Research

Our research focuses on the investigation of cognitive processes that underlie social phenomena. Key areas are described below.
 

Perception of social variability

In our research, we investigate the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the perception of people's differences, for example in their income, performance or attractiveness. 

Publications:

Ebert, J., & Deutsch, R. (2024). When the ends justify the mean - The Endpoint Leverage Effect in distribution perception. Cognitive Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13455

Deutsch, R., Ebert, J., Barth, M., & Roth, J. (2023). Biased perception of distributions: Anchoring, interpolation and smoothing as potential causes. Cognition, 237, 105448.

Rinn, R., Krishna, A., & Deutsch, R. (2023). The psychology of income wealth threshold estimations: A registered report. British Journal of Social Psychology, 62(1), 630-650.
 

Perception of discrimination

Using the SUSED paradigm we developed, we explore how statistical information and schematic influences shape the perception of discrimination.

Publications:

Heineck, P. M., & Deutsch, R. (2024). Beyond the incident: Influences on the perception of multiple instances of discrimination. British Journal of Social Psychology. 00, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12762

Heineck, P. M., & Deutsch, R. (2024). Summarized and sequential discrimination-A paradigm for research on the perception of multiple instances of discrimination. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 110, 104548. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104548
 

Construction of stereotypes

In our research, we investigate how learning processes can lead to polarised judgements and overgeneralised statements about social groups.

Publications:

Rothermund, P., & Deutsch, R. (2024). Exaggerating differences back and forth: Two levels of intergroup accentuation. British Journal of Social Psychology, 63(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12699
 

Moral judgment

Publications:

Körner, A., Deutsch, R., & Gawronski, B. (2020). Using the CNI model to investigate individual differences in moral dilemma judgments. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46, 1392-1407.

Körner, A., Joffe, S., & Deutsch, R. (2019).  When skeptical, stick with the norm: Low dilemma plausibility increases deontological moral judgments. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 84.
 

Development of social psychological methods

We are working in various areas to develop or improve methods for analysing social psychological phenomena or theories. Examples include the development of a standardised paradigm for investigating the perception of discrimination or the development and evaluation of realistic moral dilemmas.

Publications:

Heineck, P. M., & Deutsch, R. (2024). Summarized and sequential discrimination-A paradigm for research on the perception of multiple instances of discrimination. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 110, 104548. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104548

Körner, A., & Deutsch, R. (2023).  Deontology and utilitarianism in real life: A set of moral dilemmas based on historic events. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 49(10), 1511–1528.