Michał Bilewicz

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am a psychologist working on social-psychological mechanisms responsible for current intergroup relations. I study the processes of dehumanization, conspiratorial beliefs, prejudice (such as antisemitism, homophobia, islamophobia, etc.), as well as the effects of historical trauma on current well-being in war-affected societies and collective memory/reconciliation in historically conflicted societies. I developed the moral-exemplars based model of post-conflict reconciliation (together with Sabina Cehajic-Clancy) and an epidemic model of hate speech (together with Wiktor Soral).

PROJECTS

My involvement in the Institute of Social Studies is mostly focused on interdisciplinary study of hate and antisemitism, as well as psychological aspects of intergroup contact.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

• Bilewicz, M. (2025). How appraisal model allows to distinguish intergroup conspiracy theories from other forms of hate speech. Psychological Inquiry. [in press].
• Soral, W., Bieńkowski, M., & Bilewicz, M. (2025). Hate speech on the map of stereotype content: Verbal aggression is targeted at contempt-evoking outgroups. Social Psychology. [onlinefirst]
• Puchała, D., Bilewicz, M., & Świderska, A. (2025). Reclaiming derogatory language: Self-reports and interbeat intervals. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 44(1), 38–56.
• Wypych, M., & Bilewicz, M. (2024). Psychological toll of hate speech: The role of acculturation stress in the effects of exposure to ethnic slurs on mental health among Ukrainian immigrants in Poland. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 30(1), 35-44.
• Soral, W., Bukowski, M., Bilewicz, M., Cichocka, A., Lewczuk, K., Marchlewska, M., … Kofta, M. (2024). Prolonged unemployment is associated with control loss and personal as well as social disengagement. Journal of Personality, 92(6), 1704–1725.
• Vollhardt, J. R., Bilewicz, M. (2024). Jewish resistance during the Holocaust: Influences on the choice between individual and collective resistance strategies. In: F. B. Zeineddine & J. R. Vollhardt (eds.) Resistance to Repression and Violence: Global Psychological Perspectives, 179.
• Bilewicz, M., Babińska, M., & Gromova, A. (2024). High rates of probable PTSD among Ukrainian war refugees: the role of intolerance of uncertainty, loss of control and subsequent discrimination. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 15(1), 2394296.
• Bilewicz, M., & Marcinkowska, K. (2024). Społeczna psychologia Holokaustu: od naiwnego sytuacjonizmu do zrozumienia roli ideologii. Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, (20), 215–237.
• Bilewicz, M., & Bilewicz, A. (2024). Myths of trauma and myths of cooperation: Diverse consequences of history for societal cohesion. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 47, e174.
• Bilewicz, M. (2024). Traumaland. Polacy w cieniu przeszłości. Wydawnictwo Mando, Kraków.
• Soral, W., Świderska, A., Puchała, D., & Bilewicz, M. (2024). Desensitization to hate speech: Examination using heart rate measurement. Aggressive Behavior, 50(1), e22118.
• Kirkland, K., Van Lange, P. A. M., Gorenz, D., Blake, K., Amiot, C. E., Ausmees, L., … Bilewicz, M., … Bastian B. (2024). High economic inequality is linked to greater moralization. PNAS Nexus, gae221.
• Gkinopoulos, T., Pagliaro, S., Pacilli, M., Bilewicz, M., Teresi, M., & Ballone, C. (2023). Does personal relative deprivation mediate the relationship between passive social media use and beliefs in conspiracy theories? Cross‐sectional correlational and experimental evidence. European Journal of Social Psychology, 53(7), 1623–1640.
• Puchała, D., & Bilewicz, M. (2023). Skąd bierze się niechęć do obcych? O grupowych identyfikacjach Polaków. Kwartalnik NAUKA, (3).
• Bilewicz, M., & Bilewicz, A. (2023). De-assimilation Without Assimilation? The Continuities in the Polish Secular Model of Jewishness. Contemporary Jewry, 43(3), 767–774.
• Frenken, M., Bilewicz, M., & Imhoff, R. (2023). On the relation between religiosity and the endorsement of conspiracy theories: The role of political orientation. Political Psychology, 44(1), 139-156. IF: 4.
• Bilewicz, M., Bulska, D., Winiewski, M., & Fritsche, I. (2023). Obedience to authorities is not unconditional: Differential effects of COVID‐19 threat on three facets of RWA in Poland and Germany. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 17(9), e12800. IF: 4.8.
• Bilewicz, M., & Imhoff, R. (2022). Political Conspiracy Beliefs and Their Alignment on the Left-Right Political Spectrum. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 89(3), 679-706.
• Bilewicz, M. (2022). Conspiracy beliefs as an adaptation to historical trauma. Current Opinion in Psychology, 47, 101359.
• Soral, W., Malinowska, K., & Bilewicz, M. (2022). The role of empathy in reducing hate speech proliferation. Two contact-based interventions in online and off-line settings. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 28(3), 361–371.
• Bilewicz, M., & Soral, W. (2022). The politics of vaccine hesitancy: An ideological dual-process approach. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 13(6), 1080-1089.

Journal editorial activities

• Conflict Resolution Quarterly (editorial board member, from 2020)
• Advances in Political Psychology (editorial board member, from 2016)
• International Journal of Intercultural Relations (editorial board member, from 2015)
• European Journal of Social Psychology (editorial board member; consulting editor from 2015; associate editor 2018-2020)
• Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology (editorial board member, 2012-2018)
• Journal of Social and Political Psychology (editorial board member, 2013-2017)

EDUCATION

2013 – Habilitation in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw.
2007 – Ph.D. in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw.
2003 – M.A. in Sociology, Institute of Sociology (within MISH, Interdisciplinary Individual Studies in Humanities), University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
2003 (Hilary term) – Stefan Batory Visiting Student, Oxford University (Hilary Term)
1999-2003 – Student, MISH, Interdisciplinary Individual Studies in Humanities, University of Warsaw.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Since 09.2007 – Associate Professor, Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland
Since 04.2015 – Associate Professor, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw
Since 07.2010 – Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, De., USA
01.2015 – 09.2015 – Visiting Scholar, Department of Psychology, Leipzig University, Germany
09.2009 – 12.2009 – DAAD Post-Doctoral Researcher, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany
06.2007 – 12.2010 – Coordinator, Center for Research on Prejudice, University of Warsaw, Poland
09.2005 – 02.2006 – Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Psychology Department, New School for Social Research, New York, USA

AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

2025 – Klio Award for the Historical Book of the Year
2021 – Nevitt Sanford Award for Outstanding Professional Contributions to Political Psychology (International Society for Political Psychology)
2019, 2021, 2024 – University of Warsaw Vice-Chancellor Award for Scientific Achievements
2018 – Pozytyw 2018 Distinction for the Best Paper in Positive Psychology (Polish Society for Positive Psychology)
2016 – Ministry of Science and Higher Education Mobility Plus Scholarship (Leipzig University, Germany)
2015 – National Science Center (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) Award
2014 – Ministry of Science and Higher Education Scholarship
2014 – 4th. Biennial Best Journal of Language and Social Psychology Paper Award (IALSP)
2012 – Journal for the Study of Antisemitism Best Article of the Year 2012
2010 – Ministry of Science and Higher Education Scholarship
2009 – DAAD Post-Doctoral Scholarship (Jena University, Germany)
2009 – A. Malewski Award, Psychology Committee, Polish Academy of Sciences
2008 – Salomon Asch Award, Polish Society for Social Psychology
2007-2008 – Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) Start Scholarship, 2007-2008
2005-2006 – Fulbright Junior Fellowship (New School for Social Research, NY)

GRANTS RECEIVED AND RELATED RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

• Polish National Science Center (NCN) Opus grant (“Conspiracy mentality as an adaptation to historical trauma”, 2023-2027).
• Polish National Science Center (NCN) Sonata Bis grant (“Mowa pogardy. Psychologiczne mechanizmy rozprzestrzeniania się agresji werbalnej wobec grup mniejszościowych”, 2018-2023).
• Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) Team grant (“Language as a cure”, with Justyna Olko, 2018-2021).
• Polish National Science Center (NCN) and German Research Foundation (DFG) Beethoven grant “Motivated history. The impact of psychological motivations on social representations of the past” (“Historia i Motywacje. Wpływ motywacji psychologicznych na społeczne reprezentacje przeszłości.”, 2016-2019).
• Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education IUVENTUS Plus „Constructive and destructive reactions to deprivation: from prejudice to collective action”, (Principal Investigator) [„Konstruktywne i destruktywne reakcje na poczucie deprywacji: od uprzedzeń do działania zbiorowego”, 2015-2017 Grant IUVENTUS PLUS Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego]
• Polish National Science Center (NCN) grant „Representations of the past as preconditions of intergroup contact”, 2012-2015, Sonata Grant (principal investigator), [„Reprezentacje historii jako uwarunkowania kontaktu międzygrupowego”, 2012-2015, Grant Sonata Narodowego Centrum Nauki].
• COST European grant “Social psychological dynamics of historical representations in the enlarged European Union”: 2012, ISCH COST Action IS1205, member of Management Committee, head of a Working Group on collective emotions.
• Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education IUVENTUS Plus „Past and reconciliation: The role of basic psychological needs and intergroup emotions”, (Principal Investigator) [„Przeszłość i pojednanie: Rola podstawowych potrzeb psychologicznych oraz emocji międzygrupowych”, 2012-2014, Grant IUVENTUS PLUS Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego]
• Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) FOCUS Grant (project: “Linguistic Categories and Intergroup Relations”, Principal Investigator) [„W jaki sposób kategorie lingwistyczne wpływają na postrzeganie współczesnych i historycznych stosunków międzygrupowych? Badania społeczno-psychologiczne”, 2010 – 2015, Grant FOCUS Fundacji na rzecz Nauki Polskiej]
• The Rothschild Foundation Europe & The Ford Foundation Research Grant Programme to Study and Prevent Anti-Semitism, Racism and Xenophobia in Europe (project “Polish Prejudice Survey”, Principal Investigator)