This article introduces a novel concept, Belief in a Zero-Sum Game (BZSG), proposed as another belief dimension in the family of social axioms. We conceptualize BZSG as a belief system about the antagonistic nature of social relations—that one person’s gain is possible only at the expense of other persons. It appears on a level of personal convictions and as a cultural worldview ideology. We found that persons or nations who believe in a zero-sum game engage in win-lose social exchanges over limited resources. Psychometric evidence for the universality of the BZSG scale in a large pancultural project of 37 nations is presented, where individual and cultural-level predictors of BZSG were tested, followed by their multilevel analyses. BZSG, which shows a conceptual and empirical affinity with societal cynicism, is moderated by previously described cultural dimensions and by objective socio-economic indices.

The metric level of invariance offers the possibility of comparing correlates and predictors of positive mental functioning across countries; however, the comparison of the levels of mental health across countries is not possible due to lack of scalar invariance. Our study has preliminary character and could serve as an initial assessment of the structure of the MHC-SF across different cultural settings. Further studies on general populations are required for extending our findings.

Love is an inherent part of human experience and one of the most important elements of close relationships. Researchers' interest in love is manifested in a handful of approaches that provide a potential theoretical framework for this unique feeling (e.g., philosophical, Secomb, 2007; economic, Becker, 1973; and biological perspectives; e.g., Sorokowski et al., 2017).The social sciences present several well-known theories of love. (A comprehensive review of theories can be found in Sternberg & Sternberg, 2019). Among the most popular theoretical approaches, one theory highlights a division into passionate (intense and arousing) and companionate (tender and affective) love (Feybesse & Hatfield, 2019;Hatfield & Walster, 1985), which suggests the parallel importance of love's different aspects. Another popular typology refers to love styles, as first described by Lee (1973) and as further adapted by Hendrick (1986, 2019). This theoretical framework specifies six styles of love: Eros (passionate love), Ludus (game-playing love), Storge (friendship love), Pragma (logical, pragmatic love), Mania (possessive, dependent love) and Agape (all-giving, selfless love). Attachment Theory (Bowlby, 2012), describing infant-parent bonding, has also given rise to a theoretical framework for understanding romantic love (Hazan & Shaver, 1987;

The aim of this paper is to examine cross-cultural differences in body stigmatization between the individualistic Christian culture of guilt (Poland) and the collectivistic Buddhist/Confucian culture of honor and shame (Vietnam). The study included 1290 university students from Poland (n = 586) and Vietnam (n = 704). Subjects filled in the body esteem scale and the perceived stigmatization questionnaire, and body measurements were collected to calculate anthropometric indices. Participants from Vietnam were less satisfied with their appearance than their Polish peers. Men in both countries assessed themselves more favorably. No anthropometric index predicted body esteem in Vietnamese women, while only indices related to fat levels were predictors in Polish women. Men with a V-shaped body assessed themselves as stronger and as having a better physical condition. A possible explanation of the observed cross-cultural differences is that interdependent self-construal makes young adults in collectivistic societies more susceptible to criticism, and the Confucian values of modesty and shame lead to them not perceiving their bodies as sexual objects. The Christian sense of guilt does not influence the perception of sexuality. Absence of friendly behavior mediated the relation between anthropometric indices and body esteem in both cultures.

The structure of the MHC-SF is best represented as combination of the bifactor and ESEM model.