2026 BTSCON: Building a Global Psychology of Worry

Big Team Science Conference hack-a-thon: Building a Global Psychology of Worry: Co-developing a Big Team Science Initiative on Worry, Human Flourishing, and Meaning Systems Across Cultures Presenter(s): Alma Jeftic, Nadia Sarai Corral Frias, Kiley Hamlin Psychological science has made substantial progress in understanding worry as a cognitive process associated with anxiety and mental health. However, considerably less attention has been devoted to understanding what people worry about, how these worries differ across diverse social and cultural contexts, and why some worries appear to undermine well-being whereas others motivate resilience, meaning, and collective action. Existing theories and measures of worry were largely developed more than two decades ago, primarily within Western contexts, and may not adequately capture the uncertainties characterizing contemporary societies, including climate change, armed conflict, forced migration, economic instability, democratic backsliding, artificial intelligence, and rapidly changing social environments. At the same time, the emerging science of human flourishing invites researchers to move beyond deficit-oriented approaches by examining how individuals and communities thrive despite uncertainty. This hackathon proposes the development of a new Big Team Science initiative aimed at building a globally representative psychology of worry. Rather than conceptualizing worry solely as repetitive negative thinking, the project adopts a broader perspective in which worries are understood as future-oriented concerns reflecting personally and collectively valued aspects of life. Building on Boehnke and colleagues' distinction between micro- and macro-worries while integrating contemporary research on flourishing, stress appraisal, meaning-making, and cultural psychology, the initiative seeks to examine how different forms of worry relate to human flourishing across diverse social ecologies. Importantly, the hackathon is intended to present one part of the study protocol and to allow further discussion and development. Participants will collaboratively shape the project's theoretical framework, methodological design, and governance structure. Particular emphasis will be placed on evaluating and modernizing existing measures of worry; identifying contemporary concerns that should be represented in a globally relevant instrument; discussing appropriate measures of flourishing, meaning systems, and coping resources; identifying relevant country-level indicators; and establishing equitable procedures for translation, governance, authorship, and open science. The long-term objective is to co-develop a preregistered, multilingual, international survey that reflects both universal psychological processes and culturally situated experiences of uncertainty. The hackathon welcomes researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including social, cultural, clinical, positive, peace, health, environmental, developmental, and political psychology, as well as experts in psychometrics, open science, and Big Team Science. We particularly encourage participation from researchers representing historically underrepresented regions and Majority World contexts, whose perspectives are essential for developing globally representative theory and measurement. By the end of the session, participants will have contributed to (1) refining the project's theoretical model; (2) identifying key research questions and hypotheses; (3) establishing thematic working groups; (4) prioritizing measurement development and validation; and (5) outlining a roadmap toward a collaborative international study. Beyond launching a single multinational project, the hackathon aims to establish a sustainable international research community dedicated to understanding how people across the world experience uncertainty, mobilize culturally embedded systems of meaning, and transform worry into pathways toward human flourishing. This hack-a-thon is organized as part of CONNECT (Coordinated Network of Networks for Enhancing Collaborative Teams), a SSHRC-funded partnership aimed at strengthening collaboration and capacity-building across BTS projects. recorded October 7, 2026 bigteamscienceconference.github.io connect-btss.github.io