Kuba Krys
Biographic Data
| ID | 654133 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kuba Krys |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kuba |
| FAMILY NAME | Krys |
| SIGNATURE | KRYS K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institute of Psychology |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0365-423X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 31 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Is Societal Progress Muting the Expressivity of Negative Emotions? Evidence from Two Cross-national Studies
Contemporary theories of emotion emphasize the dual role of emotions as both personal experiences and communicative signals during social interactions. However, the impact of macro-level societal structures on emotional expression remains underexplored. This study investigates the expression-experience discrepancy for self-reported emotions across nations, focusing on how societal development relates to this discrepancy, which captures expressivi…
Compensatory Optimism as Adaptive Resilience in a Warming World
Global warming is altering human habitats, propelling infectious diseases and socioeconomic stressors from tropical regions into temperate zones. Contrary to expectations of rising pessimism under such environmental pressures, this study finds that shared optimism—the collective degree of expectation regarding personal life progress—can persist and even flourish there. Drawing on survey data from nearly two million native inhabitants of 166 count…
Mind the Gap
The link between economic inequality and individual well-being has been gaining increasing research attention. This study examines this relationship using data from 71 countries with diverse national incomes, addressing three key research gaps: (1) incorporating measures of both perceived and objective economic inequality, (2) extending analysis to multiple components of well-being beyond happiness, including meaning in life, harmony, and spiritu…
Happiness Maximization Is a Weird Way of Living
Psychological science tends to treat subjective well-being and happiness synonymously. We start from the assumption that subjective well-being is more than being happy to ask the fundamental question: What is the ideal level of happiness? From a cross-cultural perspective, we propose that the idealization of attaining maximum levels of happiness may be especially characteristic of Western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societ…
Responsible powerholders may preserve the status quo? A three cultures study into the relation between powerholder construals and societal development expectations
The findings suggest that the negative perception of powerholders is tied to desires for modernization, whereas the positive perception of powerholders is related to the hierarchical status quo. Our results shed light on the recent Confucian pathway of societal development, which has allowed for the preservation of a steep societal hierarchy throughout modernization. Further culturally sensitive investigations are needed to explore the psychologi…
Autonomy is Associated with Well-being Across the World, but more Strongly in Wealthy and Individualistic Countries
Autonomy, understood as a sense of volition, self-direction, and self-endorsement, is a universal human need according to self-determination theory. Thus, it should be positively related to subjective well-being across the world. However, other theorists have proposed that autonomy should be more important in wealthier countries where life is less about survival and in more individualistic countries where self-expressive values are emphasized. To…
Progressing Discourse From “How Much a Human’s Life is Cultural?” to “Which Life Domains Are Cultural?”
In psychological science, researchers have long explored how individuals interact with their cultural context. Although it is commonly accepted that cultural factors shape individuals, the extent of this influence has not been clearly established. Some argue that culture profoundly shapes the human psyche, while others suggest a more limited cultural influence. This paper synthesizes these perspectives and reframes the inquiry from ‘To what exten…
A Cross-cultural Study On the Association Between Societal Conditions and the Idealization of Happiness
Although most people aspire to be happy, the extent to which people pursue or idealize experiencing high levels of happiness does differ according to sociocultural context. This study was designed to elucidate which societal and cultural indicators are the most conducive to fostering high levels of happiness idealization. To accomplish this goal, we measured levels of happiness idealization for 11,170 participants residing in 43 different countri…
Love beyond east and west
Cultural religiosity moderates the relationship between being in love and subjective well-being
Love, culture, and well-being
The Role of Cultural Heterogeneity in Strengthening the Link Between Family Relationships and Life Satisfaction in 50 Societies
We argue that the importance of family relationships for individual well-being varies across societies as a function of a society’s degree of cultural heterogeneity. To examine the role of family relationships, we analyzed the responses from 13,009 participants in 50 societies on their life satisfaction across societies varying in their levels of historical and contemporary cultural heterogeneity. Such heterogeneity creates differences in the fre…
Lay people expect social modernization will bring more societal well-being
Lay people believe that different types of modernization will have different effects on society. Whereas technological progress is viewed ambivalently, social development is seen as uniformly positive for well-being of society. In order to counter pessimism about the future, policy makers should focus on social development while striving to mitigate negative social aspects of technological advancements
Weird–Confucian comparisons
The realization that most behavioral science research focuses on cultures labeled as WEIRD-Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (Arnett, 2008; Henrich et al., 2010; Thalmayer et al., 2021)-has given an impetus to extend the research to more diverse populations. Confucian East Asian societies have relatively strong social and technological infrastructure to advance science and thus have gained much prominence in cross-cultural s…
Introduction to a Culturally Sensitive Measure of Well-Being
How can one conclude that well-being is higher in country A than country B, when well-being is being measured according to the way people in country A think about well-being? We address this issue by proposing a new culturally sensitive method to comparing societal levels of well-being. We support our reasoning with data on life satisfaction and interdependent happiness focusing on individual and family, collected mostly from students, across for…
Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries
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, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countrie…
Bridging Cross-Cultural Psychology With Societal Development Studies
Unpackaging the link between economic inequality and self-construal
Past research has shown that economic inequality shapes individuals' self-construals. However, it has been unclear which dimensions of self-construal are associated with and affected by economic inequality. A correlational (Study 1: N = 264) and an experimental study (Study 2: N = 532) provided converging evidence linking perceived economic inequality with two forms of independent (vs. interdependent) self-construal: Difference from Others and Se…
Self-construals predict personal life satisfaction with different strengths across societal contexts differing in national wealth and religious heritage
We explore to what extent previously observed pan-cultural association between dimensions of self-construal and personal life satisfaction (PLS) may be moderated by three national-contextual variables: national wealth, economic inequality, and religious heritage. The results showed that Self-reliance (vs. dependence on others) predicted PLS positively in poorer countries but negatively in richer countries. Connectedness to others (vs. self-contai…
Family First
People care about their own well-being and about the well-being of their families. It is currently, however, unknown how much people tend to value their own versus their family’s well-being. A recent study documented that people value family happiness over personal happiness across four cultures. In this study, we sought to replicate this finding across a larger sample size ( N = 12,819) and a greater number of countries ( N = 49). We found that …
Outside the “Cultural Binary”
Cultural psychologists often treat binary contrasts of West versus East, individualism versus collectivism, and independent versus interdependent self-construal as interchangeable, thus assuming that collectivist societies promote interdependent rather than independent models of selfhood. At odds with this assumption, existing data indicate that Latin American societies emphasize collectivist values at least as strongly as Confucian East Asian so…
Preference for modernization is universal, but expected modernization trajectories are culturally diversified
Cultural sensitivity in societal development has been advocated for since at least the 1960s but has remained understudied. Our goal is to address this gap and to investigate folk theories of societal development. We aimed to identify both universal and culturally specific lay beliefs about what constitutes good societal development. We collected data from 2,684 participants from Japan, Hong Kong (China), Poland, Turkey, Brazil, France, Nigeria, …
Personal Life Satisfaction as a Measure of Societal Happiness is an Individualistic Presumption
Numerous studies document that societal happiness is correlated with individualism, but the nature of this phenomenon remains understudied. In the current paper, we address this gap and test the reasoning that individualism correlates with societal happiness because the most common measure of societal happiness (i.e., country-level aggregates of personal life satisfaction) is individualism-themed. With the data collected from 13,009 participants …
Better policies for better lives’
Facing increasing critique that PISA focuses too narrowly on cognitive achievement and human/knowledge capital, the OECD has recently shifted some of its focus to student happiness. The 2017 Students’ Well-Being report distinguishes between ‘happy schools’ and ‘unhappy schools’, showing that among students who combined high performance and life satisfaction, northern European countries topped the charts. Meanwhile, students in East Asian countrie…
Psychologizing indexes of societal progress
Since the Second World War, the dominating paradigm of societal development has focused on economic growth. While economic growth has improved the quality of human life in a variety of ways, we posit that the identification of economic growth as the primary societal goal is culture-blind because preferences for developmental pathways likely vary between societies. We argue that the cultural diversity of developmental goals and the pathways leadin…
Psychologizing indexes of societal progress
Since the Second World War, the dominating paradigm of societal development has focused on economic growth. While economic growth has improved the quality of human life in a variety of ways, we posit that the identification of economic growth as the primary societal goal is culture-blind because preferences for developmental pathways likely vary between societies. We argue that the cultural diversity of developmental goals and the pathways leadin…
Better policies for better lives’
Facing increasing critique that PISA focuses too narrowly on cognitive achievement and human/knowledge capital, the OECD has recently shifted some of its focus to student happiness. The 2017 Students’ Well-Being report distinguishes between ‘happy schools’ and ‘unhappy schools’, showing that among students who combined high performance and life satisfaction, northern European countries topped the charts. Meanwhile, students in East Asian countrie…
Weird–Confucian comparisons
The realization that most behavioral science research focuses on cultures labeled as WEIRD-Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (Arnett, 2008; Henrich et al., 2010; Thalmayer et al., 2021)-has given an impetus to extend the research to more diverse populations. Confucian East Asian societies have relatively strong social and technological infrastructure to advance science and thus have gained much prominence in cross-cultural s…
Punches or punchlines? Honor, face, and dignity cultures encourage different reactions to provocation
Research on culture-related violence has typically focused on honor cultures and their justification of certain forms of aggression as reactions to provocation. In contrast, amusement and humor as the preferred reactions to provocation remain understudied phenomena, especially in a cross-cultural context. In an attempt to remedy this, participants from an honor culture (Poland), dignity culture (Canada), and face culture (China) were asked how th…
Family First
People care about their own well-being and about the well-being of their families. It is currently, however, unknown how much people tend to value their own versus their family’s well-being. A recent study documented that people value family happiness over personal happiness across four cultures. In this study, we sought to replicate this finding across a larger sample size ( N = 12,819) and a greater number of countries ( N = 49). We found that …
Do Only Fools Smile at Strangers? Cultural Differences in Social Perception of Intelligence of Smiling Individuals
Studies on social perception reveal that on many dimensions, smiling individuals are perceived more positively in comparison with non-smiling individuals. The experiment carried out in seven countries (China, Germany, Iran, Norway, Poland, USA, and the Republic of South Africa) showed that in some cultures, smiling individuals may be perceived less favorably than non-smiling individuals. We compared ratings of intelligence made by participants vi…
Love beyond east and west
May Amusement Serve as a Social Courage Engine
According to Moreover positive emotions vary among themselves -there are quality differences between them and they shall not be treated only as a single positive mood. Three simple studies presented here and inspired by the Fredrickson's theory demonstrate that amusement, in comparison to neutral condition as well as to another positive emotion, may serve as a social courage engine. Amused participants were more courageous in the radio (study 1) …
Do Only Fools Smile at Strangers? Cultural Differences in Social Perception of Intelligence of Smiling Individuals
Studies on social perception reveal that on many dimensions, smiling individuals are perceived more positively in comparison with non-smiling individuals. The experiment carried out in seven countries (China, Germany, Iran, Norway, Poland, USA, and the Republic of South Africa) showed that in some cultures, smiling individuals may be perceived less favorably than non-smiling individuals. We compared ratings of intelligence made by participants vi…
Punches or punchlines? Honor, face, and dignity cultures encourage different reactions to provocation
Research on culture-related violence has typically focused on honor cultures and their justification of certain forms of aggression as reactions to provocation. In contrast, amusement and humor as the preferred reactions to provocation remain understudied phenomena, especially in a cross-cultural context. In an attempt to remedy this, participants from an honor culture (Poland), dignity culture (Canada), and face culture (China) were asked how th…
Better policies for better lives’
Facing increasing critique that PISA focuses too narrowly on cognitive achievement and human/knowledge capital, the OECD has recently shifted some of its focus to student happiness. The 2017 Students’ Well-Being report distinguishes between ‘happy schools’ and ‘unhappy schools’, showing that among students who combined high performance and life satisfaction, northern European countries topped the charts. Meanwhile, students in East Asian countrie…
Psychologizing indexes of societal progress
Since the Second World War, the dominating paradigm of societal development has focused on economic growth. While economic growth has improved the quality of human life in a variety of ways, we posit that the identification of economic growth as the primary societal goal is culture-blind because preferences for developmental pathways likely vary between societies. We argue that the cultural diversity of developmental goals and the pathways leadin…
Personal Life Satisfaction as a Measure of Societal Happiness is an Individualistic Presumption
Numerous studies document that societal happiness is correlated with individualism, but the nature of this phenomenon remains understudied. In the current paper, we address this gap and test the reasoning that individualism correlates with societal happiness because the most common measure of societal happiness (i.e., country-level aggregates of personal life satisfaction) is individualism-themed. With the data collected from 13,009 participants …
Outside the “Cultural Binary”
Cultural psychologists often treat binary contrasts of West versus East, individualism versus collectivism, and independent versus interdependent self-construal as interchangeable, thus assuming that collectivist societies promote interdependent rather than independent models of selfhood. At odds with this assumption, existing data indicate that Latin American societies emphasize collectivist values at least as strongly as Confucian East Asian so…
Preference for modernization is universal, but expected modernization trajectories are culturally diversified
Cultural sensitivity in societal development has been advocated for since at least the 1960s but has remained understudied. Our goal is to address this gap and to investigate folk theories of societal development. We aimed to identify both universal and culturally specific lay beliefs about what constitutes good societal development. We collected data from 2,684 participants from Japan, Hong Kong (China), Poland, Turkey, Brazil, France, Nigeria, …
Introduction to a Culturally Sensitive Measure of Well-Being
How can one conclude that well-being is higher in country A than country B, when well-being is being measured according to the way people in country A think about well-being? We address this issue by proposing a new culturally sensitive method to comparing societal levels of well-being. We support our reasoning with data on life satisfaction and interdependent happiness focusing on individual and family, collected mostly from students, across for…
Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries
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, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countrie…
Bridging Cross-Cultural Psychology With Societal Development Studies
Unpackaging the link between economic inequality and self-construal
Past research has shown that economic inequality shapes individuals' self-construals. However, it has been unclear which dimensions of self-construal are associated with and affected by economic inequality. A correlational (Study 1: N = 264) and an experimental study (Study 2: N = 532) provided converging evidence linking perceived economic inequality with two forms of independent (vs. interdependent) self-construal: Difference from Others and Se…
Self-construals predict personal life satisfaction with different strengths across societal contexts differing in national wealth and religious heritage
We explore to what extent previously observed pan-cultural association between dimensions of self-construal and personal life satisfaction (PLS) may be moderated by three national-contextual variables: national wealth, economic inequality, and religious heritage. The results showed that Self-reliance (vs. dependence on others) predicted PLS positively in poorer countries but negatively in richer countries. Connectedness to others (vs. self-contai…
Family First
People care about their own well-being and about the well-being of their families. It is currently, however, unknown how much people tend to value their own versus their family’s well-being. A recent study documented that people value family happiness over personal happiness across four cultures. In this study, we sought to replicate this finding across a larger sample size ( N = 12,819) and a greater number of countries ( N = 49). We found that …
The Role of Cultural Heterogeneity in Strengthening the Link Between Family Relationships and Life Satisfaction in 50 Societies
We argue that the importance of family relationships for individual well-being varies across societies as a function of a society’s degree of cultural heterogeneity. To examine the role of family relationships, we analyzed the responses from 13,009 participants in 50 societies on their life satisfaction across societies varying in their levels of historical and contemporary cultural heterogeneity. Such heterogeneity creates differences in the fre…
Lay people expect social modernization will bring more societal well-being
Lay people believe that different types of modernization will have different effects on society. Whereas technological progress is viewed ambivalently, social development is seen as uniformly positive for well-being of society. In order to counter pessimism about the future, policy makers should focus on social development while striving to mitigate negative social aspects of technological advancements
Weird–Confucian comparisons
The realization that most behavioral science research focuses on cultures labeled as WEIRD-Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (Arnett, 2008; Henrich et al., 2010; Thalmayer et al., 2021)-has given an impetus to extend the research to more diverse populations. Confucian East Asian societies have relatively strong social and technological infrastructure to advance science and thus have gained much prominence in cross-cultural s…
Happiness Maximization Is a Weird Way of Living
Psychological science tends to treat subjective well-being and happiness synonymously. We start from the assumption that subjective well-being is more than being happy to ask the fundamental question: What is the ideal level of happiness? From a cross-cultural perspective, we propose that the idealization of attaining maximum levels of happiness may be especially characteristic of Western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societ…
Responsible powerholders may preserve the status quo? A three cultures study into the relation between powerholder construals and societal development expectations
The findings suggest that the negative perception of powerholders is tied to desires for modernization, whereas the positive perception of powerholders is related to the hierarchical status quo. Our results shed light on the recent Confucian pathway of societal development, which has allowed for the preservation of a steep societal hierarchy throughout modernization. Further culturally sensitive investigations are needed to explore the psychologi…
Autonomy is Associated with Well-being Across the World, but more Strongly in Wealthy and Individualistic Countries
Autonomy, understood as a sense of volition, self-direction, and self-endorsement, is a universal human need according to self-determination theory. Thus, it should be positively related to subjective well-being across the world. However, other theorists have proposed that autonomy should be more important in wealthier countries where life is less about survival and in more individualistic countries where self-expressive values are emphasized. To…
Progressing Discourse From “How Much a Human’s Life is Cultural?” to “Which Life Domains Are Cultural?”
In psychological science, researchers have long explored how individuals interact with their cultural context. Although it is commonly accepted that cultural factors shape individuals, the extent of this influence has not been clearly established. Some argue that culture profoundly shapes the human psyche, while others suggest a more limited cultural influence. This paper synthesizes these perspectives and reframes the inquiry from ‘To what exten…
A Cross-cultural Study On the Association Between Societal Conditions and the Idealization of Happiness
Although most people aspire to be happy, the extent to which people pursue or idealize experiencing high levels of happiness does differ according to sociocultural context. This study was designed to elucidate which societal and cultural indicators are the most conducive to fostering high levels of happiness idealization. To accomplish this goal, we measured levels of happiness idealization for 11,170 participants residing in 43 different countri…
Love beyond east and west
Cultural religiosity moderates the relationship between being in love and subjective well-being
Love, culture, and well-being
Psychology (23 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (21 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (8 works) · Happiness (7 works) · Social science (7 works)