Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Gaissmaier

Professor

Office D 512
Tel.: +49 7531 88-3024
Fax: +49 7531 88-5288
gaissmaier@uni-konstanz.de

Research interests

  • Judgment and decision making
  • Individual differences in decision making
  • Risk perception and communication
  • Memory-based decision making
  • Medical decision making
  • Ecological rationality
  • Models of heuristics

Professional experience

since 2014Full Professor of Social Psychology and Decision Sciences (W3), Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Germany
since 2014Adjunct Researcher, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
2008–2014Chief Research Scientist, Harding Center for Risk Literacy, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
2007Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
2003–2006Predoctoral Fellow, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

Education

2013Habilitation in Psychology, University of Heidelberg, Germany
2007PhD in Psychology, Free University Berlin, Germany
2002Diploma in Psychology (equivalent to Master’s Degree), Free University Berlin, Germany

Honors and awards

2013Rising Star, Association for Psychological Science
2012Fellow, German Young Academy, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities & German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
2009Dissertation prize (runner up), German Psychological Society, Section: General Psychology
2008Otto Hahn Medal for outstanding scientific achievements, Max Planck Society
2006New Investigator Award, Brunswik Society

Publications

GRADWOHL, Nico, Hansjörg NETH, Helge GIESE, Wolfgang GAISSMAIER, 2024. Explicit discrimination and ingroup favoritism, but no implicit biases in hypothetical triage decisions during COVID-19. In: Scientific Reports. Springer. 2024, 14, 1213. eISSN 2045-2322. Available under: doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-50385-w

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GIESE, Helge, Hansjörg NETH, Odette WEGWARTH, Wolfgang GAISSMAIER, F. Marijn STOK, 2024. How to convince the vaccine‐hesitant? : An ease‐of‐access nudge, but not risk‐related information increased Covid vaccination‐related behaviors in the unvaccinated. In: Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being. Wiley. 2024, 16(1), pp. 198-215. ISSN 1758-0846. eISSN 1758-0854. Available under: doi: 10.1111/aphw.12479

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TIEDE, Kevin Erik, Wolfgang GAISSMAIER, 2023. How Do People Process Different Representations of Statistical Information? : Insights into Cognitive Effort, Representational Inconsistencies, and Individual Differences. In: Medical Decision Making. Sage. 2023, 43(7-8), pp. 803-820. ISSN 0272-989X. eISSN 1552-681X. Available under: doi: 10.1177/0272989x231202505

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GAISSMAIER, Wolfgang, Kevin Erik TIEDE, Rocio GARCIA-RETAMERO, 2023. The Lure of Beauty : People Select Representations of Statistical Information Largely Based on Attractiveness, Not Comprehensibility. In: Medical Decision Making (MDM). Sage. 2023, 43(7-8), pp. 774-788. ISSN 0272-989X. eISSN 1552-681X. Available under: doi: 10.1177/0272989x231201579

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SPINDE, Timo, Christin JEGGLE, Magdalena HAUPT, Wolfgang GAISSMAIER, Helge GIESE, 2022. How do we raise media bias awareness effectively? : Effects of visualizations to communicate bias. In: PLoS one. Public Library of Science (PLoS). 17(4), e0266204. eISSN 1932-6203. Available under: doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266204

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SCHMUTZLER, Rita K., Björn SCHMITZ-LUHN, Bettina BORISCH, Peter DEVILEE, Diana ECCLES, Per HALL, Judith BALMAÑA, Stefania BOCCIA, Peter DABROCK, Wolfgang GAISSMAIER, 2022. Risk-Adjusted Cancer Screening and Prevention (RiskAP) : Complementing Screening for Early Disease Detection by a Learning Screening Based on Risk Factors. In: Breast Care. Karger. 17(2), pp. 208-223. ISSN 1661-3791. eISSN 1661-3805. Available under: doi: 10.1159/000517182

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Sumaktoyo, N., Breunig, C., Gaissmaier, W. (2022) Social sampling shapes preferences for redistribution : Evidence from a national survey experiment. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Elsevier. 101, 104341. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104341

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Toyokawa W, and Gaissmaier W. (2021) Conformist social learning leads to self-organised prevention against adverse bias in risky decision making. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.22.432286 [Code: https://github.com/WataruToyokawa/ToyokawaGaissmaier2021]

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GIESE, Helge, Martina GAMP, F. Marijn STOK, Wolfgang GAISSMAIER, Harald T. SCHUPP, Britta RENNER, 2021. Contagious Health Risk and Precautionary Social Distancing. In: Frontiers in Psychology. Frontiers Research Foundation. 12, 685134. eISSN 1664-1078. Available under: doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.685134

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Giese, H., Neth, H., Gaissmaier, W. (2021). Determinants of information diffusion in online communication on vaccination: The benefits of visual displays. Vaccine. Elsevier. 39 (43), 6407-6413. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.09.016

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DENK, Bernadette F., Stephanie J. DIMITROFF, Maria MEIER, Annika B. E. BENZ, Ulrike U. BENTELE, Eva UNTERNAEHRER, Nathalie F. POPOVIC, Wolfgang GAISSMAIER, Jens C. PRUESSNER, 2021. Influence of stress on physiological synchrony in a stressful versus non-stressful group setting. In: Journal of Neural Transmission. Springer Nature. 2021, 128(9), pp. 1335-1345. ISSN 0300-9564. eISSN 1435-1463. Available under: doi: 10.1007/s00702-021-02384-2

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Neth, H., Gradwohl, N., Streeb, D., Keim, D.A., & Gaissmaier, W. (2021).  Perspectives on the 2x2 matrix: Solving semantically distinct problems based on a shared structure of binary contingencies.  Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 567817.  doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.567817

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SCHULZE, Christin, Wolfgang GAISSMAIER, Ben R. NEWELL, 2020. Maximizing as satisficing : On pattern matching and probability maximizing in groups and individuals. In: Cognition. Elsevier. 205, 104382. ISSN 0010-0277. eISSN 1873-7838. Available under: doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104382

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Tiede, K. E., Ripke, F., Degen, N., & Gaissmaier, W. (2020). When does the incremental risk format aid informed medical decisions? The role of learning, feedback, and number of treatment options. Medical Decision Making, 40, 212–221. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989X20904357

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Giese, H., Neth, H., Moussaïd, M., Betsch, C., & Gaissmaier, W. (2019).  The echo in flu-vaccination echo chambers: Selective attention trumps social influence.  Vaccine.  [Available online 18 December 2019]  doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.11.03

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Gaissmaier, W., Giese, H., Galesic, M., Garcia-Retamero, R., Kasper, J., ... Heesen, C. (2018). Numeracy of multiple sclerosis patients: A comparison of patients from the PERCEPT study to a German probabilistic sample. Patient Education and Counseling, 101(1), 74–78 doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2017.07.018

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Neth, H., Gaisbauer, F., Gradwohl, N., & Gaissmaier, W. (2018).  riskyr: A toolbox for rendering risk literacy more transparent.  Social Psychology and Decision Sciences, University of Konstanz, Germany. Computer software (R package version 0.2.0, Dec. 20, 2018).  Retrieved from https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=riskyr.

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​Phillips, N. D., Neth, H., Woike, J. K. & Gaissmaier, W. (2017).  FFTrees: A toolbox to create, visualize, and evaluate fast-and-frugal decision trees.  Judgment and Decision Making, 12 (4), 344–368.

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Neth, H., & Gaissmaier, W. (2017).  Warum erfolgreiche Prognosen einfach und unsicher sind.  Von der Wahl des richtigen Werkzeugs für Wähler und die Wahlforschung.  Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 27 (2), 205–220.  doi: 10.1007/s41358-017-0100-5

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Galesic, M., Kause, A., & Gaissmaier, W. (2016). A sampling framework for uncertainty in individual environmental decisions. Topics in Cognitive Science, 8, 242-258. doi: 10.1111/tops.12172

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