Projects

Our lab consistently secures competitive funding from leading national institutions. Our current research portfolio is supported by major grants from the Czech Science Foundation (GA ČR), the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TA ČR), and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MŠMT).

Current research projects

Cognitive biases and errors in working with information and strategies for preventing them, education

Duration: September 1, 2023 – November 30, 2026
Principal investigator: Houdek, Petr
Funding agency: TA ČR

The project focuses on increasing the resilience of Ministry of Education employees to disinformation and cognitive biases. The main tools are the implementation of a dynamic e-learning portal and the introduction of organizational changes to improve information management.

Center for Inequality and Open Society (CONOS)

Duration: January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2028
Principal investigator: Bahník, Štěpán
Funding agency: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports

The project focuses on cutting-edge interdisciplinary research into inequality from the perspectives of economics, law, and psychology. The research analyzes the impacts of technological innovations on inequality in the areas of the market, public administration, and the judiciary.

Population aging and related challenges for health and social systems (AGEING-CZ)

Duration: January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2028
Principal investigator: Lubomír Cingl
Funding agency: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports

The project supports cutting-edge research into the aging of the Czech population with implications for public policy decision-making, focusing on the health and social sectors. The research addresses demographic changes, growing inequalities, impacts on the labor market, behavioral aspects, and the availability and quality of health care.

Strategic moralizing in organizations: Experiments in the laboratory and virtual reality

Duration: January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2027
Principal investigator: Houdek, Petr
Funding agency: GA ČR

The project examines the strategic use and potential misuse of moralizing in organizations and its impact on group dynamics and organizational consequences. Using experiments in the laboratory and virtual reality, the research focuses on identifying strategies and impacts of moralizing on employee decision-making, particularly in healthcare.

Major projects completed in the past

The role of social preferences in cooperative behavior

Duration: July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2025
Principal investigator: Miklánek, Tomáš
Funding agency: GA ČR

This project experimentally investigates whether human cooperation in social dilemmas can be explained by social preferences, focusing on the phenomenon of conditional cooperation. The aim is to identify the influence of factors such as reciprocity, conformity, and aversion to inequality, thereby contributing to the improved design of institutions that support cooperation.

Why do birds of a feather sometimes not flock together? Imperfect selection of cheaters into environments that enable cheating

Duration: 2023–2025
Principal investigator: Bahník, Štěpán
Funding agency: GA ČR

Using laboratory experiments, the project aims to investigate how limited opportunities for cheating, reputational costs of cheating, competition for resources, and social costs of cheating limit the selection of dishonest individuals into environments that enable cheating.