Assistant Professor at the Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on how individual characteristics, including stress and emotion regulation, shape perceptions of the socio-political world, particularly group identification and belief in conspiracy theories. She conducts both basic and applied research, combining social psychology with practical applications to better understand social and political phenomena.
She has gained research experience working in teams conducting projects funded by the National Science Centre (NCN) and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. She is the principal investigator of an NCN PRELUDIUM grant. She is a recipient of the START scholarship awarded by the Foundation for Polish Science to outstanding early-career researchers, as well as the Prime Minister’s Award for an outstanding doctoral dissertation.
Full list of published works can be found at Zuzanna Molenda's Google Scholar page.
Chosen published papers
Molenda, Z., Marchlewska, M., & Cislak, A. (2025). Emotion (dys)regulation and national narcissism. Political Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.70073
Molenda, Z., Green, R., Marchlewska, M., Cichocka, A., & Douglas, K. M. (2023). Emotion dysregulation and belief in conspiracy theories. Personality and Individual Differences, 204, Article 112042. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.112042
Molenda, Z., Marchlewska, M., Karakula, A., Podsiadłowski, W., Rogoza, M., Bagrowska, P., & Szczepańska, D. (2024). Thought contagion? Conspiracy beliefs boost paranoid thoughts. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 16(4), 2065-2082. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12577
Molenda, Z., Marchlewska, M., Karakula, A., Szczepańska D., Rogoza, M., Green, R., Cislak, A., & Douglas, K. M. (2024). Coping strategies and belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. British Journal of Social Psychology, 63(1), 319-339. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12684
Molenda, Z., Marchlewska, M., Rogoza, M., & Szczepańska, D. (2023). Shake it off! Adaptive coping with stress reduces national narcissism. British Journal of Social Psychology, 62(4), 1856-1874. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12660
