This study tests the dimensionality hypothesis, according to which diverse epistemically unfounded beliefs share a single underlying liability in addition to domain-specific components. We focus on conspiracy, paranormal, pseudoscientific, religious, and pseudo-profound ("bullshit") beliefs and examine whether their covariance structure is best captured by a common factor plus residual domain-specific factors. Using a nationally representative Russian sample (N = 1268), we modeled the five belief domains with competing confirmatory factor analysis models. We compared one-factor, correlated factors, higher order, and bifactor specifications, with the bifactor model prespecified as the focal test of the dimensionality hypothesis. We then related the general and domain-specific factors to cognitive and motivational antecedents. A prespecified bifactor solution, in which a general factor explained about half of the common variance while specific factors captured residual domain structure, provided the best fit. Conventional domain scores may systematically confound the general liability with domain-specific variance, potentially distorting cross-domain comparisons and inferences about domain-specific antecedents. Some cognitive and motivational antecedents emerged as central correlates of the general factor, whereas conspiracy, religious, pseudoscientific, paranormal, and pseudo-profound beliefs each showed distinct additional profiles. The findings support a dimensional view of epistemically unfounded beliefs anchored in a common cognitive-motivational architecture. We discuss the general factor as potentially reflecting an evolved predisposition favoring Type I errors (the "smoke detector principle") and archaic magical thinking, plausibly implemented at the proximate level in low-dimensional psychological "conceptual spaces" that align heterogeneous beliefs along a shared axis of receptivity to epistemically unfounded claims. Explicitly modeling this structure is crucial for valid measurement, comparison, and targeted intervention across epistemically unfounded belief domains, as opposed to relying on undifferentiated composite scores.

Published claims should be reproducible, yielding the same result when applying the same analysis to the same data. We assessed reproducibility in a stratified random sample of 600 papers published from 2009 to 2018 in 62 journals spanning the social and behavioural sciences. Authors of 144 (24.0% [95% CI 20.8 - 27.6%]) papers made data available to assess reproducibility, and for 38 others, we obtained source data to reconstruct the dataset. We assessed 143 of the 182 available datasets and found that 76.6 (53.6% [95% CI 45.8 - 60.7%]) papers were rated as precisely reproducible and 105.0 (73.5% [95% CI 66.4 - 80.0%]) papers as at least approximately reproducible (within 15% of the original effects or within .05 of original p-values) after inverse weighting each of the 551 claims by the number of claims per paper. We observed higher reproducibility for papers from Political Science and Economics than other fields, for more recent than older papers, and for papers from journals that required data sharing. Implementing measures to verify that research is reproducible is needed to support trustworthiness in the complex enterprise of knowledge production.

Agnosticism and atheism are often grouped simply as nonreligious identities, yet emerging research highlights their distinct psychological profiles and social implications. Among these distinctions, collective narcissism - char-acterized by strong attachment to one's group, exceptionalism, and grie-vance for recognition - offers a framework for understanding identity processes in both nonreligious groups. We examined whether agnostics and atheists exhibit collective narcissism and its forms (agentic - focused on exceptional effectiveness; communal - focused on exceptional morality) similarly to believers. We explored cross-denominational variance in agentic and communal collective narcissism levels relying on data from 77 countries (N = 3,570; 1227 agnostics, 2343 atheists). Agnostics and atheists from secular countries reported lower collective (particularly agentic) narcissism relative to their counterparts from religious countries. Further, agnostics and atheists were higher on communal than agentic collective narcissism. The results highlight the utility of the agency-communion model of collective narcissism among nonbelievers.

Grounded in the ecocultural framework, this study examines the historical and contemporary predictors of regional cultural differences in individualism–collectivism (IND–COL) across Russia, focusing on private land ownership in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and current employment in agriculture. The analysis reveals that regions with a higher prevalence of private land ownership in 1877 and 1905 exhibit stronger individualistic tendencies in modern times, suggesting a continuity of cultural traits. Additionally, contemporary factors such as the share of the workforce employed in agriculture and ethnic composition – particularly the proportion of ethnic Russians – emerge as significant predictors of IND–COL differences. However, urbanization shows no significant relationship with regional cultural variation in IND–COL, indicating that although it may correlate with individualism, it is not a primary predictor. The findings underscore that factors rooted in traditional subsistence strategies exert a profound and lasting influence on regional cultural differences, persisting even through the sweeping societal transformations of the Soviet era.

Recent theoretical developments in ecological approaches to culture challenge the prevailing East-West framing of cultural variation by emphasizing a north-south axis linked to local habitat stability and climatic demands. Building on Van de Vliert et al.'s (2025) ecological analysis, we replicate their preliminary tests across 83 Russian regions and add focused analyses to clarify the main results using a newly developed regional index aligned with the Global Collectivism Index. Habitat stability-operationalized as smaller within-year contrasts in day length, thermal extremes, and precipitation-emerges as a robust predictor of regional collectivism. Pathogen prevalence, a competing ecological predictor, shows no comparable association with collectivism. Agricultural subsistence may serve as one plausible proximate channel linking habitat stability to collectivist practices. We also replicate climato-economic moderation: the associations of cold and heat stress with collectivism change sign across the regional wealth distribution. Because both are indexed as departures from the same 22 degrees C livability optimum, their associations are theoretically symmetric and opposite in sign. In Russia, climato-economic associations are plausibly interpreted through wealth-indexed thermal buffering capacity-the extent to which infrastructure and institutions attenuate experienced thermal demands. Taken together, these results are consistent with a systems-theoretical interpretation in which habitat stability functions as a slow-moving ecological baseline linked to higher collectivism, whereas thermal-stress associations with collectivism are conditional on regional wealth and reverse along the wealth gradient. Russia's case illustrates that despite radical institutional change, long-run ecological structures remain spatially aligned with region-level orientations toward interdependence as expressed in collectivist practices.

This study presents a large-scale cross-cultural analysis to examine the relationships between sociosexual orientation, life history strategy, and reproductive success across 92 contemporary societies. We aim to contribute to the understanding of whether sociosexual orientation is part of a fast-slow continuum of life history strategies and how these factors are related to reproductive outcomes overall as well as among men and women separately. Specifically, we addressed four research questions: (1) is a relatively fast life history strategy at the population level associated with an unrestricted sociosexual orientation at the individual level; (2) is an unrestricted sociosexual orientation positively associated with the number of children at the individual level; (3) is a relatively fast life history strategy at the population level associated with a higher number of children per individual; and (4) is the association between sociosexual orientation and number of children moderated by the country-level indicator of life history strategy? Using multilevel models in an analytic sample of 80,047 participants from 92 countries, we found a differentiated pattern across levels of analysis. At the country level, a relatively faster life history strategy (rF-LHS) was initially associated with lower sociosexuality; however, this association did not persist after adjusting for country-level covariates. By contrast, rF-LHS was consistently positively associated with the number of children reported by participants. For attitudes and desire toward uncommitted sex, between-country differences were not associated with fertility, within-country deviations were negatively associated with number of children, and there was little evidence that this within-country association varied as a function of rF-LHS. For sociosexual behavior, between-country differences were positively associated with fertility, within-country deviations were negatively associated with number of children, and this negative within-country association became weaker in countries with higher rF-LHS. Sex-stratified analyses revealed a stable asymmetry: the negative within-country association between sociosexuality and fertility was stronger among women, whereas the positive country-level association between rF-LHS and fertility, as well as the moderation pattern for sociosexual behavior, were more pronounced in the pooled and male specifications. These findings do not support treating sociosexuality as a straightforward core marker of the fast–slow life history continuum in contemporary reproductive contexts. Rather, sociosexuality appears to be part of a multilevel and context-dependent process linking mating orientation to reproductive outcomes.

The same dataset can be analysed in different justifiable ways to answer the same research question, potentially challenging the robustness of empirical science1-3. In this crowd initiative, we investigated the degree to which research findings in the social and behavioural sciences are contingent on analysts' choices. We examined a stratified random sample of 100 studies published between 2009 and 2018, in which, for one claim per study, at least five reanalysts independently reanalysed the original data. The statistical appropriateness of the reanalyses was assessed in peer evaluations, and the robustness indicators were inspected along a range of research characteristics and study designs. We found that 34% of the independent reanalyses yielded the same result (within a tolerance region of ±0.05 Cohen's d) as the original report; with a four times broader tolerance region, this indicator increased to 57%. Of the reanalyses conducted, 74% reached the same conclusion as the original investigation, 24% yielded no effects or inconclusive results and 2% reported the opposite effect. This exploratory study indicates that the common single-path analyses in social and behavioural research should not be simply assumed to be robust to alternative analyses4. Therefore, we recommend the development and use of practices to explore and communicate this neglected source of uncertainty.

The concept of human agency has attracted considerable interest in academic and expert discussions concerning various life domains and age groups, including adolescents. However, the field lacks a unified approach to measuring agency for adolescents and understanding its relationship with their behavioral characteristics and attitudes. This study addresses these gaps by introducing an Adolescent Agency Index and examining its associations with behavioral characteristics such as сonformity, problematic behavior, and the need for cognition. The data was collected from students in grades 4 to 8 (N = 4,603; Mage = 12.6, SD = 1.7; 50.3% female). The analyses indicated a negative relationship between agency and conformity and a positive relationship between agency and problematic behavior; moreover, a stronger positive relationship was found with the need for cognition. At the same time, the nature of the relationship between agency and these characteristics is complex, non-linear. These findings provide valuable insights for educational policymakers, researchers, and families.

OBJECTIVES:Infectious diseases are often associated with decline in quality of life. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between personal history of communicable, i.e., infectious and parasitic diseases and self-rated health. STUDY DESIGN:Secondary analysis of a large dataset multi-country observational study. METHODS:We used a four-pronged analysis approach to investigate whether personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases is related to self-reported health, measured with a single item. RESULTS:Three of the four analyses found a small positive effect on self-reported health among those reporting a history of pathogen exposure. The meta-analysis found no support but large heterogeneity that was not reduced by two classifications of countries. CONCLUSION:Personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases does not reduce self-reported health across a global sample.

This article introduces a Cultural Orientations Model Based on Human Behavioral Ecology, which redefines the study of cultural orientations. Our research program formulates and intends to describe a unified framework that integrates cultural orientations, mechanisms of cooperation and social conformity, and principles from life history theory. This integrated approach has the potential to bridge evolutionary science and social science, offering a more comprehensive understanding of both human behavior and culture. The proposed framework encapsulates established patterns at both the group and individual levels, providing a holistic understanding of human behavior and culture within an ecological and evolutionary context. Furthermore, our model aimed to capture the mechanisms of cooperation and social conformity across all levels, from neurophysiological to cultural. This comprehensive approach not only deepens our understanding of cultural diversity and commonality but also enhances our ability to predict and manage the adaptive behaviors that arise in response to ecological pressures.

Science is integral to society because it can inform individual, government, corporate, and civil society decision-making on issues such as public health, new technologies or climate change. Yet, public distrust and populist sentiment challenge the relationship between science and society. To help researchers analyse the science-society nexus across different geographical and cultural contexts, we undertook a cross-sectional population survey resulting in a dataset of 71,922 participants in 68 countries. The data were collected between November 2022 and August 2023 as part of the global Many Labs study “Trust in Science and Science-Related Populism” (TISP). The questionnaire contained comprehensive measures for individuals’ trust in scientists, science-related populist attitudes, perceptions of the role of science in society, science media use and communication behaviour, attitudes to climate change and support for environmental policies, personality traits, political and religious views and demographic characteristics. Here, we describe the dataset, survey materials and psychometric properties of key variables. We encourage researchers to use this unique dataset for global comparative analyses on public perceptions of science and its role in society and policy-making.

This cross-cultural study examines the relationship between perceived COVID-19 changes due to the impacts on everyday life by the pandemic with social exclusion and across 32 cultures and their levels in collectivism. With data from the start of the first outbreak from March 2020 to June 2020 (N = 9245), multilevel analysis indicated that as individuals perceive greater daily life changes induced by the pandemic, they experience heightened levels of social exclusion, with this association being particularly pronounced in less collectivistic cultures. These findings underscore the importance of considering cultural context in understanding responses to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, with implications for culturally sensitive interventions aimed at promoting social inclusion across diverse cultural contexts.

This article investigates the relationships between strategies of parental involvement in education and manifestations of children’s agency during the pandemic seen as a potentially harmful and stressful context, requiring agency for sustaining well-being to a greater extent than before COVID-19. Data for the study were obtained through an online survey of students engaged in extracurricular activities, about the transition to distance learning and self-isolation during the pandemic. To elucidate the understanding of differences among respondents regarding changes in their interaction with parents, latent profile analysis was applied. It was found that joint activity between children and parents can be associated with the formation of a special type of agency, which is called ‘cooperative agency’, while parents providing children with freedom and facilitating support are associated with other behavioral characteristics of the child, i.e., ‘autonomous agency’. At the same time, the absence of interaction with parents, as well as parents’ display of strict control, do not contribute to successful adaptation to crisis conditions.

This 68-country survey (n = 71,922) examines science information diets and communication behavior, identifies cross-country differences, and tests how such differences are associated with sociopolitical and economic conditions. We find that social media are the most used sources of science information in most countries, except those with democratic-corporatist media systems where news media tend to be used more widely. People in collectivist societies are less outspoken about science in daily life, whereas lower education is associated with higher outspokenness. Limited access to digital media is correlated with participation in public protests on science matters. We discuss implications for future research, policy, and practice.

Science is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in scientists can help decision makers act on the basis of the best available evidence, especially during crises. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public trust in scientists. We interrogated these concerns with a preregistered 68-country survey of 71,922 respondents and found that in most countries, most people trust scientists and agree that scientists should engage more in society and policymaking. We found variations between and within countries, which we explain with individual- and country-level variables, including political orientation. While there is no widespread lack of trust in scientists, we cannot discount the concern that lack of trust in scientists by even a small minority may affect considerations of scientific evidence in policymaking. These findings have implications for scientists and policymakers seeking to maintain and increase trust in scientists.

The debate around the integration hypothesis in acculturation research frequently centers on the interpretation of effect sizes. While critics argue that these effects are too small and inconsistent to be meaningful, supporters maintain that they reflect statistically robust and theoretically coherent patterns. This controversy reveals a broader epistemological challenge in psychology: persistent ambiguity regarding what constitutes a ‘sufficient’ effect size, rooted in limited attention to the philosophical foundations of measurement and causality. In particular, this includes neglect of the ergodic fallacy—the mistaken assumption that group-level patterns apply directly to individuals—and confusion between statistical regularities and causal explanations. This paper addresses these concerns through three interrelated discussions. First, it re-evaluates the empirical status of the integration hypothesis in light of recent meta-analyses and the epistemic weight of small effects in complex systems. Second, it analyzes how effect sizes should be interpreted across different levels of analysis—individual, inter-individual, and group—and emphasizes the need to align interpretation with the appropriate unit of explanation. Third, it explores the philosophical foundations of psychological measurement, distinguishing between data patterns, theoretical constructs, and causal inferences. Rather than viewing effect sizes as direct indicators of psychological properties or causal strength, we conceptualize them as structured regularities shaped by research design, measurement models, and ontological assumptions. By clarifying these issues, this paper offers a framework for more coherent, theoretically informed interpretations of empirical findings in acculturation psychology and calls for a shift from simplistic magnitude judgments to context-sensitive evaluation of what effect sizes represent.

This commentary complements Ellis et al.'s two-tiered framework by using panel data and emphasizing the role of population density in decelerating life history (LH) strategy. We show that mortality cues and energetic constraints do not operate in isolation, demonstrating how density-dependent competition shapes LH strategies over time and underscoring the need for a dynamic, multifaceted approach to LH development.

This study investigates the links between life history strategy (LHS), IQ, and individualism/collectivism (IND/COL) across Russian regions. It is the first to examine regional differences in LHS, illustrating how biological trade-offs are linked to cultural values within a country and separately considering the role of cognitive abilities in this relationship. We hypothesize that cultural differences between regions can be understood through human behavioral ecology, specifically the trade-offs associated with LHS. Data from 83 Russian regions were used to create indices for slow LHS (sLHS) and IND/COL. The sLHS index included indicators like teenage fertility rates, rates of third or higher births, average height, educational attainment, and interest in human sexual behavior (using Google Trends data). The IND/COL index was constructed from indicators like the proportion of multigenerational and single-person households, divorce rates, and search data indicating ingroup identity expression. Regional IQ scores were derived from a large-scale online test administered to over 230.000 individuals across these regions. Our findings reveal strong positive correlations between sLHS, IQ, and IND/COL across Russian regions. Mediation analysis suggests that IQ likely fully mediates the relationship between sLHS and IND/COL. Geographical analysis showed clear patterns of spatial clustering, with gradients linked to latitude and altitude. Additionally, five latent regional profiles emerged from the data, indicating distinct patterns among the regions. These results, while acknowledging certain limitations, underscore the importance of LHS in understanding regional cultural differences. They also point to the need for Russian social policies to adapt to the unique characteristics of each region.