Media Library

Unraveling Behavior is a science podcast from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development

In this episode, Dr. Ana Sofia Morais is joined by Dr. Lisa Oswald, a computational social scientist and expert on public discourse in online environments. They dive into an impactful study she coauthored in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, which examines the complex relationship between digital media and democracy (Lorenz-Spreen, Oswald, Lewandowsky, & Hertwig, 2023).

In this episode, we introduce you to Anna Thoma. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Adaptive Rationality and studies how children learn different decision-making strategies. For her work, she has been awarded the Otto Hahn Medal 2024.

In our "This is us" format, colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation.

In this episode, we introduce you to Max Jack. He is researcher at the Center for the History of Emotions and studies social movements and subcultural groups. In this interview, he talks about his latest book, Insurgent Fandom, which deals with Ultras. 

In our "This is us" format, colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation.

In this episode, we introduce you to Marwa Kavelaars. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Adaptive Rationality and focuses on decision-making in social contexts. In this interview, she talks about her project with Finnish ice fishers.

In our format "This is us", colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation.

The Artist & AI Residency at the Center for Humans and Machines bridges contemporary art and scientific exploration, fostering interdisciplinary connections between the arts and research.

Learn more about the Artist & AI Residency and Karim Ben Kelifa: www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/chm/air

In this episode we introduce Soňa Mikulová. She is a researcher at the Center for the History of Emotions and focuses on the emotional integration of Sudeten German expellees after 1945.

In our format “This is us”, colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation.

In this episode, we introduce you to Lisa Oswald. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Adaptive Rationality. Her research focuses on public discourse in online environments and the role of digital media for democracy.

In our "This is us" format, colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation. 

In this episode, we introduce you to Sarah Power. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Lifespan Psychology and interested in memory development in toddlers and the phenomenon of infantile amnesia.

In our "This is us" format, colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation. 

In this episode we introduce you to Anne-Marie Nussberger. She is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Humans and Machines and explores how intelligent machines shape human beliefs, values, and behaviour.

In our "This is us" format, colleagues answer questions about their work and their motivation.

Smileys in der 30er-Zone, damit wir langsamer fahren.  Gesunde Lebensmittel auf Augenhöhe und schon greifen wir zu. Wie leicht lässt sich euer Verhalten durch solche Tricks beeinflussen?  
Nudging - wörtlich übersetzt so viel wie “Stupsen“ oder “Anstoßen” - heißt diese mehr oder weniger subtile Strategie, die unsere Gewohnheiten ändern soll – unterbewusst und ohne Regeln oder Verbote.
Mit Prof. Ralph Hertwig vom Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung spricht Thora über Probleme, die Nudging mit sich bringt und zeigt Thora Alternativen. 

In memory of Wolfgang Edelstein, Director Emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, who passed away in March 2020, a "Memorial Lecture" was held at MPIB on 24 June.

As the so-called "fourth force," the media play a central role in democracies. On the one hand, they are echo chambers of existing social dynamics; on the other hand, they actively shape and design public discourse. Alice Bota and Philipp Lorenz-Spreen analyzed and discussed together with moderator Carsten Reinemann in the ninth panel of the international conference "Fragile Democracies: 1923/1933/2023" of the NS Documentation Center Munich.

Crises come and go, but yet many of the crises visible today seem to have become ingrained in our lives. Invited by the Volkswagen Stiftung Ute Frevert discussed with Klaus Lieb (Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research) and Ulrich Ott (Bender Institute of Neuroimaging) how to remain confident despite everything and handle the everyday life with strength.

On the occasion of German Unity Day, Ch. Links Verlag has been publishing the "Jahrbuch Deutsche Einheit" for several years. In 2022 it is dedicated to the question of "co-transformation" and asks about interactions between the upheavals in East-Central Europe and the West. Agnes Arndt from the Center for the History of Emotions is involved in this book with an essay and participated in the panel discussion and book launch on 21.09. at the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship.

How can we develop further as a society? Why do we not manage to implement what has been recognized as right? What responsibility do each and every one of us have in the transformation of society? These questions are explored by a representative of the German Society for International Cooperation, the psychologist and Director at the Center for Adaptive Rationality Ralph Hertwig and a sociologist in the first episode.

How do infants acquire information about plants? Why do we have evolved this capacity, and how do people categorize plants? Annie Wertz, Research Group Leader of the MPRG Naturalistic Social Cognition at the MPI for Human Development answers these questions in an episode of “The Dissenter”, a portuguese podcast by Ricardo Lopes. (English Podcast)

Keynote by Naomi Oreskes at the Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality 2022. Naomi Oreskes is the Henry Charles Lea professor of the History of Science and affiliated professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. The 2022 Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality took place on June 14 – 22, 2022, at the MPI for Human Development.

Keynote by Armin Falk at the Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality 2022. Armin Falk is professor of Economics at the University of Bonn and Chief Executive Officer of briq. The 2022 Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality took place on June 14 – 22, 2022, at the MPI for Human Development.

Ute Frevert, director of the Center for the History of Emotions, gave a lecture on June 9, 2022, at the symposium "Emotional Democracy. The Weimar Experience in the 20th and 21st Centuries" at the Hessian Parliament in Wiesbaden. Ute Frevert looks at the feelings citizens had towards the new democratic form of government in the early years of the Weimar Republic.

Loyalty, mistrust, "them up there" and "us down here: The relationship between politics and citizens is not always an easy one. And it has changed a lot. Wouldn't it be cool if the chiefs of the republic were our friends? For Ute Frevert, director of the Center for the History of Emotions, that's not something worth striving for, and for her, something else comes first, as she explains in an interview with MDR WISSEN.

If you want to avoid misinformation, you have to recognize it. And you can only do that if you know what you're actually dealing with. mdr Wissen puts an end to fake news about fake news. Director Ralph Hertwig (research center for Adaptive Rationality), explains to us what we can do in order to
better expose misinformation on the net. (In German)

In this MPG Talk, Iyad Rahwan, Director at the Center for Humans and Machines, Maria Schrader, Jan Schomburg, Barbara Helwing and Cedric Engels discuss the use of AI in our society. The focus was on Schrader and Schomburg's multi-award-winning sci-fi romantic comedy "Ich bin dein Mensch." The event took place on April 11, 2022 at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

In this lecture, Iyad Rahwan, Director at the Center for Humans and Machines, and artist Christoph Niemann talk about cartoons, artificial intelligence and algorithms. Founded in 2005 as a gathering of friends, DLD (Digital – Life – Design) has developed into Europe’s leading innovation conference for visionaries from around the globe. It took place in Munich in May 2022.

Digital technologies are ubiquitous and unavoidable - but the complex algorithms behind them also influence our decisions more than we are usually aware. In his new book, our Director Emeritus Gerd Gigerenzer shows how we can avoid losing control. An event in cooperation of CityLAB Berlin and the Max Planck Society from January 18, 2022.

The research data management working group at the MPI for Human Development has been accepted as a member of the German Reproducibility Network. In order to facilitate networking and to benefit from each other's expertise, every initiative was asked to introduce itself with a short video clip.

How can debate culture be successfully established in digital spaces? Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Research Scientist in Center for Adaptive Rationality, will shed light on this question in his (German) keynote speech at the symposium "Democracy in Crisis?" of the Deutsche Gesellschaft e.V.

More than one year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina discusses how health-related human behavior has changed during the pandemic, which behavior will outlast this period, and to what extent this behavior might change after governmental restrictions have ended. One of the international speakers was Ralph Hertwig, Director of the Center for Adaptive Rationality.

Ute Frevert, director of the Center for the History of Emotions, collaborated on the first film of "Close-up," a new mediation format of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with chief conductor Kirill Petrenko for teenagers and young adults.

The near-future of AI: How will humans interact with artificial intelligence in 5 years? This question was the topic of SocialBRIDGES, an online conference organized by the Universität der Bundeswehr München and LMU Munich.
The third edition, held April 21-23 2021, was all about the interaction of humans and AI. Iyad Rahwan (MPIB) gave a keynote speech on "How to trust a machine".

Welche Prinzipien hat die Corona-Pandemie ins Wanken gebracht? Wird sich unser gesellschaftliches Miteinander durch das Virus gar weiterentwickeln? Diese Fragen wurden mit Fachleuten besprochen. Gespräch mit MPIB-Direktorin Ute Frevert, Präsidentin am Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung Jutta Allmendinger; Geschäftsführender Direktor am Institut für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie der FU Berlin, Hansjörg Dilger.

Wie gehen wir bei unterschiedlichen Meinungen gesellschaftlich miteinander um? Hat sich der Umgang über die Zeit oder durch die Nutzung anderer Kanäle verändert oder nehmen wir die Debattenkultur nur anders wahr? Zum Zustand der Debattenkultur fand am 18. März 2021 eine gemeinsame virtuelle Live-Diskussion statt. Auf dem Podium war u.a. der Experte für digitale Kommunikation Philipp Lorenz-Spreen vom MPIB.

In Lehrplänen ist von ihnen eher nicht die Rede. Aber sie sind die Basis von allem: Die Gefühle. Die  Die MPIB-Direktorin plädiert für deren Rehabilitierung. Videos zeigen die Neulust von Kindern und erinnern uns an die Intelligenz der Gefühle. Ein Gespräch im Rahmen der Utopie-Konferenz 2021.

Dieser Vortrag von Iyad Rahwan, Direktor am MPIB, befasst sich mit verschiedenen psychologischen, sozialen, kulturellen und politischen Faktoren, die unser Vertrauen in Maschinen prägen und plädiert dafür, die Bewältigung der Herausforderungen der Informationsrevolution nicht nur als Problem der Informatik zu begreifen. Der Vortrag fand am 16. Dezember 2020 am Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet & Gesellschaft in Berlin statt.

Bildung weiter gedacht – 180 Sekunden: Junge Wissenschaftler*innen präsentieren auf unterhaltsame Weise ein Forschungsprojekt und zeigen damit die vielseitige und interdisziplinäre Forschung des Instituts. Jede*r Vortragende hat drei Minuten Zeit, muss frei reden und darf nur Requisiten nutzen, die alleine auf die Bühne getragen werden können. Das Video entstand während der Langen Nacht der Wissenschaften 2019 am MPIB.

„Bildung weiter gedacht“ – 180 Seconds: Young scientists present a research project in an entertaining way and thus demonstrate the versatile and interdisciplinary research of the Institute. Each speaker has three minutes, must speak freely and may only use props that can be carried on stage. This video was filmed during the Long Night of the Sciences 2019 at the MPIB.

„Bildung weiter gedacht“ – 180 Seconds: Young scientists present a research project in an entertaining way and thus demonstrate the versatile and interdisciplinary research of the Institute. Each speaker has three minutes, must speak freely and may only use props that can be carried on stage. This video was filmed during the Long Night of the Sciences 2019 at the MPIB.

Bildung weiter gedacht – 180 Sekunden: Junge Wissenschaftler*innen präsentieren auf unterhaltsame Weise ein Forschungsprojekt und zeigen damit die vielseitige und interdisziplinäre Forschung des Instituts. Jede*r Vortragende hat drei Minuten Zeit, muss frei reden und darf nur Requisiten nutzen, die alleine auf die Bühne getragen werden können. Das Video entstand während der Langen Nacht der Wissenschaften 2019 am MPIB.

„Bildung weiter gedacht“ – 180 Seconds: Young scientists present a research project in an entertaining way and thus demonstrate the versatile and interdisciplinary research of the Institute. Each speaker has three minutes, must speak freely and may only use props that can be carried on stage. This video was filmed during the Long Night of the Sciences 2019 at the MPIB.

Bildung weiter gedacht – 180 Sekunden Junge Wissenschaftler*innen präsentieren auf unterhaltsame Weise ein Forschungsprojekt und zeigen damit die vielseitige und interdisziplinäre Forschung des Instituts. Jede*r Vortragende hat drei Minuten Zeit, muss frei reden und darf nur Requisiten nutzen, die alleine auf die Bühne getragen werden können. Das Video entstand während der Langen Nacht der Wissenschaften 2019 am MPIB.

Machines powered by AI increasingly mediate our social, cultural, economic, and political interactions. Understanding the behaviour of AI systems is essential to our ability to control their actions, reap their benefits, and minimize their harms. In these conversations, Iyad Rahwan and his team discuss the need for a broad scientific research agenda to study machine behavior that incorporates the discipline of computer science while also drawing on expertise from across the social and behavioral sciences.

Wie funktioniert unser Gedächtnis? Warum können sich alte Menschen Dinge schlechter merken? Und haben intelligente Menschen ein besseres Gedächtnis als andere? Um das herauszufinden, hat Die Debatte an einem Gedächtnisexperiment bei Myriam C. Sander am Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung in Berlin teilgenommen.

Der Klinische Psychologe Andreas Maercker und die MPIB-Direktorin Ute Frevert sprechen über den Begriff des Traumas.

Film with scientists from the Research Center "Adaptive Rationality" as part of a project of the TU Vienna

Interviewreihe zur Psychologie der Entscheidungsfindung

Interviewreihe zur Psychologie der Entscheidungsfindung

180 Sekunden – Wissenschaftler erklären ihre Arbeit – Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2015

Keynote at the Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality: Homo Heuristicus in the Economy on June 5, 2015.

Keynote at the Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality: Homo Heuristicus in the Economy on June 5, 2015

Mehdi Moussaid’s talk illustrates how a variety of seemingly complex behaviors observed in crowds (ranging from the spontaneous organization of traffic flows under everyday life conditions, to the emergence of crowd turbulence at extreme density) follow naturally from these heuristics.

Everyone approaches the demands of daily life in their own way, and every person’s behavior is variable. How does that influence the ability to learn? How variable is cognitive performance from one day to the next – and why? Does stress make the brain fitter? And do older adults vary more in their cognitive performance than younger people? A research team lead by developmental psychologist Ulman Lindenberger has examined these questions in one of the largest studies ever conducted in this field.