Department of Neuroscience

O estudo visou investigar oportunidades e desafios na implementação de uma jornada online de autoconhecimento voltada para a população brasileira. A jornada desenvolvida oferece autoavaliações psicológicas gratuitas e materiais psicoeducativos aos participantes. Foram produzidos também feedbacks personalizados que são gerados com o preenchimento de...

Throughout history, people have reported nonordinary experiences (NOEs) such as feelings of oneness with the universe and hearing voices. Although these experiences form the basis of several spiritual and religious traditions, experiencing NOEs may create stress and uncertainty among those who experience such events. To provide a more systematic ov...

We report systematic variability in the psychometric properties of a brief personality inventory during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing upon recent discussions about the universality vs cultural relativism of personality measures, we review and comparatively test theories predicting systematic variability in personality measureme...

We explore whether linguistic features of person-descriptive adjectives influence the assignment of adjectives to Big-Five personality factors. In study 1, 11 subject matter experts classified a previously published list of 938 personality adjectives in Brazilian Portuguese according to the Big Five. This resulted in an initial list of 211 adjectiv...

There has been concern about ideological basis and possible discrimination in text generated by Large Language Models (LLMs). We test possible value biases in ChatGPT using a psychological value theory. We designed a simple experiment in which we used a number of different probes derived from the Schwartz basic value theory (items from the revised...

Moral courage – standing up and out in defense of personal and moral principles – is crucial for societies and may counteract rising challenges to democracy. Yet, what is moral courage? Is there a stable core of features that are invariant across time and cultures? We used natural language processing and human coding to analyze 2,328 articles acros...

As we traverse through the 21st century, economic inequality is predicted to increase as we face new challenges, from changes in the technological landscape to the growing climate crisis. It is crucial we understand how these changes in inequality may affect cohesion within society. We propose that economic inequality increases moralization – that...

Assessing evolution of cognitive structures across historical periods has remained challenging in the absence of direct access to humans from the past. Overcoming some of these challenges, we examined shifts in the implicit cognitive structures in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is one of the earliest surviving pieces of literature, circulating in var...

We study the mental maps of spectators using psychological network models during a large naturally occurring extreme ritual. Our aim was to identify the psychometric network structure of psychological reactions to an extreme ritual, and to investigate the core features of ritual cognition among its spectators. Participants who observed the Nine Emp...

Background: Socially vulnerable populations were vastly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic significantly impacted Brazil, pressuring its healthcare system for several months, with high mortality rates, even among the youngest population. Cohort studies combining disease surveillance are essential for understanding virus circulation in...

Purpose of review: Loneliness is a state of distress or discomfort between the desired and experienced level of connectedness to others. These feelings may be particular salient in urban environments that seemingly offer more opportunities for social contact, highlighting the discrepancy. The topic of loneliness has received increased attention be...

What are the things that we think matter morally, and how do societal factors influence this? To date, research has explored several individual-level and historical factors that influence the size of our ‘moral circles.' There has, however, been less attention focused on which societal factors play a role. We present the first multi-national explor...

People cooperate every day in ways that range from largescale contributions that mitigate climate change to simple actions such as leaving another individual with choice – known as social mindfulness. It is not yet clear whether and how these complex and more simple forms of cooperation relate. Prior work has found that countries with individuals w...

There have been long-standing debates on the relationships between values as important motivational goals and well-being. We used a longitudinal network perspective to examine how value states and well-being are related over time, separating within-person lagged, within-person contemporaneous, and between-person perspectives. A total of 227 young a...

Objectives Are affective states influencing state mindfulness and can this explain the link between personality and mindfulness? Mindfulness is commonly thought to decrease negative affect, but a number of studies have reported reductions in mindfulness in negative affect situations. This highlights a potential mechanism explaining previously obser...

The COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic social changes for many people, including separation from friends and coworkers, enforced close contact with family, and reductions in mobility. Here we assess the extent to which people's evolutionarily-relevant basic motivations and goals—fundamental social motives such as Affiliation and Kin Care—might have b...

We need better understanding of functional differences of behavioral phenotypes across cultures because cultural evolution (e.g., temporal changes in innovation within populations) is less important than culturally molded phenotypes (e.g., differences across populations) for understanding gene effects. Furthermore, changes in one behavioral domain...

We contribute to recent discussions about the relevance and utility of invariance testing in cultural (and more broadly multi-group or repeated measures) research by highlighting that these debates obscure two different questions. Most researchers are interested in the quality of a first mapping process of concepts onto numerals, that is the qualit...

How does psychology vary across human societies? The fundamental social motives framework adopts an evolutionary approach to capture the broad range of human social goals within a taxonomy of ancestrally recurring threats and opportunities. These motives—self-protection, disease avoidance, affiliation, status, mate acquisition, mate retention, and...

Ancient philosophy proposed a wide range of possible approaches to life which may enhance well-being. Stoic philosophy has influenced various therapeutic traditions. Individuals today may adopt an approach to life representing a naive Stoic Ideology, which nevertheless reflects a misinterpretation of stoic philosophy. How do these interpretations a...

Objectives We present the first investigation into the relationship between basic human values and two core lay-belief systems: Free-Will and Mind-Body beliefs. Methods We gathered data from two samples (Total N = 509) responding to measures on basic human values, mind-body beliefs, and free-will beliefs. Results We found that basic values were s...

We report three studies in which we applied a value dictionary to narratives. Our objective was to test a theory-driven value dictionary for extracting valuable information from autobiographical and narrative texts. In Studies 1 (N = 106) and 2 (N = 152), participants wrote short autobiographical narratives and in Study 3 (N = 150), participants wr...

There have been long-standing debates on the relationships between values as important motivational goals and wellbeing. We used a longitudinal network perspective to examine how value states and wellbeing are related over time, separating temporal, within-person and between-person perspectives. A total of 227 young adults rated their values states...

Background Mental health has deteriorated during the COVID-19 pandemic. These impacts are likely to be more severe in socially vulnerable communities. Previous research has identified useful self-help strategies that individuals may use to maintain and improve mental health. However, these studies have typically ignored economically and socially ma...

Assessing evolution of cognitive structures across historical periods has remained challenging in the absence of direct access to humans from the past. Overcoming some of these challenges, we examined shifts in the implicit cognitive structures in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is one of the earliest surviving pieces of literature, circulating in var...

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N = 10, 535 participants from 24 countries...

What are the things that we think matter morally, and how do societal factors influence this? To date, research has explored several individual-level and historical factors that influence the size of our ‘moral circles’. There has, however, been less attention focused on which societal factors play a role. We present the first multi-national explor...

Objectives We present a bibliometric review of research on trait mindfulness published from 2003 until 2021 to determine the current state of the field and identify research trajectories. Methods A search conducted on Aug 25, 2021, using the search terms “trait mindfulness” OR “dispositional mindfulness” in the Web of Science Core Collection ident...

Environmental values emphasize protection of the natural environment and promote behaviors that express this broad motivational goal. Thus, changes in these values at the community and individual levels are likely to have significant consequences for sustainability efforts. We examined the relative importance of environmental values in Australian a...

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...

To what extent are cultural syndromes invariant within nations or can we identify within-cultural variability in structure and endorsement of cultural syndromes? These questions are central to a) recent discussions around the relevance of nation-states in cultural vs. geographical psychology and b) explorations of how cultural syndromes described i...

White’s recent book An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion provides a state-of-the-art review of the field, geared toward students and readers interested in learning more about the cognitive underpinnings of religion. This commentary focuses on the missing cultural lens in the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) in general, as evidenc...

We comment on the argument by Welzel, Brunkert, Kruse and Inglehart (2021) that theoretically expected associations in nomological networks should take priority over invariance tests in cross-national research. We agree that narrow application of individual tools, such as multi-group confirmatory factor analysis with data that violates the assumpti...

We use a cultural psychology approach to examine the relevance of the Health Belief Model (HBM) for predicting a variety of behaviors that had been recommended by health officials during the initial stages of the COVID-19 lockdown for containing the spread of the virus and not overburdening the health system in Europe. Our study is grounded in the...

We will critically review and discuss some broader trends in the literature regarding measurement in organizational behavior research. Our comments will center around three core interrelated points. First, the increasing use of wearable technology and big data is opening up new avenues for measuring organizational behavior constructs. Second, we wi...

We report systematic variability in the psychometric properties of a brief personality inventory during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing upon recent discussions about the universality vs cultural relativism of personality measures, we review and comparatively test theories predicting systematic variability in personality measureme...

Research shows that place attachment is associated with disaster preparedness. In two studies we examined (1) participants’ place attachment at different spatial scales, (2) participants’ preparedness (intentions and behaviors), and (3) place attachment as a mediator of previously identified demographic predictors of preparedness. Our findings show...

This paper reports on the first study of the structure of the Mini-IPIP in Thailand. A modified version was used that included additional Honesty-Humility items. A four-factor structure was found in a Southern Thai community sample (N=212), that did not match previously reported factor structures. When using a separate student sample (N=201), the s...

Recent studies using more diverse samples have questioned the applicability of the Big Five. It needs to be shown how robust measures of the big five are and whether any deviations are systematic or random. We present validity information on a ten-item personality measure applied to population samples in 16 nations during the first wave of the COVI...

Objectives We present a bibliometric review of research on trait mindfulness published from 2005 till 2021 to determine the current state of the field and identify research trajectories. Methods A search conducted on Jan 30, 2021 using the search terms “trait mindfulness” OR “dispositional mindfulness” in the Web of Science Core Collection identifi...

This paper presents a bibliometric study and general overview of research on ritual. I searched the Web of Science Core Collection on Nov 22, 2020 for studies published between 2000 and 2020 with the term “ritual*” in the title, keywords or abstract. A data corpus of 16,600 English-language publications was further analysed using publication statis...

We report a longitudinal study of Jeitinho brasileiro (salient cultural characteristic of Brazil) during a period of significant political instability. Previous historical and anthropological sources have pointed to the importance of political instability for cultural changes in behaviors such as jeitinho. We are the first to examine possible indiv...

Reactions of spectators during extreme rituals raise questions about evolutionary functions of ritual. We computed psychological network models during a large naturally occurring extreme ritual. Our aim is to identify the network structure of psychological reactions to extreme rituals in situ . Participants who observed high ordeal activities ( N =...

Previous research has established a positive association between experience of the natural physical environment and creativity. This paper presents two empirical studies that explore the relationships between experiences in nature, the trait of connectedness with nature and divergent-thinking creative performance. Study 1 used a new creativity test...

Humans are intrinsically motivated to bond with others. The ability to experience affiliative emotions (such as affection/tenderness, sexual attraction, and admiration/awe) may incentivize and promote these affiliative bonds. Here, we interrogate the role of the critical reward circuitry, especially the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) and the septo-hypoth...

We study the mental maps of spectators using psychological network models during a large naturally occurring extreme ritual. Our aim is to identify the network structure of psychological reactions to extreme rituals in situ, to understand lived ritualistic experience. Participants who observed high ordeal activities (N =1,041 Taoist-Buddhists) comp...

What variables are associated with cross-cultural differences in values at the individual level? In this study, the statistical effect of variables associated with ecological demands and available economic and cognitive resources on self-reported values are investigated in two independent samples to test the replicability of effects. Values are ope...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had immense impact on people’s lives, potentially leading individuals to reevaluate what they prioritize in life (i.e., their values). We report longitudinal data from Australians 3 years prior to the pandemic, at pandemic onset (April 2020, N = 2,321), and in November–December 2020 ( n = 1,442). While all higher order val...

We comment on Welzel et al’s argument that theoretically expected associations in nomological networks should take priority over invariance tests in cross-national research. We agree that narrow application of individual tools, such as multi-group confirmatory factor analysis with data that violates the assumptions of these techniques, can be misle...

We examined the effectiveness of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) of the theory of planned behavior on COVID-19 relevant behavioral intentions and behaviors. We conducted a meta-analysis of 335 effect sizes from 83 samples across 31 countries ( N = 68,592). We found strongest effects for PBC, but contrary to previ...

Significance Storytelling is a unique human skill, yet we know little about its physiological and psychological impact. This study provides evidence of the biomarker changes and beneficial effects of storytelling in children admitted to an intensive care unit. We found that, compared with an active control condition, one storytelling session with h...

We examined the relationship between emotional stability as a more stable personality trait and COVID-related worries with basic human values in a Brazilian sample (N = 578) that is strongly affected by COVID-19. We tested whether emotional stability would moderate the effect of infection and economic worries on personal values. In line with predic...

We provide a critical review of mindfulness research, focusing on three core areas and questions. First, a meta-review and bibliometric analysis on mindfulness research trends identified a large number of meta-analyses published in the last 20 years, which tend to show positive effects on average, despite continuing questions on research quality, u...

Objectives We report a pre-registered longitudinal study of emerging adults which examined the links between facets of mindfulness with Big Five and reinforcement sensitivity personality traits with the aim of exploring possible origins of individual differences in trait mindfulness.Methods We investigated the relationship between personality, rein...

Does individuals personality influence how mindful they are? In a pre-registered experiment, we investigated whether previously established relationships between Neuroticism, Behavioral Inhibition, and mindfulness are due to differences in negative affect reactivity. We expected participants high on Neuroticism/Behavioral Inhibition to show greater...

Significant advancements in methodologies and statistical techniques in cross-cultural psychological research abound, but general practice, education, and most researchers in psychology rarely use them. This leads to misinterpretations, misrepresentations, and prejudice. The authors expertly demonstrate the importance of methodological rigor to saf...

Novel approaches are needed to increase preparedness behaviours in populations with high disaster risk. Crucially, such approaches need to take into account the relationships that people have with place. We report a randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of an online place attachment mental visualisation task to increase preparedness...

I present a bibliometric review of research on ritual published from 2000 till 2020. A search conducted on Nov 22, 2020 using the Web of Science Core Collection identified 16,600 publications. Analysis of publication outlets, keywords and author networks suggests distinct clusters, with a strong focus on ritual in archaeology (which dominated when...

We use the Knowledge, Perceptions and Practices framework to analyze determinants of three types of self-medication practices in Romania: (1) self-medication in the case of cold/flu/viral infections; (2) taking non-prescribed medicine in general; and (3) self-medication based on recom- mendations by others. We analyzed 706 responses to an online su...

Importance It is unclear whether burnout, anxiety, and depression constitute the same or different constructs. Better understanding of these constructs is important for diagnosis and treatment for intensive care unit (ICU) clinicians. Objective To determine the associations and distinctiveness of burnout, depression, and anxiety in a sample of ICU...

What variables explain cross-cultural differences in values? In this study, plausible origins of cultural differences in self-rated values are investigated in two independent samples with multi-level modeling to test the robustness and replicability of effects. Differences in wealth and the interaction between wealth by climate showed strongest cor...

We tested whether various established priming methods affected personal values and behavioral choices in two experiments. We also aimed to test whether an activation of values through priming might shed some light on value-behavior linkages. Using a large online sample (pre-registration: https://osf.io/nz8ak/?view_only=b9110537370444d98d2b22dcf5f07...

Values are part of the social capital of a nation. They play a pivotal role in shaping the decisions and behaviors of citizens and hence are a key determinant of social cohesion and the ability of a society to advance its socio-economic development inclusively. This V20 Policy Brief focusses on the “value of values” and advocates for a general par...

We examined the effectiveness of attitudes, social norms and perceived behavioral control on behavioral intentions and behaviors that prevent and mitigate COVID-19 infections and collateral negative consequences. We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis with 29 effect sizes from 19 studies involving data from 11 countries (N = 15,328). We found...

What does it mean to be happy? The vast majority of cross-cultural studies on happiness have employed a Western-origin, or “WEIRD” measure of happiness that conceptualizes it as a self-centered (or “independent”), high-arousal emotion. However, research from Eastern cultures, particularly Japan, conceptualizes happiness as including an interpersona...

We conducted a rapid review and quantitative summary of meta-analyses that have examined interventions which can be used by individuals during quarantine and social distancing to manage anxiety, depression, stress, and subjective well-being. A literature search yielded 34 meta-analyses (total number of studies k = 1,390, n = 145,744) that were summ...

Experiments have been an integral part of the scientific toolkit. The major advantage of experiments is that they allow us to test plausible cause–effect relations. We humans are intuitive experimentalists; we try to figure out how the world works and how different parts of the world relate to each other. These questions can be of a quite trivial n...

Cognitive deficits in chronic pain are often attributed to difficulties in attentional control. According to the deficit view, these difficulties stem from a reduction in attentional capacity driven by attentional focus on pain experience; alternatively, according to the motivated-attention view, attentional biases toward pain-relevant threats in t...

Individual differences in behavioral dispositions, values and motivation systems have been investigated in relative isolation from each other. We investigated the network structure of indicators derived from Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory, Five-Factor Model and Basic individual values in a large sample of young adults (N = 749). The network showe...

Rituals are performed within specific socio-ecological niches, yet the different effects of the same ritual form across different niches (community contexts) remains unclear. Here, using longitudinal measures over a two-week period during Diwali (the Indian festival of light), we investigate the relationship between ritual time allocation and socia...

Moral vitalism refers to a tendency to view good and evil as actual forces that can influence people and events. The Moral Vitalism Scale had been designed to assess moral vitalism in a brief survey form. Previous studies established the reliability and validity of the scale in US-American and Australian samples. In this study, the cross-cultural c...

We present a new method for personality assessment at a distance to uncover personality structure in historical texts. We focus on how two 19th century authors understood and described human personality; we apply a new bottom‐up computational approach to extract personality dimensions used by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens to describe fictional ch...

The current study aimed to replicate the development of the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) in a sample of 399 undergraduate students. We factor analyzed the Mindful Attention and Awareness Questionnaire (MAAS), the Freiburg Mindfulness Scale, the Southampton Mindfulness Questionnaire (SMQ), the Cognitive Affective Mindfulness Scale Rev...

Objectives The goal of the current study was to investigate the universality of the five-factor model of mindfulness and the measurement equivalence of the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ).Methods The study used FFMQ data from published and unpublished research conducted in 16 countries (total N = 8541). Using CFA, different models, prop...

We conducted a rapid review and quantitative summary of meta-analyses that have examined interventions which can be used by individuals during quarantine and social distancing to manage anxiety, depression, stress and subjective well-being. A literature search yielded 34 meta-analyses (total number of studies k = 1,390, n = 145,744) that were summa...