Evolutionary theory and historical evidence suggest humans possess distinct psychological tendencies for defensive and offensive violence, which have insufficiently been considered in research. In a large-scale pre-registered study across 58 countries (N = 18,128), we demonstrate that violent extremist intentions manifest along two distinct psychological phenomena: defensive extremism, motivated by protecting one’s group from (perceived) threats, and offensive extremism, driven by establishing group dominance. We show that these dimensions can (a) be reliably differentiated across diverse cultural contexts, (b) are distinctively associated with psychological dispositions, and (c) systematically differentiate countries varying in macro-level sociopolitical functioning and violence. Across nations, a two-factorial structure was observed that was invariant at the scalar level. Defensive extremist intentions were consistently higher than offensive extremism in 56 out of 58 countries, suggesting greater moral acceptance of protective violence. While psychopathy was positively related to both types of violent extremist intentions, those high in Machiavellianism and narcissism demonstrated particularly higher levels of defensive extremist intentions. By contrast, those scoring high on religious fundamentalism and social dominance orientation demonstrated particularly higher levels of offensive extremist intentions. Unexpectedly, liberal political group identification was associated with higher offensive but lower defensive extremist intentions. Crucially, offensive (but not defensive) intentions were associated with macro-level societal function, including political terror and internal conflict. These findings establish that defensive and offensive violent extremist intentions represent two conceptually different forms of extremism across a large and diverse range of countries, with consequences for research and practice.

This study examined how patriotism and nationalism predicted individuals' compliance with COVID-19 health restrictions, vaccine acceptance, and trust in related information in Latvia. Using a nationally representative sample (N = 1005), we found that patriotism was positively associated with trust in government and greater willingness to follow public health measures, while nationalism predicted greater distrust in vaccine information and lower compliance. These findings highlight how different forms of national identity can either support or undermine public health efforts during crises. The study’s implications suggest that appeals to patriotic values may enhance trust and collective action, whereas nationalist attitudes may obstruct such efforts. While the findings are culturally specific to Latvia and based on cross-sectional data, they underscore the importance of ideological factors in shaping public responses to health emergencies.

Driving is a task that demands a range of cognitive processes, both simple and complex. Detecting potential hazards is crucial to reducing traffic accidents. This study examined drivers’ perception of hazardous situations in virtual reality (VR). Fifty-two participants completed demographic and driving habit questionnaires before watching 10 hazardous and 11 control videos, which were presented randomly on a Varjo eye-tracking VR headset. After each video, participants rated the perceived risk of the situation. Results indicated that hazardous videos were rated riskier. Additionally, during hazardous videos, participants had longer and more frequent fixations, along with greater saccade duration and count. Eye-tracking data were not correlated with driving habits. Driving experience was related to fewer penalties and accidents. These findings suggest that hazardous driving videos are perceived differently from normal ones in terms of eye-tracking parameters and subjective risk evaluation. Future research should investigate the cues that contribute to these perceptual differences.

Understanding car drivers' behavior should move beyond describing aspects of individual drivers' behavior. This article proposes that cognitive representations of the interaction between drivers in terms of imagining other road users' mental pictures of a certain road situation as well as the situation itself play an important role in reducing risky driving behavior. Consequently, the authors have developed a new method for measuring the degree to which drivers reflect on situations and take others' perspectives in a traffic flow - the Driver Situational Reflection Scale (DSRS). The final version of the scale consists of two factors (dimensions): Caution, and Perspective-taking. These two factors showed good predictive validity in predicting positive and aberrant driving, as well as prosocial and aggressive driving (Studies 1A and 1B) and driving skills (Study 2).

Traffic accidents remain a serious global issue, and human factors are recognized as important contributors to the issue. Perspective-taking has shown positive outcomes in various social domains and has also received some attention in traffic psychology research. Studies suggest that lower perspective-taking levels are related to higher antisocial behavior in traffic contexts. Additionally, individuals with experience across multiple modes of transportation tend to be less involved in traffic accidents, an effect partially attributed to increased perspective-taking. The main aim was to examine whether perspective-taking is related to traffic situation evaluations, mainly in terms of risk perception and outcome prediction. A secondary aim was to investigate whether personality traits, dark triad traits, self-reported driving behavior, and demographic variables mediate the relationship between perspective-taking, risk perception, and outcome prediction. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 employed a cross-sectional design while study 2 replicated this design and included order manipulation to test whether considering perspective-taking beforehand would influence risk perception and traffic outcome prediction. In both studies participants evaluated traffic situation videos. The results did not reveal any significant effects of perspective-taking on video evaluations, except for confidence in one’s evaluations. However, dark triad traits and self-reported driving behavior were significantly associated with traffic situation perception evaluations.

The aim of the study was to observe mobile device usage by car drivers in real-world conditions and compare these observations with the drivers’ self-reports to verify their accuracy. Observational data were combined with a brief survey about drivers’ recent behaviour and their subjective evaluations of the dangers associated with using mobile devices while driving. Among all observed drivers, 6% lied about their mobile device usage (which is 10% of those who were seen using mobile devices). Drivers who truthfully reported their mobile device usage rated the risks associated with such behavior as lower compared to those who either did not use devices or lied about their usage. Additionally, drivers who were honest about their mobile device usage while driving believed that other drivers used mobile devices less frequently than they did. In contrast, those who either did not use devices or lied about their usage tended to believe that other drivers used mobile devices more frequently than they did.

The high number of injuries and fatalities associated with railways underscores the urgent need for effective transportation safety policies and public safety campaigns. One factor that may help explain risky behavior in these settings is the better-than-average effect (BTAE) −- a cognitive bias in which individuals view their own actions as safer than those of others. To investigate this, we conducted two nationally representative surveys in Latvia (N = 1005 in each sample). Participants reported how often they engaged in specific risky behaviors near railways and how frequently they observed others engaging in the same behaviors. In both studies, a consistent BTAE emerged: people perceived themselves as engaging in risky behaviors less frequently than others. The effect was more substantial for behaviors rated as more dangerous, suggesting that perceived risk amplifies the bias. Additionally, older participants reported lower frequencies of risky behavior for both themselves and others, indicating an age-related decline in perceived risk-taking.

This study investigated the impact of reading emotionally-laden text messages and engaging in handheld phone conversations on driving behavior in a simulated environment. Additionally, the study explored how driving behavior correlates with individual differences in basic human values and self-reported risky driving patterns (e.g., violations, errors, and lapses). A within-subject design was employed, where all participants read both a negative and a positive text message and answered a phone call while driving in the simulator. Results showed that average driving speed remained unchanged after receiving text messages and during phone calls but increased after the call ended. However, the standard deviation of speed varied across different conditions. Regarding centerline deviation, participants maintained a consistent distance from the centerline during baseline driving and after reading text messages, but moved closer to the centerline during phone conversations. Self-reported values of power, security, and universalism were significantly correlated with objective driving measures: power was associated with riskier driving behaviors, whereas security and universalism were linked to safer driving patterns. Moreover, self-reported driving errors and lapses were positively correlated with increased driving speed during and after phone calls.

This study examined the relationship between generalized (trust in the political system) and individualized (trust in a specific political actor) political trust in two surveys with representative samples from Latvia (total N = 2,001). The results of a regularized partial correlation network analysis of the data from both surveys revealed that variables associated with each level of trust formed separate clusters, which were virtually unrelated in Study 1, and moderately related in Study 2. Across both datasets, political cynicism was the only variable robustly (negatively) related to both levels of trust. External political efficacy was strongly related to generalized political trust, whereas internal political efficacy was unrelated to either level of political trust. Generalized interpersonal trust was only weakly related to generalized political trust and was unrelated to individualized political trust. The findings show that trust in the political system and trust in specific political actors form separate, although related, network structures and are likely determined by a different set of variables, representing different kinds of psychological reasoning. Generalized political trust can be seen as part of a general attitude towards one’s country, whereas individualized trust is based on more situational factors and shaped through the mechanisms of person perception and group perception.

The present study was designed to deepen the understanding of national identity as a predictor of political trust. The concept of national identity was subdivided into nationalism and patriotism. A representative survey of the Latvian population (N = 1000) studied predictors of trust (patriotism, nationalism, internal political efficacy, political cynicism, and life satisfaction) in the political system. The results show that trust in the political system can be predicted by nationalistic attitudes (negatively, the strongest predictor), followed by patriotic attitudes (positively), and political cynicism (negatively), with an internal political efficacy being the weakest (positive) predictor. This pattern of results illustrates the important roles of patriotism and nationalism in predicting political trust.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the convergent and operational validity of a modified Latvian personality inventory (LPA-3, Perepjolkina, 2014) with a multidimensional forced-choice answer format (LMFI). Using three samples, a validity study of the LMFI was conducted. Convergent validity was evaluated by examining the relations between LMFI on one side and the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and the Machiavellianism scale on the other. Operational validity was evaluated by examining the relations with assessments of subjective job performance, counterproductive work performance and with a measure of scholarly significance. The results show good convergent and operational validity for five of the six LMFI factors. The Honesty-Humility measure still needs to be improved. In the future, predictive and discriminant validation studies should be conducted with more representative Latvian samples.