Our Mission

We learn, feel, act, and develop in interplay with the world that surrounds us. In nature we feel less stressed and when we get some exercise, we increase our chance of aging healthily. We prefer to eat what we know, and artificial intelligence worries some of us and excites others. Why is this the case and what does it mean for us as individuals and for our society?

At the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, we want to understand how and why we humans develop differently, which factors play a role, and how they interact. Motivated by the conviction that we can shape our life conditions in a way that everyone can make the most of their personal potential throughout life, we investigate our behavior, our development, and our competencies with regard to our physical, societal, and technological environment.

And we are treading new paths to do so: In order to decipher the complexity of our environments, we are linking our research in interdisciplinary projects and creating pioneering research infrastructures with international reach.