Norbert Meskó
Norbert Meskó is Full Professor at the Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs, and Head of the Evolutionary Psychology Research Group. His main research interests focus on the psychological and evolutionary foundations of human sexuality, mate choice, and relationship functioning. In his work, he integrates evolutionary perspectives with social and personality psychology approaches, as well as clinically relevant constructs, with particular emphasis on
the development and validation of psychometrically sound measurement instruments. He is the author of more than 60 scientific publications, three monographs, and co-editor of three edited volumes.
Research
His research program centers on identifying the psychological attitudes, motivations, and strategies underlying sexual and relationship-related decision making. His studies address the links between sexual motivation and emotion regulation, the dynamics of mate retention behaviors and sexual strategies, as well as the instrumental and coping-related functions of sexual behavior. In recent years, a key line of his work has focused on the psychological background of sexual–economic exchange, particularly openness to sugar relationships as an attitudinal construct, and its associations with social media use, body image, self-esteem, and early life experiences. He also investigates psychological forms of exploitation, maladaptive patterns of self-assertion and resource use, and their personality and relational correlates. Methodologically, his research relies on large-scale survey studies, longitudinal and experimental designs, as well as advanced multivariate statistical and network-analytic approaches.
Publications
ORCID
Research Gate
Google Scholar
MTMT
Job title: Full Professor
E-mail: mesko.norbert@pte.hu
Tamas Bereczkei
Professor Tamas Bereczkei is the former director of the Institute of Psychology in the University of Pécs. His research work comprises a wide area of topics: altruism and cooperation, Machiavellianism, mate choice, parental effort. With his colleagues and students, he has established The Evolutionary Research group of Pécs that operates several parallelly running research programs. He published more than 300 scientific papers, and he is the author or editor of 18 books. These publications have been given more than 4000 citations, worldwide. He has been teaching evolutionary psychology, genetics, research methods and other subjects for almost 45 years. During the last two decades he was the tutor of 17 PhD students. Tamas Bereczkei is a member of several Hungarian and international scientific societies and also editor of three journals. Beyond several scientific awards, he received the Officer's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit.
Research
Over the past decade, unexpected findings have been uncovered in the research of Machiavellianism. Whereas a lot of results of the former social psychological studies were confirmed, several assumptions must have been reconsidered. Machiavellian people, in fact, are “cold-minded” people but they also appear to experience intensive emotions in their social relationships. At the same time they are skilled at concealing these emotions that may promote the successful deception. In spite of the former theoretical expectations, Machiavellians poorly perform mindreading tests, but they can make relatively accurate judgments about their potential victims’ typical personality character. They wish immediate reward but they are able to adjust their decisions to the actual demands of the social situation, on long run. All of these characteristics may coincide with the Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis stating that manipulation played a crucial role in the evolution of primate cognitive abilities. The exploitation of the group members might be a strong selectionary force during human evolution that led to the development of flexible decision making, to the permanent monitoring of others, and to the precise evaluation of the particular features of the social environment. Our research project investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying the Machiavellians’ decision makings and the social conditions leading to successful manipulation. It represents a multidisciplinary approach to this phenomenon that includes various studies on four levels: neurobiological, cognitive, affective, and personality.
Publications
Job title: Full Professor
E-mail: bereczkei.tamas@pte.hu
Béla Birkás | Associate Professor
Béla Birkás is an associate professor at the Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Pécs Medical School. His research interests focus on evolutionary personality psychology, Dark Triad/Dark Tetrad personality traits, and the relationship between personality and mental health. He examines individual differences from functional, evolutionary, and psychometric perspectives, with a particular emphasis on the application of DSM-5-based personality models. His research is based on an empirical, data-driven approach and modern transdiagnostic models,
through which he seeks to link basic research with psychologically relevant issues in mental health.
Research
We examine the functionality of individual differences using evolutionary personality psychology and life course theory. Disadvantageous circumstances in childhood favour the development of faster life course strategies and the occurrence of "Dark Triad" personality traits, which are also advantageous in the case of faster life course strategies. We examine similar correlations by analysing personality traits and life course strategy indicators underlying mate selection strategies, risk-taking, and long-term planning.
Dark Triad / Dark Tetrad (DT) personality traits
In our research on DT traits, we examine the consequences of these personality traits on social, relational, and mental health. Currently, our research focuses on the transdiagnostic significance of DT traits and their connection to DSM5 questionnaires and other related personality functions.
Personality and mental health
Our empirical studies analyse how personality traits contribute to psychological vulnerability or resilience. The research is clinically relevant but not necessarily conducted on clinical samples and involves the use of DSM-5-based personality models, such as the PID-5-BF and LPFS-BF questionnaires.
Publications
Job title: Associate Professor
E-mail:
Andrea Czibor
Andrea graduated in psychology from the University of Pécs, where she also earned her PhD in the Evolutionary and Cognitive Psychology Doctoral Program. In addition to her interest in evolutionary psychology, she has a postgraduate degree in work and organizational psychology. Her research focuses on these two areas and their intersections.
Research
She likes to use the evolutionary psychological perspective to analyze and interpret organizational phenomena. Her research focuses mainly on organizational and individual factors influencing employee well-being, as well as the correlates of distinct leadership behaviors, attitudes, and personality traits. Her current research areas are the examination of the work-related correlates of dark traits, analysis of the background and consequences of workplace mobbing, and the effects of leaders’ personality traits and attitudes on employee well-being and employee attitudes.
She is currently a senior lecturer at the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at the University of Pécs.
Publications
ORCID
Research Gate
Google Scholar
MTMT
Job title: Associate Professor
E-mail: czibor.andrea@pte.hu
Árpád Csathó
Árpád is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Behavioural Sciences at the Medical School of the University of Pécs. He received his PhD from Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands). His current research primarily focuses on two areas: acute and chronic mental fatigue, and acute and chronic pain. His main methodological approaches are rooted in cognitive experimental methods, but he also conducts and publishes questionnaire- and survey-based studies in cognitive, health, and evolutionary psychology.
Research: The Effect of Mental Fatigue on Visuomotor Control
The series of experiments investigates changes in visually guided motor activity under increasing mental fatigue. The main question of the project is through which subprocesses mental fatigue affects motor control. We start from the assumption that fatigue primarily has a detrimental effect on mental activities that require increased cognitive control. In the study, mental fatigue is induced by prolonged task performance. The objectives of the project are as follows. [1] First, we examine the extent to which increasing fatigue affects the stability of motor control as well as its flexibility in unexpected situations. [2] A further objective is to compare the role of spatial and temporal task characteristics in the fatigability of motor control. [3] Our third objective is to investigate to what extent the motor changes induced by fatigue can be attributed to a decrease in task motivation or to the depletion of cognitive capacity. [4] The fourth objective is also related to motivation: along effort- and reward-based decision-making situations, we examine how, in a fatigued state, motivation to engage in more demanding motor activities changes as a function of the rewarding value and difficulty of the task. [5] Finally, an important objective is to record electrophysiological data (e.g., ECG, skin conductance) in order to examine changes in autonomic nervous system activity and the direction of the associated arousal changes (increasing or decreasing trends) during prolonged motor execution.
Publications
Job title: Associate Professor
Petra Gyuris
Petra Gyuris received her degree in psychology in 2003, her doctoral degree in 2009, and her habilitation in 2022. Her research field has been mate selection, including sexual imprinting, for almost 20 years. For the past 15 years, she has been working on evolutionary psychopathology, the evolutionary background of sibling and half-sibling relationships, and helping. Her current focus of interest is the evolutionary psychological background of ADHD. She is an associate professor at the Department of Psychology of the University of Pécs, where she teaches cognitive and evolutionary psychology.
Publications
Research Gate
Google Scholar
MTMT
Job title: Associate Professor
E-mail: gyuris.petra@pte.hu
Ferenc Kocsor
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Publications
Research Gate
Google Scholar
MTMT
Job title: Senior Research Fellow
E-mail: kocsor.ferenc@pte.hu
Dr. Ádám Putz
Dr. Ádám Putz earned his PhD in 2018 at the University of Pécs, where his doctoral research examined how beauty stereotypes influence economic decisions in social dilemmas and judgments of trustworthiness. Following his graduation, his work diverged into two main research directions. First, he investigates the factors that promote within-group and intergroup cooperation, for which he and his PhD student, Adrián Fehér, developed a novel experimental game. His second major line of research explores the impact of physical attractiveness and beauty stereotypes on perceptions of sexual assault perpetrators and survivors. In recent years, he has participated in several national and international research projects, including collaborations with the research teams of Menelaos Apostolou and Marta Kowal. His most significant domestic collaborations are linked to Prof. Norbert Meskó, and he has also published studies with colleagues from the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Pécs on the role of physical attractiveness in equity crowdfunding and on the effects of homophily on eWOM acceptance.
1. The Impact of Beauty Stereotypes on the Evaluation of Sexual Assault Perpetrators and Survivors
Our research examines how beauty stereotypes shape the evaluation of sexual assault perpetrators and survivors. In our studies, we systematically manipulate the physical attractiveness, gender, and ethnic background of both victims and perpetrators, as well as key characteristics of the incident (e.g., stranger assault vs. acquaintance or date-rape scenarios). Beyond appearance-based cues, we also assess a range of psychological factors that influence judgments, including rape-myth acceptance, belief in a just world, and various forms of sexism.
The project is conducted within an international collaboration, which has allowed us to collect data not only from Hungary but also from the United States and Türkiye. Our findings indicate that attractiveness-based heuristics and ideological beliefs jointly determine how observers assign responsibility and evaluate credibility in cases of sexual assault.
2. Investigating Within‑Group and Intergroup Cooperation Using an Innovative Experimental Game Paradigm
Our research investigates within‑group and intergroup cooperation through an innovative experimental paradigm, the Flood‑Defense Game developed by our team. In each round, participants must decide how to allocate their available sandbags in preparation for an approaching flood: to protect their own house (selfish strategy), to reinforce their village’s small dam (within‑group cooperation), or to strengthen the large dam that protects both villages (intergroup cooperation). This triadic decision structure allows us to model egoism, parochialism, and universal cooperation simultaneously.
Using data collected through international collaboration, we applied latent profile analysis and identified distinct strategic patterns—such as the Logical, the Selfish, the Calculating, or the Traitor profile. We also examine how individual differences, including Dark Triad traits, life‑history strategy (fast vs. slow), mind perception, and the Big Five personality dimensions, shape cooperative tendencies and strategy selection in this collective‑risk context.
Publications
Research Gate
Google Scholar
MTMT
Job title: Assistant Professor
E-mail: adam.putz@pte.hu
Edit Csányi
Edit received her BA and MA degrees in psychology from the University of Pécs in 2020 and 2022, respectively, and is currently a PhD student. Her research focuses on the cognitive and evolutionary mechanisms of human sexuality, with a particular emphasis on the phenomenon of female faking orgasm. Her work examines the emotion-regulatory functions, relational embeddedness, and sociocultural context of orgasm faking, as well as how different sexual situations may involve distinct psychological pathways leading to this behavior.
Publications
Orcid
Research Gate
Google Scholar
MTMT
Job title: PhD Student
E-mail: csanyi.edit@pte.hu
Zoë Brinkert
Zoë Brinkert is a PhD candidate in Psychology at the University of Pécs, originally from the Netherlands. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Social Work with a strong focus on psychology. Her research explores beauty stereotypes, sexual assault perception, personality, and emotion regulation. Alongside her studies, she works as a support worker at Trajectum’s treatment ward, supporting clients with mild intellectual disabilities and complex behavioral or psychiatric challenges. These clinical experiences, including work with survivors and perpetrators of sexual assault, strongly inform her academic interests. Zoë aims to bridge the gap between psychology and social work to improve mental health outcomes for vulnerable groups.
Publications
Job title: PhD Student
E-mail: xx6ywe@tr.pte.hu
Fanni Őry
Fanni received her BA and MA degrees in psychology at the University of Pécs in 2020 and 2022, respectively. She is mostly interested in the psychology of living with a chronic diases like diabetes, and also how women see their own body in her research. She also plans to run research in the field of sportpsychology in the future. Fanni is currently an assistant lecturer, a PhD student and will become a sportpsychologist in 2026.
Publications
Job title: PhD Student
E-mail: ory.fanni@pte.hu
Lili Károlyi
Lili Károlyi obtained her BA degree in Psychology from the University of Pécs in 2024 and is currently pursuing her MA studies in Social and Organizational Psychology at the same institution. Her research interests focus primarily on sexual communication, sexual satisfaction, and female sexual functioning and well-being, with particular attention to the phenomenon of faking orgasm. She plans to initiate further research on sexuality and intimacy in the future and intends to continue her studies in postgraduate training in sexual psychology.
Publications
Lili Kozma
Lili Kozma obtained her BA degree in Psychology from the University of Pécs in 2025 and is currently pursuing her MA studies in Psychology at the same institution. Her research interests focus on identifying the psychological determinants of satisfaction with one’s relationship status. In her work, she places particular emphasis on how emotion regulation, attachment patterns, and personality traits contribute to the way individuals experience and evaluate their current relational situation. Her research also addresses relationship satisfaction and attitudes toward singlehood.
Publications
Zsófia Kunhegyi
Zsófia Kunhegyi obtained her BA degree in 2024 and is currently an MA student in Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Pécs. Her research interests focus on relationship functioning, with a particular emphasis on infidelity. In her thesis, she examines the phenomenon of infidelity resistance in relation to personality traits, attachment dimensions, sociosexual orientation, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies.
Publications
Renata Máj
Renáta Máj obtained her BA degree in Psychology from the University of Pécs in 2024 and is currently an MA student at the same institution. Her research interests focus on exploring the psychological background of singlehood, with particular emphasis on the role of emotion regulation processes. In her master’s thesis, she examined the underlying reasons for singlehood and their associations with emotion regulation, and developed her own questionnaire to enable a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon.
Publications
Anna Molnár
Her research interests focus on exploring individual and evolutionary influences underlying facial preferences. In her thesis, she examines personality factors shaping the perception of acne-affected faces, as well as their associations with mate choice and life history strategies.
Publications
Katalin Rápli
Katalin Rápli obtained her BA degree in Psychology from the University of Pécs in 2025 and is currently pursuing her MA studies in Clinical and Health Psychology at the same institution. Alongside her studies, she works as a volunteer at the Pediatric Clinic of Pécs, including the Department of Psychiatry. She is also involved in supporting disadvantaged children as a mentor in the “Teach for Hungary” program. Her previous research has focused on the relationships between cognitive emotion regulation and personality traits, as well as the effects of inner speech on cognitive performance and its role in multimodal learning. Her current research centers on relationship idealization and its associations with maladaptive personality functioning and emotion regulation. Her future plans include completing her clinical psychology training and pursuing doctoral studies.
Publications
Krisztina Takács
Krisztina Takács obtained her BA degree in 2025 and is currently an MA student in Psychology at the University of Pécs, specializing in Cognitive and Evolutionary Psychology. In her research, she has examined hyperactivating and deactivating sexual strategies and their associations with attachment styles and self-esteem. Her current research interests focus on sexual behavior and emotion regulation, as well as masturbation habits, pornography use and its problematic forms, and sexual and relationship satisfaction. She plans to pursue postgraduate training in sex therapy and sexual psychology. Since 2023, she has been a member of the Cognitive Psychology Research Group at the university, where she contributes to various research projects, including the observation and administration of experiments, as well as statistical analyses and the preparation of publications. Alongside her studies, she is a volunteer in the Bátor Tábor GO! program, engaging with children and adolescents in hospital settings, which has further strengthened her commitment to empathy and helping attitudes. In addition, she occasionally works at the Career Office of the University of Pécs as a career assessment assistant, supporting high school students in their career decision-making.
Publications
