iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

1/3 Who is the most satisfied with their romantic relationships? It turns out that... Australia and South Africa. New paper published today in the Journal of Marriage and Family, based on data from almost 50k people across 149 countries and territories.

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

1/3 Is it better to idealize your partner or see them as similar to you? The analysis of data from 41,606 people across 74 countries provided evidence that for socially desirable traits (e.g., kindness or physical attractiveness) idealization wins.

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Had so much fun this week filming a short clip about our lab’s research at the @uniwroc, in one of the most beautiful spots on campus. Feeling very grateful to work with such incredible people - P Sorokowski, SC Roberts, A Sorokowska, M Misiak, A Kusztal, and many others!

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Call for papers Special Issue on Romance and the Internet in Telematics and Informatics is now open for submissions! Build a deeper understanding of love in the digital age with us. Submission deadline: 13.10.2026 Link below

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

1/2 In the late 1600s, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek looked into a microscope and saw “small animals” living in his saliva. A few centuries later, we meta-analyzed what those tiny organisms - our microbiome - might mean for our well-being.

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Interested in love and mate preferences? Our dataset includes responses from 117,293 participants across 175 countries. You're welcome to use it for your own research! Paper and dataset linked below. @ with amazing collaborators from the large-scale cross-cultural consortium <3

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Just got back from #HBES2025 - what an absolute blast! Fantastic conference and even more fantastic people and the society. Loved both the big talks and the between-session chats. Only downside? Wish I could clone myself to be in several places at once! :)

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

20th-century anthropologists called romantic love a Western invention – our new paper, with data from 9 non-WEIRD societies (N = 937), finds high levels of passion, intimacy & commitment everywhere, adding evidence for the universality of love hypothesis. doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

1/2 I’d be lying if I said I’m a serious, always-composed academic and that hearing about grant funding was no big deal... Well, it was! I'm so thrilled to share that I received SONATA from @NCN_PL! Topic: Love & well-being Amount: ~275,000 EUR

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Such a tremendous loss... I never had the pleasure of meeting Ellen Berscheid, but her work has had a lasting impact on me. Her legacy shall live on.

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

The day has finally come... or rather, the 1,227th day. Today, I completed the Spanish course on @duolingoverde.bsky.social I never thought it would be such a long, fun (and sometimes frustrating:) journey. Entonces, que debo hacer ahora con mi tiempo libre?!

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Does a history of infectious diseases shape how we perceive our health? Our preliminary study finds mixed evidence across countries. Some analyses suggest a small positive effect, but overall, no clear link [link to the paper below] @ Amazing Large-Scale Cross-Cultural Team!

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

We found consistent evidence across two studies (Study 1 N = 61,067 individuals from 81 countries; Study 2 N = 6,620 individuals from 50 countries) that higher individualism predicts lower intensity of experienced love. Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

1/2 Happy Valentine's Day! Want to study romantic love? Our team validated the TLS-15 - a short, reliable love scale - in 37 languages! You can freely use it in your research. Link to the paper below:

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Marta Kowal @martakowal.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

1/4 Are you considering SSRIs for mental health reasons but you are worried about their impact on your romantic life? For years, researchers speculated that SSRIs might negatively impact romantic love. But, to date, nobody actually tested this! Well, we did. Here's what we found.

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