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Abstract When someone violates a social norm, others may think that some sanction would be appropriate. We examine how the experience of emotions like anger and disgust relate to the judged appropriateness of sanctions, in a pre-registered analysis of data from a large-scale study in 56 societies. Across the world, we find that individuals who experience anger and disgust over a norm violation are more likely to endorse confrontation, ostracism and, to a smaller extent, gossip. Moreover, we find that the experience of anger is consistently the strongest predictor of judgments of confrontation, compared to other emotions. Although the link between state-based emotions and judgments may seem universal, its strength varies across countries. Aligned with theoretical predictions, this link is stronger in societies, and among individuals, that place higher value on individual autonomy. Thus, autonomy values may increase the role that emotions play in guiding judgments of social sanctions.

The present study examines the Big Five traits and socio-demographic factors as predictors of both traditional left-right and liberal-conservative positions of Slovak voters (N = 704). As shown in previous research, Open-Mindedness and Conscientiousness are significant but weak predictors of both political axes, while Agreeableness plays a surprising role in predicting left-right orientation. To overcome the limitations of traditional political axes, three latent variables of the Slovak political space were discovered by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of political preferences: sympathy towards old/new government, socially conservative parties, and a non-populist coalition. The former is significantly predicted by Open-Mindedness, while the latter is predicted by Conscientiousness. Overall, the Big Five traits predict a small but significant variance in political variables.

Measurement(s) Motivation • Emotional Well-being • Socioeconomic Indicator • Culture • Cultural Diversity Technology Type(s) survey method • digital curation Sample Characteristic - Organism Homo sapiens Sample Characteristic - Location Australia • Austria • Bolivia • Brazil • Bulgaria • Canada • Chile • China • Colombia • Czech Republic • Germany • Hong Kong • India • Israel • Italy • Japan • Kenya • Lebanon • Mexico • The Netherlands • New Zealand • Nigeria • Pakistan • Peru • The Philippines • Portuguese Republic • Romania • Russia • Saudi Arabia • Senegal • Serbia • Singapore • Slovak Republic • South Korea • Spain • Sweden • Thailand • Turkey • Uganda • Ukraine • United Kingdom • United States of America

Social desirability is a tendency to respond to items in a socially acceptable way. It can bias results and is a threat to the validity of the measure. The current study focused on exploring the effect of different instructions on personality traits. The sample consists of 363 Slovak adults, 260 women, and 103 men. The participants were between 18 and 62 years old (M = 25.6; SD = 6.76). The Big Five Inventory-2 was used for measuring personality traits and social desirability. The participants were split into two groups depending on which instruction was administered first – honest setting or social desirability inducing setting (imagining the selection situation). All participants responded to both scenarios. We hypothesized that extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness are socially desirable traits, and so they will be higher using selection simulating instruction compared to honest instruction. The opposite was hypothesized for negative emotionality. The social desirability of open-mindedness was explored. The results confirmed all our hypotheses and showed that open-mindedness is a socially desirable trait as well. Importantly, we found an effect of the order of administrating different instructions – the effect of induced social desirability was present in the honest instruction setting.

The research aim was to find out whether providing information on psychological preparation would produce changes in pre-retirees retirement planning intentions and advance retirement concepts. In the experiment, we divided the pre-retirees (N = 567, mean age of 54.91, SD = 3.55 years, working full-time) into four groups (with and without pre-test, with and without the information provided). There were no differences between the pre-test and post-test conditions. However, the results showed that participants acknowledged the need to prepare for retirement even before the intervention. The participants also rated themselves as psychologically prepared for retirement. The results also indicated which pre-retirees could benefit from psychological preparation: those who believe they would have a disadvantageous and unfavorable retirement transition. The next group is the ones who tend to conceptualize their retirement as an imposed disruption as they also perceive their psychological resources for a successful transition as insufficient.

Acquiescence as the tendency to systematically agree with items without regard for the content is usually measured by manifest approach based on a deviation from the mean of the response scale and by latent approach using confirmatory factor analysis. The goal of this study was to investigate whether acquiescence as measured by both approaches is stable over time. The study explored the relationship of acquiescence with variables usually considered as validating criteria for acquiescence. The research was done with a sample of 443 participants using the BFI-2 as a tool to identify acquiescence. Data was collected twice with an interval of almost two years. The results showed that both approaches showed relative stability over time, with correlation coefficients from .35 to .48 for the manifest and from .42 to .69 for the latent approach. The time stability of acquiescence suggests that acquiescence is more a participant-related than a situation-related construct. However, our results did not support the assumption of the relationship between acquiescence and education, and age which are sometimes recommended as validity criteria for acquiescence. For future research, our recommendations are using CFA for identifying acquiescence and sums of agreements from another time point as validity criterion whenever possible.

Little is known about people’s preferred responses to norm violations across countries. Here, in a study of 57 countries, the authors highlight cultural similarities and differences in people’s perception of the appropriateness of norm violations.

The current study focuses on exploring the 6-month test-retest stability of Slovak second version of the Big Five Inventory (BFI-2) and its predictive power for subjective and psychological well-being, on value-focused behaviour and everyday behaviour. The sample consisted of 414 adult Slovak participants who reported their personalities using the BFI-2 on the first occasion and then again after circa 6 months along with well-being and behaviour self-report measures focused on the past 6 months. The results showed strong test-retest stability of the Slovak BFI-2’s domains and facets. The Slovak BFI-2 also showed the expected pattern of well-being predictions with Extraversion and Negative Emotionality domains as the strongest predictors. Furthermore, meaningful trait–behaviour links of the Slovak BFI-2 were discovered. Overall, our results contribute to the robust international knowledge base regarding stability, predictive power and ecological validity of the Big Five personality factors.

The article describes the process of adaptation of the Big Five Inventory – 2 into the Slovak language and cultural context. The translation process of the Slovak BFI-2 was based on three data samples using item analysis and basic psychometric properties. The present study estimates the psychometric properties of the Slovak BFI-2 and its hierarchical structure using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in an independent sample of 526 participants recruited through an online research panel. It also provides data on convergent-discriminant validity in relation to alternative Big Five measures (NEO-FFI, TIPI) and to standard well-being measures. The results showed good internal consistency on the domain level, and somewhat lower on the facet level. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses successfully recovered the conceptual structure of the Slovak BFI-2. The BFI-2 domains and facets showed adequate convergent-discriminant validity, based on the meaningful pattern of correlations with the other Big Five measures and well-being scales. These findings suggest that the Slovak version of the BFI-2 is a reliable and valid measure of the Big Five personality traits, and is appropriate for use in Slovak and cross-cultural research.

Abstract In this research, a mixed-method approach was employed to conduct large-scale eye-tracking measurements, traditionally associated with high costs and extensive time commitments. Utilizing consumer-grade webcams in conjunction with open-source software, data was collected from an expansive cohort of students, thereby demonstrating the scalability and cost-effectiveness of this innovative methodology. The primary objective of this research was to discern the disparities in reading behaviour when students were presented with standard text accompanied by illustrations, compared to the same text with highlighted key terms. The participants, comprised of first-year university students, completed a questionnaire and an introductory test to ascertain their knowledge level. Subsequently, they were segregated into two groups and participated in two reading sessions, during which their ocular movements were recorded. The amassed data underwent both qualitative analyses, facilitated by visualizations, and quantitative analysis, employing statistical measures on the data and test results. Notably, no significant difference was observed in the gaze patterns or test results between the experimental and control groups. However, a significant divergence in gaze patterns was identified between high-achieving students and those experiencing difficulties, as evidenced by the averaged composite heatmaps generated from the data. The findings underscore two pivotal points. Firstly, the feasibility of conducting large-scale eye-tracking experiments is demonstrated. Traditional studies in this field often employ small population samples due to the time and financial constraints associated with methods that utilize specialized eye-tracking hardware. In contrast, our methodology is scalable, relying on low-end hardware and enabling students to record data on their personal devices. Secondly, while eye-tracking may not provide substantial benefits for fine-tuning text already optimized for readability, it could serve as a valuable tool for identifying and assisting learners who are struggling. This mixed-method approach holds significant potential to revolutionize the conduct and interpretation of eye-tracking studies within educational settings.