Ayşe Iraz Kural Başkan
Dr. Ayşe Iraz Kural Başkan is a psychologist and researcher currently working at the Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences. Her research examines how individual differences shape the ways people think, feel, and relate to others—both in traditional social contexts and in emerging human–technology interactions. Her work is grounded in attachment theory, with a particular focus on internal working models as foundational mechanisms underlying social cognition, social interactions, emotion regulation, well-being, trust, and belief formation. A central line of her current research explores human–AI relationships through an attachment-based lens, investigating how people approach and perceive artificial agents, and how attachment orientations—together with the belief systems/mental representations associated with these orientations—shape engagement with AI. In parallel, she is involved in several collaborative projects examining the interpersonal and social aspects of conspiracy beliefs, epistemically suspect beliefs, and political polarization, with a particular interest in how relational experiences, social identity, and perceived threat contribute to the formation and maintenance of these belief systems. Adopting a developmental perspective, she also studies how such beliefs and social orientations are shaped and transformed across different stages of the life course. Her interdisciplinary research spans social, personality, cyber, developmental, and political psychology, employing quantitative and cross-national methods. She has taught various undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology at Eötvös Loránd University, published in peer-reviewed international journals, and presented her work at major international conferences. She is a member of the International Society of Political Psychology. Alongside her academic work, she is a practicing family counselor and holds professional certifications in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Emotion-Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT). She is committed to communicating psychological research to broader audiences and to combating misinformation in the public understanding of psychology.
