Decentralised bribery, where individual bureaucrats or groups act in isolation, is the most harmful type.

Transformation of society's values has changed attitudes towards nudity in film.

Russians know how to count their money, but often ignore the rules of responsible financial behaviour.

Altruism based on individual values is changing Western society. People in Western countries have seen a rise in individualism for quite some time, and this in turn helps to create generations of people with altruistic mindsets. Christian Welzel, Chief Research Fellow in the Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (HSE and Leuphana University of Lüneburg), teamed up with researchers from the University of Lausanne to conduct a study showing the connection between emancipative values and prosocial behaviour. The results of the study were published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.

Almost two million Russians aged 15 to 24 don’t study or work.

Attitudes to hipsters differ from judgmental in Moscow to fairly positive in Nizhny Novgorod.

Terrorist attacks can have a paralysing effect on stock index dynamics, but market participants can cut their losses by not succumbing to panic.

Adolescents who have a greater tendency to lie to their parents are also more likely to start using alcohol at an earlier age, while excessive parental supervision may aggravate rather than solve the problem. Both honesty and a lower risk of developing a drinking habit are usually the result of a trusting relationship between a teenager and parents, according to a joint study by New York University and HSE researchers, published at Journal of Adolescence.

Commercials could be far more effective by addressing consumers’ attitudes and values.

Russian companies with state participation lack transparency.

A new study by HSE researchers has uncovered a new brain mechanism that generates cognitive dissonance – a mental discomfort experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs or values, or experiences difficulties in making decisions. The results of the study have been published in the paper ‘Open Access Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Dissonance (Revised): an EEG Study’in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Most CEOs of Russian credit institutions hold two degrees, have spent at least ten years working in the banking sector, and do not have international work experience, according to HSE researchers.