Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology

The Division of Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology investigates general principles of human behavior and decisions in a social context.
We are in the Institute of Psychology at the University of Bern.

We consist of two research groups:

Prof. Dr. Daria Knoch (chair)
Prof. Dr. Sabine Sczesny

News

The right TPJ finding is depicted. Slow waves in the right TPJ during deep sleep correlate with prosocial preferences.

New paper: Deep sleep reveals our prosocial preferences

Welcome!

A warm welcome to our new research assistant Nadia Sinha!

New study on the impact of facemasks on the interpretation of mutual gaze

Two brains and two scatterplots visualize two of the main findings of the fMRI study: the stronger the functional connectivity in the self-control system (ACC/DLPFC) during decision-making, the more individuals behaved intergenerationally sustainably.

New fMRI paper on neural mechanisms of intergenerational sustainability

Welcome!

We are happy to welcome our new doctoral student Alessandro Valvo. He has a keen interest in exploring the neural and cognitive processes that drive decision-making in pro-social and pro-environmental behaviors through the analysis of behavioral patterns and EEG data.

Welcome!

We are delighted to welcome postdoctoral researcher Dr. Andjela Markovic to our department. Her research focuses on the influence of genetic and environmental factors on brain development and function, and in particular the interaction with sleep.

Welcome!

A warm welcome to our new postdoctoral researcher Dr. Zoé Bollen. She explores the cognitive processes underlying decision-making through the use of behavioral and eye-tracking measures.

Emmanuel and Mirjam wear their doctoral hats, which represent the contents of their dissertations, e.g. a bed and brain on Mirjam's hat and a brain and globe on Emmanuel's hat.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Mirjam Studler and Emmanuel Guizar Rosales on successfully obtaining their doctoral degree. In her doctoral thesis, Mirjam used EEG to decode the sleeping mind, while in his doctoral thesis, Emmanuel used fMRI to study the neural basis of sustainable behavior. Both will stay with us a bit longer as postdocs and we couldn’t be happier.

New paper on the role of beliefs in sustainable decision-making

Welcome!

A warm welcome to our new research assistant Julie Buchs!

The figure shows EEG waves and different microstate maps.

New review article on EEG Microstates in Social and Affective Neuroscience

The figure visualizes the microstate approach, which has been applied in this EEG paper. Main result is an additional microstate localized in the prefrontal cortex when people lie.

New paper on the path of dishonesty: an ERP study

Two brains and two boxplot graphs visualize the main results of the MRI study: more sustainable people have greater thickness of the DLPFC and DMPFC.

New Paper on neural traits of distinct behavioral types in intergenerational sustainability

The figure shows a bar chart with the main results of the study: anodal stimulation of the right TPJ leads to more sustainable behavior.

Recent paper on electrical stimulation of the right TPJ increases sustainable behavior

A photo of Annika Wyss wearing a doctoral hat; the hat depicts important aspects of her dissertation, e.g., a brain, tDCS electrodes, and green trees.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Annika Wyss on successfully obtaining her doctoral degree for her thesis "Human Behavior and the Anthropocene - Studying the Determinants of Pro-Environmental Behavior from an Environmental Psychological Perspective". We wish her lots of success and good luck for the future!

Welcome!

A warm welcome to our new postdoctoral researcher Dr. Marina Wunderlin. She is a cognitive neuroscientist with a focus on sleep research.

New Brain Stimulation Team

An exciting experiment with non-invasive brain stimulation is starting soon - here's our great brain stimulation team!

A graph from the paper showing that the relationship between environmental attitudes and sustainable behavior depends on self-control skills.

Recent paper on when and how pro-environmental attitudes turn into behavior

Two brains and two bar graphs visualize two main findings from the MRI study of punishment for unfair behavior: Independent punishers have more volume in the TPJ, and conditional punishers have more volume in the DLPFC (compared to non-punishers).

Recent paper on neural traits of distinct behavioral types in third-party punishment

Bar graphs show results from a behavioral study on environmental warnings: guilt mediates the effect of warnings on behavior change after a warning.

Recent paper on reactions to warnings in the climate commons

New Sleep Dream Team

Recent review paper on neuroscientific approaches to study prosociality

Three brains and a bar graph show results from the EEG study on Distributional Preferences.

Recent paper on neural signatures of different behavioral types of distributional preferences

The graph shows (artificial) faces, which are shown with different angles.

Recent paper on the stability of the cone of gaze

Schematic representation of various ingroup and outgroup conditions of the study.

Recent paper on the evolution of parochial punishment

Visualized are the mouse tracking results of the study.

Recent Paper on the Power of Decision Making

A person smells a bottle containing a person's body odor.

Recent paper on body odours and decision making

Welcome!

A warm welcome to our Sleep Dream Team!

The graph from the EEG study shows a brain with one of the main results of the study: prosocial behavior is associated with stronger baseline activity in the right TPJ.

Recent paper on neural traits of distinct behavioral types in group-based cooperation

Brain graph from the EEG study showing the main result in the right DLPFC: sustainable behavior (compared to unsustainable behavior) is associated with stronger baseline activity in the right DLPFC.

Recent paper on the brain and everyday pro-environmental behaviour

A bar graph showing different types of behavior in fairness norm compliance.

Recent paper on neural signatures of different behavioral types in fairness norm compliance

A regression plot from the study. This plot shows that cognitive resources moderate the relationship between environmental attitudes and green behavior.

Recent paper on cognitive resources, attitudes and green behavior

A photo of Benedikt Langenbach wearing a doctoral hat, which shows important aspects of his dissertation, e.g. a picture of his brain, a blue planet, and tDCS electrodes.

Congratulations to Benedikt Langenbach on obtaining his doctoral degree

In his doctoral thesis, Benedikt studied the brain processes involved in sustainable decision-making. He will leave our department by the end of 2019. We wish him lots of success and good luck in his new position at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE).

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