Masaryk University, located in Brno, is the second-largest public university in the Czech Republic and the leading higher education institution in the Moravia region. At present, it comprises nine faculties with over 200 departments, institutes and clinics with approx. 35,000 enrolled students. Recognised as one of the most important teaching and research institutions in the Czech Republic and a highly-regarded Central European university, it has been infused with a strong democratic spirit ever since its establishment in 1919.

The EnTrust project is located at the Faculty of Social Studies, more specifically at the Department of Psychology and Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Family. The Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Social Studies was founded in 1998, but its research and educational activities follow the tradition of Brno psychological school formerly developed at the Faculty of Arts. In particular, it focuses on the fields of psychology of cognitive processes, social psychology, developmental psychology, psychology of personality, psychotherapy, psychological methodology, and different topics of applied psychology. The Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Families is a professional research institute of the Faculty of Social Studies, and works closely with the Department of Psychology. The research focus is on long-term interest in the topics of developmental, social and educational psychology, and the psychology of media.

Team members

Petr Macek is the principal investigator of the Czech team. He is professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Psychology and head of the Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Family at Masaryk University. He has received a PhD (CSc. as former Czechoslovak equivalent) from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and University J. E. Purkyne Brno in the year 1987. His research topics are focused on identity, self, interpersonal relationships, and civic and political participation.

Jan Šerek, PhD, is an associate professor at the Department of Psychology and at the Institute for Research of Children, Youth and Family at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology. His research interests involve political and civic socialization of young people and psychological aspects of democracy. He regularly teaches courses on social psychology, political psychology, and philosophical foundations of psychology at Masaryk University. 

Lenka Štěpánková, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University and a research assistant at the Institute for Research of Children, Youth and Family, Masaryk University. She obtained her Ph.D. at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in 2019 for the work on testing and examining spatial cognitive ability. Her other research projects focus on effects of culture on autobiographical memory, she is currently working on life script research in Czech Republic and Slovakia and on project examining how historical events influence autobiographical memories. She also teaches several courses at undergraduate level at Masaryk University, mostly focused on cognitive psychology.

Jakub Brojáč is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Psychology and a specialist at the Institute for Research of Children, Youth and Family at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. He received Master’s degree in psychology in 2021 (Masaryk University). He cooperated on several projects of validation of self-report measures at the Institute for Research of Children, Youth and Family and has been part of the Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society. His primary research interests are political psychology, social psychology, collective decision-making, identity and minorities. His PhD project focuses on the procedural theory of collective decision-making legitimacy.

Jana Fikrlová is a PhD student at the Department of Psychology and a specialist at the Institute for Research of Children, Youth and Family at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. She obtained her master’s degree in psychology at Masaryk University in 2021. She has participated in several research projects utilizing both qualitative and quantitative analyses. Her research interests focus on trust in institutions, trust in professionals and attitudes toward students with special educational needs.

Andrea Albrecht obtained her master’s degree in psychology at the Department of Psychology in 2022 and is a researcher at the Psychology Research Institute at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. Her research topics focus on developmental psychology with a specific focus on interpersonal trust. Besides being a researcher, she works as a child psychologist.