Social Psychology

Lie detection

In this research area, we address the question of which social and individual variables influence bothactive deception and the detection of deception. Currently, one research project is concerned with how the statements of Native vs. Non-Native speakers are perceived in terms of their credibility. 

Publications:

Reinhard, M.-A.,  Volz, S.,  Bos, K., &  Müller, P. A. (2023).  Is the uncertain self good at detecting lies? The influence of personal uncertainty on deception detection. European Journal of Social Psychology,  00,  1– 20. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2948

Volz, S., Reinhard, M.-A. & Müller, P. (2023). Is It the Judge, the Sender, or Just the Individual Message? Disentangling Person and Message Effects on Variation in Lie-Detection Judgments. Perspectives on Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/174569162211499

Personality and Deception

In another research project, we investigate whether certain personality traits can reliably predict the frequency of lying. Past work has so far focused on the influence of the personality trait Honesty-Humility and on the Belief in a just world.

Publications:

Reinhardt, N., & Reinhard, M.-A. (2023). Honesty–humility negatively correlates with dishonesty in romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 125(4), 925–942. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000456

Reinhardt, N., Reinhard, M-A., & Schindler, S. (2023). Is peoples’ belief in a just world associated with (dis)honesty in romantic relationships? Journal of Research in Personality, 105, Article 104396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2023.104396

Reinhardt, N., Reinhard, M-A., & Bittner-Fäthke, G. (2023). The correlation between Honesty-Humility and attitude toward counterfeit luxury. Italian Journal of Marketing, 2023, 503–519. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43039-023-00082-3​​​​​​​

Harhoff, N., Reinhardt, N., & Reinhard, M.-A. (2023). Agentic and communal narcissism in predicting different types of lies in romantic relationships. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, Article 1146732.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1146732 

Reinhardt, N., Trnka, L.-M. & Reinhard, M-A. (2022). The correlation of honesty-humility and learning goals with academic cheating. Social Psychology of Education, 26, 211–226. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-022-09742-2 

Stolz, C., Reinhard, M.-A., & Ende, L. (2022). Mean gitls, queen bees and iron maidens? Female leadership and accusations of workplace bullying. Open Psychology, 4, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1515/

Marris, A., Reinhardt, N., & Schindler, S. (2022). The Role of Just World Beliefs in Responding to the COVID‐19 Pandemic. Social Justice Research. doi.org/10.1007/s11211-022-00388-1

Mariss, A.*, Wenzel, K.*, Grünberg, C., & Reinhard, M.-A. (2022). Who wants to learn harder? The relationship between conservatism and liberalism, desirable difficulties, and academic learning. Social Psychology of Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09681-4 * shared first-authorship

Schindler, S., Wagner, L. K., Reinhard, M.-A., Ruhara, N., Pfattheicher, S., & Nitschke, J. (2021). Are criminals better lie detectors? Investigating offenders' abilities in the context of deception detection. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 35, 203–214. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3755

Benz, D. & Reinhard, M.-A. (2021). Sadder and Less Gullible?—Investigating Depressive Realism Effects in Judgments of Veracity. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 40, 404-421. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2021.40.5.421 

Ridder, J. & Reinhard, M.-A. (2021). When the toaster knows what you are up to: The effect of mentalisation on the uncanny valley effect. Psychreg Journal of Psychology, 5, 40-41. https://doi.org/gf53

Schindler, S., & Trede, M. (2021). Does social exclusion improve detection of real and fake smiles? A replication study. Frontiers in Psychology , 12 , 626087. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.626087

Volz, S., Reinhard, M.‐A., Müller, P. (2020). Why don't you believe me? Detecting deception in messages written by nonnative and native speakers. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 34, 256– 269. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3615

Wagner, L., Schindler, S., & Reinhard, M.-A. (2017). The positive facet of self-compassion predicts self-reported use of and attitudes toward desirable difficulties in learning. Frontiers in Psychology , 8 , 1353. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01353

Weber, J., & Reinhard, M.-A. (2017). Be Empathic! The Influence of Empathy on Attitude Formation in the German Refugee Debate. International Journal of Psychological Studies, 9, 62-70. https://doi:10.5539/ijps.v9n1p62

*Student authors are marked in bold.

In the lecture of the Bachelor's program (Psychology B.Sc.), students receive an overview of basic methods and theories of social psychology. In addition, in different in-depth seminar, theories of social psychology are discussed in the context of application. In the Master's program (Psychology M.Sc.), topics of applied social psychology such as deception in everyday life and business life, existential threats, intimate relationships, and consumer psychology are covered.