Main Focus

Dr. Felix G. Rebitschek is the head of the research project RisikoAtlas on empowerment concerning risk and uncertainty, and research scientist at the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Taking into account the nature of decision problems, his research aims at identifying accessible problem representations in order to empower decision-makers, e.g. with digital educative interventions when encountering digital health information. His work as a cognitive psychologist has its roots in his PhD (2014) for insights on diagnostic reasoning with causal models. He supported the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection's Advisory Council for Consumer Affairs for reports on Digital Health (2016), Digital Sovereignty (2017), and Consumer-friendly Scoring (2018). At the Harding Center, Dr. Rebitschek successfully acquired the projects Drohnenrisiken verstehen (150k EUR, Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure) and RisikoAtlas (1 million EUR, Federal Ministry of Justice and for Consumer Protection), which he manages. Among his extensive teaching activities, he trains health professionals and managers on risk communication, risk literacy, and decision-making under uncertainty internationally. In addition, he holds the lecture Digital Ethics and Society: data-based prediction and steering of behaviour at the Hasso Plattner Institute (University of Potsdam). Dr. Rebitschek has published on different aspects of digital technologies and psychology. He is also engaged in knowledge transfer concerning digital consumer and citizen scoring.

Curriculum Vitae

2016 Head of the project RisikoAtlas (www.risikoatlas.de) for empowering consumers when they face problems of risk and uncertainty
2015 Research scientist at the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the MPIB
2014 Postdoc at the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the MPIB
2014 Dr. rer. nat (Psychology), University of Greifswald, Germany
2011 Diplom (Psychology), University of Leipzig, Germany

2006 Diplom FH (Media management), Stuttgart Media University, Germany


Peer-Reviewed Publications

McDowell, M., Gigerenzer, G., Wegwarth, O., & Rebitschek, F. G. (2019). Effect of Tabular and Icon Fact Box Formats on Comprehension of Benefits and Harms of Prostate Cancer Screening: A Randomized Trial. Medical Decision Making, 39(1), 41-56.
 
Wegwarth, O., Widschwendter, M., Cibula, D., Sundström, K., Portuesi, R., Lein, I., & Rebitschek, F. G. (2018). What do European women know about their female cancer risks and cancer screening? A cross-sectional online intervention survey in five European countries. BMJ Open, 8(12), e023789.
 
Widschwendter, M., Jones, A., Evans, I., Reisel, D., Dillner, J., Sundström, K., ...Rebitschek, F. G., .. & Siebert, U. (2018). Epigenome-based cancer risk prediction: rationale, opportunities and challenges. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, 15(5), 292.
 
McDowell, M., Rebitschek, F. G., Gigerenzer, G., & Wegwarth, O. (2016). A Simple Tool for Communicating the Benefits and Harms of Health Interventions: A Guide for Creating a Fact Box. MDM Policy & Practice, 1(1). 
 
Rebitschek, F. G., Krems, J. F., & Jahn, G. (2016). The diversity effect in diagnostic reasoning. Memory & Cognition, 44(5), 789-805. doi:10.3758/s13421-016-0592-0
 
Rebitschek, F. G., Bocklisch, F., Scholz, A., Krems, J. F., & Jahn, G. (2015). Biased processing of ambiguous symptoms favors the initially leading hypothesis in sequential diagnostic reasoning. Experimental Psychology, 62, 287-305. doi:10.1027/1618-3169/a000298
 
Rebitschek, F. G., Krems, J. F., & Jahn, G. (2015). Memory activation of multiple hypotheses in sequential diagnostic reasoning. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 27, 780-796. doi:10.1080/20445911.2015.1026825
 
 

Selected Publications

Gigerenzer, G., Rebitschek, F. G., & Wagner, G. G. (2018). Eine vermessene Gesellschaft braucht Transparenz [A scored society needs transparency]. Wirtschaftsdienst, 98(12), 860-868.
 
Rebitschek, F. G., Groß, C., Keitel, A., Brümmer, M., Gigerenzer, G., & Wagner, G. G. (2018). Dokumentation einer empirischen Pilot-Studie zum Wissen über und zur Bewertung von Verbraucherscoring. Working Paper für den Sachverständigenrat für Verbraucherfragen. http://www.svr-verbraucherfragen.de/wp-content/uploads/SVRV_WP_Dokumenta...
 
Rebitschek, F. G., Gigerenzer, G., & Wagner, G. G. (2018). Voraussetzungen einer den Menschen Nutzen bringenden Digitalisierung im Gesundheitswesen [Prerequisites for digitization in the health care system to benefit people]. In Mensch und Gesellschaft im digitalen Wandel (pp. 26-31). Deutscher Psychologen Verlag.
 
Rebitschek, F. G., Krems, J. F., & Jahn, G. (2014). A causal diversity effect in diagnostic reasoning. Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
 
Jahn, G., Stahnke, R., & Rebitschek, F. G. (2014). Parallel Belief Updating in Sequential Diagnostic Reasoning. Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
 
Rebitschek, F. G., Scholz, A., Bocklisch, F., Krems, J. F., & Jahn, G. (2012). Order effects in diagnostic reasoning with four candidate hypotheses. Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
 

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