Kinga Bierwiaczonek
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

I hold a double PhD in psychology from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2018), and ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal (2019). Before joining the University of York, I worked in Norway, the United States, and Germany. My research focuses on the psychology of conspiracy beliefs, acculturation and cross-cultural adaptation, and meta-analytical methods.

Career

• Lecturer, University of York (since 2026)
• Principal Investigator under a Young Research Talent Grant from the Research Council of Norway, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway (2021 – 2026)
• Assistant Professor in Psychological Metascience, Leibniz Institute for Psychology/University of Trier, Germany (2024 – 2025)
• Visiting Scholar at the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, USA (2023 – 2024)
• Researcher, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway (2020-2024)
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Organizational and Social Psychology, ISCTE- University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal (2019)
• Local Administrative Coordinator, European Master in the Psychology of Global Mobility, Inclusion and Diversity in Society (Global-MINDS) funded by the European Commission, ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal (2015 – 2019)
• Double PhD in Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2018) & ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon (2019)

Research

Overview

• Acculturation, cross-cultural adaptation, and well-being of migrants to living in receiving societies 
• Conspiracy beliefs, their socio-emotional antecedents and consequences
• Meta-analytical and longitudinal methods, in particular longitudinal and multilevel meta-analytical models
• Applications of meta-analysis from a meta-science perspective
• Bias and heterogeneity of effects in psychological research

Projects

Antecedents of cross-cultural adaptation: A meta-analysis 1988-2025 (ACCA)

Short description of project (Current projects):  

Inclusion of migrants is a pressing priority for today's societies. This project responds to it by integrating research on migrants’ adaptation to life in the receiving countries. Specifically, we collected and meta-analysed over 1,100 primary studies including different factors related to migrant adaptation. 

Grants

• Young Research Talent Grant from the Research Council of Norway, ~£700,000 (8,600,000 NOK) (2021-2026) 
• Early Career Award of the International Academy of Intercultural Research (2023)

Collaborators

Dr. John Ioannidis (Stanford University)

Dr. Jonas R. Kunst (University of Oslo)

Dr. Tilmann von Soest (University of Oslo)

Dr. Matthew Hornsey (University of Queensland) 

Dr. Colleen Ward (Victoria University)

Dr. Mike Cheung (National University of Singapore) 

Dr. Kai Sassenberg (Leibniz Institute for Psychology) 

Dr. Rita Guerra (ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon) 

Dr. Joep Hofhuis (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Available PhD research projects

I am happy to supervise PhD projects on different aspects of migration or conspiracy beliefs, especially projects based on meta-analytical and longitudinal methods. If you are interested, please get in touch with me.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Conspiracy Beliefs and Misinformation
• Project supervision

Publications

Selected publications

Bierwiaczonek, K., Vu, D.-H., Tong, R., Cheung, M.W.-L., Ward, C., & Kunst, J.R. (2025). A Meta-Analysis of Social and Contextual Correlates of Migrant Adaptation to Living in Receiving Societies. Nature Communications 16, 11231. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67468-z

Bierwiaczonek, K., Fluit, S., von Soest, T., Hornsey, M. J., & Kunst, J. R. (2024). Loneliness trajectories over three decades are associated with conspiracist worldviews in midlife. Nature Communications, 15(1), 3629. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47113-x

Hornsey, M., Bierwiaczonek, K., Sassenberg, K. & Douglas, K. (2022). Individual, intergroup and nation-level influences on belief in conspiracy theories. Nature Reviews Psychology, 2, 85–97. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00133-0 

Bierwiaczonek, K., & Kunst, J. R. (2021). Revisiting the Integration Hypothesis: Correlational and Longitudinal Meta-Analyses Demonstrate the Limited Role of Acculturation for Cross-Cultural Adaptation. Psychological Science, 32(9), 1476-1493. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211006432 

Full publications list

Full publications list: Google Scholar

External activities

Memberships

PhD Summer School committee of the International Academy of Intercultural Research

Media coverage

Media Coverage: 

• NRK (national Norwegian Broadcasting corporation), June 2024: Ensomme ungdommer trur oftere på konspirasjons­teorier som voksne [Lonely youth are more likely to believe conspiracy theories as adults], June 2024
• Apollon, 2021: Sår tvil om dominerende teori om integrering av innvandrere [Challenging the dominating theory of immigrants’ integration]
• PsyPost, September 2020: Conspiracies about COVID-19 being a bioweapon linked to reduced social distancing over time    
• Research Digest of the British Psychological Society, September 2021: There’s Surprisingly Little Evidence Behind Common Beliefs About the Best Way for Immigrants to Adapt
• Apollon, 2022: Konspirasjonsteorier farlig for den globale folkehelsa [Conspiracy theories dangerous for global public health]