Joachim Krueger

Brown University · Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences

We discuss and expand Boyer's idea of ownership coordination. Interpersonal similarity, we suggest, can moderate the attainment of coordination: Perceived similarity predicts coordination costs, whereas actual similarity dictates coordination success and the severity of illusory assumptions regarding a shared understanding of ownership. The example...

We empirically explore whether perceptions of (in)determinism are related to the willingness to tolerate uncertainty. We argue that the belief in indeterminism supports a sense of personal autonomy and independence from external influence, a stance that provides protection from perceived uncertainties. Our preliminary study ( N = 61) suggests that...

We consider an underdeveloped feature of De Neys's model. Decisions with multiple intuitions per option are neither trivial to explain nor rare. These decision scenarios are crucial for an assessment of the model's generalizability and adequacy. Besides monitoring absolute differences in intuition strength, the mind might add the strengths of intui...

We empirically explore whether perceptions of (in)determinism are related to the willingness to tolerate uncertainty. We argue that the belief in indeterminism supports a sense of personal autonomy and independence from external influence, a stance that provides protection from perceived uncertainties. Our preliminary study ( N = 61) provides first...

The symmetric 2x2 one-shot game is one of the simplest and most commonly used representations of strategic conflict. Among others, it includes the prisoner’s dilemma, the game of chicken, the volunteer’s dilemma, and the assurance game. All of these games share three characteristics: (1) both players have to make a single choice between two options...

The symmetric 2x2 one-shot game is one of the simplest and most commonly used representations of strategic conflict. Among others, it includes the prisoner’s dilemma, the game of chicken, the volunteer’s dilemma, and the assurance game. All of these games share three characteristics: (1) both players have to make a single choice between two options...

This is a commentary on G. Gigerenzer's "How to stay smart in a smart world." It follows up on a review of his book and Gigerenzer's reply to it. The central issue is whether AI may not only succeed in replicating (and surpassing) human performance but also whether it may attain a similarity in kind; that is is in what it is and not only in what it...

In the standard volunteer’s dilemma (VoD), a single prosocial act (i.e., volunteering) yields the optimal overall outcome. Whereas the volunteer’s outcome is certain, the defector’s outcome depends on what others do. This research addressed the confounding of prosocial responses with uncertainty avoidance in the standard VoD. In Experiment 1, parti...

Reviews Kenrick & Lundberg-Kenrick's book ‘Solving modern problems with a stone-age brain: Human evolution and the seven fundamental motives.’ Acknowledges the contributions of evolutionary psychology to the study of motivation, while noting the prevalence of the naturalistic fallacy, which in the book presents itself as an endorsement of petit bou...

Alexei Ivanovich is a Russian casino gambler in Wiesbaden, Germany, a posh spa town Dostoevsky fictionalized as Roulettenburg. The character of Alexei is, in part, modeled on Dostoevsky himself, a literary blending that lies beyond the scope of this chapter to explore fully. Instead, our goal is to offer a review of the psychology of gambling and a...

Research has offered limited insight into the psychological elements associated with free will beliefs. Self-enhancement, uncertainty intolerance, and self-other similarity are among the widely researched phenomena that appear relevant. We explore the connections between these phenomena and free will beliefs. In a first study, we find minimal to no...

Humans live our lives in a dialectic of knowledge and ignorance. Knowing – or hoping – that knowledge is power and that ignorance is no bliss, most humans want to know. They wish to reduce their epistemic uncertainty and the insecurity that comes with that. States of uncertainty are most poignant when they depend on other people, and especially tho...

Reviews Bernard Reginster's (2021) book "The will to nothingness: An essay on Nietzsche’s On the genealogy of morality" Notes implications of Nietzsche's and Reginster's thinking for moral psychology.

Social life unfolds with tension between power and sociability. As both, the need of power and the need of sociability, are crucial to interpersonal transactions, the person faces a dilemma. The satisfaction of one need limits the satisfaction of the other. We approach this dilemma by first reviewing two seemingly contrary biases in social percepti...

Reviews Steven Pinker's (2021) 'Rationality: What it is, why it seems scarce, why it matters.’ Notes that the term 'rationality' refers to a fuzzy (but useful) set of concepts and methods. Raises questions about the sociology of rationality research.

Reviewing the literature of the past two decades, Orth and Robins (2022) conclude that high self-esteem yields reliable benefits. In this commentary, we caution that for objective outcome measures, these effects are variable- and domain-dependent. The allure of high self-esteem remains largely a matter of mind and memory, not behavior. (PsycInfo Da...

Historiographic analysis is underused in academic psychology. In this expository essay, I intend to show that historical events or persons can be described with reference to theory and research provided by empirical psychology. Besides providing evidence-based grounds for a more penetrating historical account, the conclusions drawn from a historiog...

Most research on relationship quality addresses ongoing involvements. Research on past relationships is rare. As a first step, Athenstaedt and colleagues (2020) explored attitudes toward former romantic partners in an Austrian sample of heterosexual respondents. They found that men held less negative attitudes than women. In two studies conducted i...

Theory and research seek to isolate the properties of experts in judgment and decision-making tasks. Confidence in judgment and social projection have emerged as two important meta-judgmental markers. The joint utility of these two indicators of expertise has not been considered yet. We show that the joint study of individual and contextual differe...

At its best, strategic thinking yields an advantage needed to beat an opponent. At the least, it protects the person from exploitation. In four studies, conducted in two countries, we used a simple number-guessing game, in which one respondent wins by guessing the number chosen by another. We show that people generate numbers nonrandomly, and, on t...

When deciding on an online purchase, consumers often face a plethora of information. Yet, individuals consumers differ greatly in the amount of information they are willing and able to acquire and process before making purchasing decisions. Extensively processing all available information does not necessarily promote good decisions. Instead, the em...

Psychologists, economists, historians, computer scientists, sociologists, philosophers, and legal scholars explore the conscious choice not to seek information. The history of intellectual thought abounds with claims that knowledge is valued and sought, yet individuals and groups often choose not to know. We call the conscious choice not to seek or...

Trust is based on both rational considerations (outcomes and expectations) and moral considerations (respect for moral norms). We find that social proximity shifts the extent to which trust is perceived as a moral decision. People are more likely to trust similar strangers (partners they share personality traits with) because they feel it is the mo...

The experimental research paradigm lies at the core of empirical psychology. New data analytical and computational tools continually enrich its methodological arsenal, while the paradigm’s mission remains the testing of theoretical predictions and causal explanations. Predictions regarding experimental results necessarily point to the future. Once...

Social projection is the tendency to assume that others are similar to the self, whereas self-enhancement is the tendency to see them as inferior. Although these concepts appear to be in conflict, we suggest that both can stem from the same motive of self-protection. In three studies, we show that respondents overestimate the prevalence of self-enh...

A review of ‘Perfectly confident: How to calibrate your decisions wisely’ by Don A. Moore. Accepted for publication in the American Journal of Psychology.

Building on classic game theory, psychologists have explored the effects of social preferences and expectations on strategic behaviour. Ordinary social perceivers are sensitive to additional contextual factors not addressed by game theory and its recent psychological extensions. We review the results of a research programme exploring how observers...

Social projection is the tendency to assume that others are similar to the self, whereas self-enhancement is the tendency to see them as inferior. Although these concepts appear to be in conflict, we suggest that both can stem from the same motive of self-protection. In three studies, we show that respondents overestimate the prevalence of self-enh...

When two actors have exactly the same mental states but one happens to harm another person (unlucky actor) and the other one does not (lucky actor), the latter elicits milder moral judgment among bystanders. We hypothesized that the social role from which transgressions are perceived would moderate this outcome effect. In three preregistered expe...

When two actors have exactly the same mental states but one happens to harm another person (unlucky actor) and the other one does not (lucky actor), the latter elicits milder moral judgment among bystanders. We hypothesized that the social role from which transgressions are perceived would moderate this outcome effect. In three preregistered experi...

This is not the story of a catastrophic breakdown of scientific thinking but rather of a minor case of forecasting myopia, which, we think, is diagnostic of a larger point. Our forecasting failure occurred when we were studying the decision to make a prosocial sacrifice in the so-called Volunteer’s Dilemma (VoD). The VoD is a rather challenging sit...

When two actors have the same mental states but one happens to harm another person (unlucky actor) and the other one does not (lucky actor), the latter elicits milder moral judgment. To understand how this outcome effect would affect post-harm interactions between victims and perpetrators, we examined how the social role from which transgressions a...

As the debate over best statistical practices continues in academic journals, conferences, and the blogosphere, working researchers (e.g., psychologists) need to figure out how much time and effort to invest in attending to experts' arguments, how to design their next project, and how to craft a sustainable long-term strategy for data analysis and...

A volunteer’s dilemma exists when a prosocial act such as volunteering leaves the volunteer better off than if no one had volunteered but worse off than if someone else had volunteered. Ideally, a person would do what others are not doing. Research has identified psychological processes and judgmental heuristics affecting the likelihood of voluntee...

In a volunteer's dilemma (VoD), one person must make a material sacrifice so that others benefit. If no one makes a sacrifice, everyone is worse off than a volunteer. How do people make the decision to volunteer? We explore 4 a priori strategies in a 2-person 1-shot VoD. Two strategies focus a person's attention on either his or her own (egocentris...

Impression formation is a basic module of fundamental research in social cognition, with broad implications for applied research on interpersonal relations, social attitudes, employee selection, and person judgments in legal and political context. Drawing on a pool of 28 predominantly positive traits used in Solomon Asch’s (1946) seminal impression...

The practice of Significance Testing (ST) remains widespread in psychological science despite continual criticism of its flaws and abuses. Using simulation experiments, we address four concerns about ST and for two of these we compare ST’s performance with prominent alternatives. We find the following: First, the 'p' values delivered by ST predict...

As the debate over best statistical practices continues in academic journals, conferences, and the blogosphere, working researchers (e.g., psychologists) need to figure out how much time and effort to invest in attending to experts’ arguments, how to design their next project, and how to craft a sustainable long-term strategy for data analysis and...

In a volunteer’s dilemma (VoD), one person must make a material sacrifice so that others benefit. If no one makes a sacrifice, everyone is worse off than a volunteer. How do people make the decision to volunteer? We explore four a priori strategies in a two-person one-shot VoD. Two strategies focus a person’s attention to either his or her own (ego...

Alle Menschen befinden sich eigentlich in einer vollkommen unkontrollierbaren Situation. Wir wissen nicht woher wir kommen und wohin wir gehen werden. Zudem ist uns aufgrund der außerordentlichen Leistungsfähigkeit des menschlichen kognitiven Systems bewusst, dass wir irgendwann sterben werden. Um diesem Gefühl der Unkontrollierbarkeit ein Stück we...

Die Sozialpsychologie befasst sich mit dem Erleben und Verhalten von Menschen in Interaktion mit ihrer Umwelt. Mithilfe unterschiedlicher wissenschaftlicher Methoden – von qualitativer Befragung bis zum echten Experiment – wird in dieser Grundlagendisziplin das Verhalten des Menschen anhand einer Stichprobe von Individuen systematisch untersucht, w...

Die moderne Sozialpsychologie beschäftigt sich auch mit den neuronalen Grundlagen sozialpsychologischer Phänomene, was im Rahmen der sozialen Neurowissenschaften mittels neurowissenschaftlicher Methodik erfolgt. Vorwiegend werden hierzu EEG- und fMRT-Studien durchgeführt, in denen die Aktivität bestimmter Nervenzellen gemessen bzw. die Anatomie und...

Der Zusammenhang zwischen Einstellungen und Verhalten ist lange überschätzt worden. Häufig zeigen wir trotz bestimmter bewusster Einstellungen Verhalten, das in eine ganz andere Richtung geht. Die Theorie des geplanten Verhaltens ist nicht zuletzt deshalb so weitreichend bekannt geworden, da sie empirisch zeigen konnte, dass Verhaltensvorhersagen d...

Prosoziales Verhalten ist ein Überbegriff für viele verschiedene Verhaltensweisen, die anderen Menschen nützen oder einen Vorteil bringen, wie z.B. Spendenverhalten, zivilcouragiertes Verhalten, oder Hilfeverhalten. Besonders einflussreich waren in diesem Bereich Forschungen zum Bystander-Effekt. Dieser besagt, dass die individuelle Bereitschaft zu...

Kognitive Dissonanz beschreibt in der ursprünglichen Form einen unangenehmen motivationalen Zustand, der durch die Inkongruenz zweier Kognitionen (Gedanken, Einstellungen, etc.) entsteht und bei einer Person dazu führt, dass sie diesen aversiven Zustand beseitigen möchte. Dies ist auf verschiedene Arten möglich, etwa durch die Reduktion dissonanter...

Das Wechselspiel von Menschen in Gruppen ist oft von Konflikten geprägt. Die mathematische Spieltheorie beschreibt viele solcher Situationen, wie etwa das Gefangenendilemma, greift aber psychologisch zu kurz: Denn Menschen koordinieren ihr Verhalten und kooperieren wesentlich besser miteinander als man aus einer rein wirtschaftlich-rational geprägt...

Eine zentrale Frage der Sozialpsychologie ist, wann und warum sich Menschen sozialem Einfluss beugen. Oft sind Einflussphänomene erstaunlich in ihrer Stärke und bedenklich in ihren Auswirkungen. Klassische und neue Experimente zur sozialen Konformität und zum Gehorsam gegenüber Autorität zeichnen ein differenziertes Bild, das die Menschen nicht unb...

Im Kontext der sozialen Wahrnehmung können Verallgemeinerungen bzw. die Zuordnung von Personen zu bestimmten Gruppen mit entsprechender Merkmalszuschreibung im Alltag dabei helfen, die komplexe Umwelt subjektiv zu strukturieren. Stereotype beziehen sich dabei auf die kognitive Ebene und können sowohl positiv, neutral als auch negativ sein, während...

Aggression ist ein Problem für Gesellschaften, seitdem es Menschen gibt. Zum einen ist aggressives Verhalten ein evolutionäres Verhaltenskonzept, das die Durchsetzungsstärke und somit das Überleben von Menschen fördern kann, zum anderen ist diese menschliche Eigenschaft Urheber von unendlichem Leid und unglaublicher Grausamkeit über die gesamte Men...

Das menschliche Urteilen und Entscheiden im sozialen Kontext ist einerseits geprägt von bestimmten Bedürfnissen und Motiven – wie etwa der Suche nach selbstwertbestätigenden Daten – und anderseits bestimmten kognitiven Voreinstellungen und Beschränkungen. Entscheidungsheuristiken erleichtern das Urteilen und Entscheiden, führen aber auch zu regelha...

Im menschlichen Miteinander spielen Gruppen eine bedeutende Rolle. Menschen pflegen nicht nur ihr Selbstbild im Sinne ihrer persönlichen Identität, sondern definieren sich auch durch Angehörigkeit zu sozial relevanten Gruppen oder Kategorien. Die Theorie der Sozialen Identität beschreibt viele der psychologischen Prozesse, die Individuum und Gruppe...

Self-enhancement bias is conventionally construed as an unwarranted social comparison in social psychology and a misperception of social reality in personality psychology. Researchers in both fields rely heavily on discrepancy scores to represent self-enhancement and fail to distinguish between a general tendency or bias to self-enhance and a self-...

Recent research suggests that people discount or neglect expectations of reciprocity in trust dilemmas. We examine the underlying processes and boundary conditions of this effect, finding that expectations have stronger effects on trust when they are made accessible and when they are provided as objective probabilities (Study 1). Objective expectat...

The volunteer's dilemma (VoD) is a challenging interpersonal situation in which one person must bear a cost for the benefit of the group. If no one volunteers, all suffer. Research shows that many individuals are willing to volunteer, but little is known about the impressions volunteers and defectors make on social perceivers. In three studies, we...

Seeing—perception and vision—is implicitly the fundamental building block of the literature on rationality and cognition. Herbert Simon and Daniel Kahneman’s arguments against the omniscience of economic agents—and the concept of bounded rationality—depend critically on a particular view of the nature of perception and vision. We propose that this...

This article features an interdisciplinary debate and dialogue about the nature of mind, perception, and rationality. Scholars from a range of disciplines — cognitive science, applied and experimental psychology, behavioral economics, and biology — offer critiques and commentaries of a target article by Felin, Koenderink, and Krueger (2017): “Ratio...

Contract decisions happen every day online and often bring individuals in a situation of information overload combined with the uncertainty if their decision is disadvantageous for them. Early assumptions suggested that individuals act rational and are capable to process all available information. However, empirical research showed that individuals...

Many statistical methods yield the probability of the observed data - or data more extreme - under the assumption that a particular hypothesis is true. This probability is commonly known as 'the' p-value. (Null Hypothesis) Significance Testing ([NH]ST) is the most prominent of these methods. The p-value has been subjected to much speculation, analy...

When making purchase decisions, consumers often face a plethora of information. Particularly, the sustained growth of e-commerce paved the way to produce, retrieve and distribute information increasingly easier, faster, and cheaper. However, there is growing evidence that too much information or choice alternatives can impair decision quality. Thus...

This chapter considers the relationship between forward and reverse inference, with an eye toward the question of when reverse inferences are in error. It highlights the risks of reverse inference with examples from social psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and also considers the cases in which the logical problems of reverse inference take on...

In a Volunteer’s Dilemma (VoD) one individual needs to bear a cost so that a public good can be provided. Expectations regarding what others will do play a critical role because they would ideally be negatively correlated with own decisions; yet, a social-projection heuristic generates positive correlations. In a series of 2-person-dilemma studies...

How do social observers perceive and judge individuals who self-enhance (vs. not)? Using a decision-theoretic framework, we distinguish between self-enhancement bias and error, where the former comprises both correct and incorrect self-perceptions of being better than average. The latter occurs when a claim to be better than others is found to be f...

Knowing when to trust others is an important social skill, but recent findings suggest that humans struggle with this dilemma-trusting strangers more than they should. Although trust decisions often do not meet the standards of rationality, they appear to be boundedly rational. We present a model of heuristic trust, according to which people focus...

The theory of group-selected Big God religions is a master narrative of cultural evolution. The evidence is a positive manifold of correlated assumptions and variables. Although provocative, the theory is overly elastic. Its critical ingredient – belief in Big Gods – is neither necessary nor sufficient to account for in-group prosociality and disci...

Self-enhancement is a positive bias in self-perception, which may imply error. However, conventional measures of self-enhancement are difference scores that do not distinguish a positive bias from a self-enhancement error, that is, they fail to identify those individuals who hold an irrationally or inaccurately positive view of themselves. We propo...

The argument made by Rauthmann et al. hinges on the idea that situations are sufficiently similar to persons so that methods used to describe persons can be adapted, mutatis mutandis, to the description of situations. They recognize the difficulty of describing situations without also covertly describing people. They propose a multilevel and multiv...

As a judgmental heuristic, social projection improves the accuracy of social consensus estimates. Aggregating multiple estimates, even within individuals, also increases accuracy. In the current research we combine these two lines of study and find that, within individuals, second estimates are less projective and less accurate than first estimates...

The present research investigates the effects of social exclusion on attitudes toward ethnic and religious minorities. Native-born German participants who were socially excluded rather than included reported greater approval for stricter legislation regarding the naturalization of immigrants (Study 1), reported greater prejudice against openly obse...

Rational trust decisions depend on potential outcomes and expectations of reciprocity. In the trust game, outcomes and expectations correspond to the structural factors of risk and temptation. Two experiments investigated how risk and temptation influenced information search and final decisions in the trust game. The central finding was that trusto...