Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Erb
Social Psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how the perceptions and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other individuals. Within this framework, we research questions such as:
- What processes underlie individuals’ judgments, regarding, for example, consumer products, political parties, other people, etc.?
- People are constantly exposed to social influence. What makes people conform to a majority’s opinion? Under which conditions are minority positions attractive to individuals?
- What is the “Need for Uniqueness”? In what manner does the Need for Uniqueness relate to individual behavior?
- To what degree are (financial) decisions influenced by greed and other motives?
Among others, we are collaborating with scientists from the
Team
Get to know more about our Team.
Teaching
We are participating in the University’s bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in psychology, educational sciences, economics, and history. We are teaching several lectures, seminars, and tutorials. In the psychology master program, we focus on teaching “judgment and decision making”. Please find more information here.
Research
Our current research interests include the following topics:
The Mere Consensus Approach is an approach to explain the social influence elicited by minorities and majorities. Individuals are members of social groups. As such, they conform to group norms and demonstrate belonging and allegiance to group members. This is expressed by, for example, shared norms and moral beliefs, common dress codes, and shared political principles (e.g., adherence to democratic forms of government). What is normal and expected in a society is defined by consensus. This leads to certain social phenomena, colloquially also known as “herd behavior”.
Unimodel: Judgments are part of our daily life. Individuals judge other people, the weather, political parties, consumer goods, and so forth. Judgments are central to social psychology. In our department, we focus on researching judgmental processes in persuasion from the viewpoint of the Unimodel. Unimodel: Judgments are part of our daily life. Individuals judge other people, the weather, political parties, consumer goods, and so forth. Judgments are central to social psychology. In our department, we focus on researching judgmental processes in persuasion from the viewpoint of the Unimodel.
Need for Uniqueness: The need to feel unique is a basic human need. We developed a German-speaking scale to measure the need for uniqueness and analyze the nomological net of this construct.
Further research interests of individual team members include, among others: anomia, radicalization, conspiracy theories, evaluative extremity, (lateral) attitude change, ostracism, and persuasion as a function of psychological distance.
Youtube Videos
Here you find the videos from our YouTube Channel “Sozialpsychologie mit Prof. Erb”. To subscribe, click here.
Our department in the media
Here you find media coverage of our scientific research