What drives people to engage in exceptionally demanding actions, devote themselves to important causes, or sometimes even make risky or radical choices? One answer may lie in the need for significance: the desire to be someone who matters, who is respected and valued by others. An international team of researchers, including scholars from Behaviour in Crisis Lab, has developed and validated a new instrument designed to measure this motivation.

Why do two people who read the same article draw entirely different conclusions from it? A team from the Jagiellonian University's Behaviour in Crisis Lab – Dr Anna Knorr and Prof. Małgorzata Kossowska – show in their published analysis, “Democracy in the Age of Algorithms,” that the answer lies not only in how social media function, but above all in how the human brain works. The authors combine insights from cognitive neuroscience with research on the architecture of digital platforms to explain why facts so rarely change our minds – and what this means for the future of democracy.

Is Europe really divided into two opposing political camps? A study conducted within the DigiPatch project and published in Media Psychology suggests that reality is far more complex than the dominant narrative of polarization implies. An analysis of data from five European countries shows that contemporary political identities form a multidimensional mosaic that cannot be reduced to a simple left-right divide.

Most people are aware of the major crises facing the world today: climate change, war and conflicts, political instability, social inequality, and many others. Yet awareness alone rarely translates into action. People who recognise the urgency of a threat often do little to address it, and those who do act may struggle to sustain their engagement over time. Understanding why requires looking beyond information and attitudes, and into the psychology of motivation.

A new open-access guide, “Age-Friendly Communities: How Cities and Municipalities Are Building a Better Future for All Generations”, supported by the Behaviour in Crisis Lab, highlights how cities and municipalities can create better futures for all generations. Developed within the AFCC Poland initiative, coordinated by the Jagiellonian University (Centre for Evaluation and Analysis of Public Policies) in collaboration with the Medical College, the network brings together local governments, experts, and public institutions committed to improving quality of life across the lifespan.