We welcome the Max Planck Research Group Biology, Social Disparities and Development to our Institute
Laurel Raffington’s research group examines how social disparities affect child and adolescent development and lead to differential outcomes in education, health, and well-being across the life span. We warmly welcome the new group to the Institute and are looking forward to working with them.
Reimar Lüst Memorial Lecture 2022
After a long break, our directors finally welcomed guests again at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Under the title "Kepler in Relation: Emotion and Science in a New Age of Knowledge" Ulinka Rublack held the Reimar Lüst Memorial Lecture 2022. For this special occasion, numerous interested people also joined in digitally. The recording of the lecture in English is now available on the Institute's YouTube channel.
Voluntary Social Year in Research
The Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience offers a Voluntary Social Year in Research for the second time. Research Group Leader Simone Kühn is currently accepting initiative applications for the next round.
People with less memory loss in old age gain more knowledge
Do cognitive abilities change together, or do they change independently of each other? An international research team from the USA, Sweden, and Germany involving the Max Planck Institute for Human Development has presented new findings now published in Science Advances.
Safely simulating risks in a pandemic
Is it possible to conduct experiments about risk-taking during pandemics without endangering participants? To safely investigate the effectiveness of public health interventions and simulate the dynamics of virus transmission, researchers from the University of Plymouth, UK, the IESE Business School in Spain and the MPI for Human Development have developed a game-based experiment.
Rethinking infectious disease control
Physical distancing policies and particularly stay-at-home work mandates have proven highly effective at slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. But these measures have had numerous unwanted consequences, including dramatic reductions in economic productivity. Are there alternative methods that have the potential to simultaneously contain pandemic spread while also minimizing negative economic effects?
Naturally healthy: How much do adolescents know about food?
How natural a food product is plays a key role in how healthy it is perceived to be—not only by nutrition experts, but also by adolescents and young adults. At the same time, there is considerable variability in adolescents’ ratings of food products. These are the results of a new study conducted by researchers at the MPI for Human Development and Aarhus University, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
How the brain’s blue spot helps us focus our attention
How can we shift from inattentiveness to highest attention? The locus coeruleus, the “blue spot,” is a tiny cluster of cells at the base of the brain. As the main source of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, it helps us control our attentional focus. Researchers at the MPI for Human Development have now developed a framework describing the way the blue spot regulates our brain’s sensitivity to relevant information in situations requiring attention.
Well-dosed emotions
Emotions have a bad reputation in the political sphere. According to traditional dogma, political decisions should be rational and sensible, but under no circumstances should they be emotional. Reality, however, has always been somewhat different. The impact that feelings had and continue to have on political events and the rise and fall of leaders is the primary field of interest for Ute Frevert and her team at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Read more about this topic in the MaxPlanckResearch periodical.
Caution – toxic green!
Some plants produce toxins that can make us sick – or even kill us. Thus, a wariness of plants makes sense from an evolutionary point of view, especially for infants and toddlers. Annie Wertz is investigating which behaviors protect children from dangerous plants and how they learn from adults which plants are safe to eat. Read more about this in the current MaxPlanckResearch.
Fluid Feelings
Gender and emotions are all too often thought of in stereotypical images. Against such a background, this issue deals with ambiguities and deviations, that is, with the dynamic interplay of gender and emotion. In five contributions, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development conceive neither gender nor emotion as consistent categories, but rather as phenomena in motion that are constantly being created anew.
The Institute
Current Research Results
News
News
Is it possible to conduct experiments about risk-taking during pandemics without endangering participants? To safely ...
Physical distancing policies and particularly stay-at-home work mandates have proven highly effective at slowing the ...
Do cognitive abilities change together, or do they change independently of each other? An international research team ...
Events
Media Echo
April 19, 2022
Hessischer Rundfunk | Läuft so mit – Spitzenpolitiker und ihre Familien
March 29, 2022
SWR2 | Oscar-Verleihung – Will Smith und die Ohrfeige
March 10, 2022
Deutschlandfunk | Angst von Soldaten - Tabuisierung kann zu Kriegsverbrechen führen
March 03, 2022
Deutschlandfunk | Die Wehrpflicht ist nur ausgesetzt
March 2, 2022
NDR Kultur | "Putin setzt auf das Gefühl der Angst" - Interview mit Ute Frevert
February 2, 2022
