We use cookies in order to improve the quality and usability of the HSE website. More information about the use of cookies is available here, and the regulations on processing personal data can be found here. By continuing to use the site, you hereby confirm that you have been informed of the use of cookies by the HSE website and agree with our rules for processing personal data. You may disable cookies in your browser settings.
The aim of the department is to achieve decision advantage in the fields of comparative social research, sociology of young people, sociology of science and education, and research into cultural diversity and tolerance. The department maintains close research ties and partnerships with the European University in St Petersburg, the HSE Moscow Sociology department, the RAS Institute of Sociology in St Petersburg and many other international partners. Faculty are all experienced teachers and researchers from leading Russian and western universities and research centres.
Simpson A., Simpson R., Baker D. T. et al.
Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2024.
Ponarin E., Afanasyeva Y.
Journal of Happiness Studies. 2025. Vol. 26.
In bk.: Gendering Place and Affect: Attachment, Disruption and Belonging. Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2024. P. 154-166.
SSRN Working Paper Series. SSRN Working Paper Series. Social Science Research Network, 2024
The Laboratory for Comparative Social Research announces the next regular seminar, which will be held as a zoom session on December, 5 at 02:30 p.m. CET (04:30 p.m. Moscow time, GMT+3). Michael Minkov (Varna University of Management; LCSR, HSE University) will deliver a report "Comparative Studies of the Evolution of Personality: The Complex Five Factor Model Versus a Focus on Simple Facets".
To participate, please, register via the link.
The study of animal personality is a rapidly expanding field, now covering more than 200 species, some of them multiple times. One of the reasons for that is the notion that knowledge of animal personality helps us understand human personality and its evolution. Many studies of animal personality, especially primate personality, use the human Five Factor Model (FFM), claim that some or all of the human factors replicate, at least in some primates, and attempt to trace the evolution of those factors back to the period before the separation of humans from other apes, and even earlier. I argue that the human FFM is inappropriate for the study of any animal personality since much of the FFM consists of uniquely human characteristics that are impossible without a human mind functioning in a human culture. Besides, the human FFM replicates very poorly, even within studies of chimpanzees and across such studies: their authors disregard even the most basic invariance criteria, such as percentage of items with highest loadings on the same factor. I suggest focusing on simple FFM facets rather than complex traits. Some of these facets (activity/energy, curiosity/exploration, sociability, anxiety/fearfulness) are meaningful descriptors not only of primates but also of much simpler organisms. This simplification would allow tracing the history of those facets from the simplest organisms (anemones) to the most complex (primates, including humans).
Everyone interested is invited!
Working language is English.