Presentations during Winter Seminar on Social Cognition and Intergroup Relations 2026
At the Winter Seminar on Social Cognition and Intergroup Relations 2026 in Zakopane, researchers from the Change Lab presented new findings on political cognition, public opinion, and social perception.
During the panel on Polarization and Group Dynamics, Katarzyna Jaśko, the head of the Change Lab, presented research on how people perceive the average and distribution of public opinion, examining the psychological mechanisms behind polarization and collective perceptions of societal attitudes.
Later, in the Persuasion and Misinformation panel, Anna Potoczek presented findings from the project “Is Changing Views a Virtue or a Vice?”, conducted together with Katarzyna Jaśko and Piotr Winkielman. The research explored how voters react to political inconsistency, showing that people strongly prefer politicians who remain consistent with their views, especially when those politicians are perceived as part of their own political camp. The studies also demonstrated that certainty about whether a politician genuinely changed their beliefs plays a key role in shaping trust and support.
The seminar brought together scholars working on moral judgment, polarization, misinformation, and political psychology.
