Ralph Hertwig
Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development
© Arne Sattler
Director
Center for Adaptive Rationality
Assistance:
Maren Kutscha
Katja Münz
Petra Siemers-Hering
Phone: +49 30 82406-202
sekhertwig@mpib-berlin.mpg.de
Memberships and Service (Selection)
- Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Section "Psychology and Cognitive Sciences"
- Member, German National Academy of Science and Engineering acatech
- Member, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
- Fellow, Association for Psychological Science (APS)
- Member, Wilhelm-Wundt-Gesellschaft
- Faculty, International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (LIFE)
- Fellow, Max Planck School of Cognition
- Faculty, International Max Planck Research School for Computational Methods in Psychiatry and Ageing Research (COMP2PSYCH)
Research interests
- Models of bounded and ecological rationality
- Decisions from experience
- The psychology of risk
- Lifespan development of decision making
- Evidence-based public policy (Boosting)
Short CV
| 2017 | Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize |
| since 2016 | Honorary professor, Freie Universität Berlin |
| since 2013 | Honorary Professor, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin |
| since 2012 | Director, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin |
| 2005–2012 | Full Professor for Cognitive and Decision Sciences at the Department of Psychology, University of Basel |
| 2003 | Habilitation in Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin |
| 1995 | Ph. D. (Dr. rer soc.) in Psychology, Universität Konstanz |
Selection of recent publications
(the complete list of publications can be found here)
- Haux, L. M., Engelmann, J. M., Arslan, R. C., Hertwig, R., & Herrmann, E. (in press). Chimpanzee and human risk preferences show key similarities. Psychological Science.
- Hertwig, R., & Ellerbrock, D. (2022). Why people choose deliberate ignorance in times of societal transformation. Cognition, 229, Article 105247. Open access
- Hertwig, R., & Engel, C. (Eds.). (2020). Deliberate ignorance: Choosing not to know. MIT Press.
- Here is a book review essay by Thomas Hills.
- Hertwig, R., Leuker, C., Pachur, T., Spiliopoulos, L., & Pleskac, T. J. (2022). Studies in ecological rationality. Topics in Cognitive Science, 14(3), 467–491.
- Kozyreva, A., Lewandowsky, S., & Hertwig, R. (2020). Citizens versus the internet: Confronting digital challenges with cognitive tools. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 21(3), 103–156. Open access
- Lejarraga, T., & Hertwig, R. (2021). How experimental methods shaped views on human competence and rationality. Psychological Bulletin, 147(6), 535–564.
- Leuker, C., Eggeling, L. M., Fleischhut, N., Gubernath, J., Gumenik, K., Hechtlinger, S., Kozyreva, A., Samaan, L., & Hertwig, R. (2022). Misinformation in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey on citizens’ perceptions and individual differences in the belief in false information. European Journal of Health Communication, 3(2), 13–39. Open access
- Li, Y., Luan, S., Li, Y., Wu, J., Li, W., & Hertwig, R. (2022). Does risk perception motivate preventive behavior during a pandemic? A longitudinal study in the United States and China. American Psychologist, 77(1), 111–123.
- Lorenz-Spreen, P., Oswald, L., Lewandowsky, S., & Hertwig, R. (2022). Digital media and democracy: A systematic review of causal and correlational evidence worldwide. Nature Human Behaviour. Open access
- Reijula, S., & Hertwig, R. (2022). Self-nudging and the citizen choice architect. Behavioural Public Policy, 6(1), 119–149.