Postal Address
Postfach 700822
22008 Hamburg
Phone Number: +49 40 6541-2310
Fax Number: +49 40 6541-2546
Visiting Address
Holstenhofweg 85
22043 Hamburg
Room
Gebäude H 1, Raum 2369
Consultation
Appointments are currently only available on request by e-mail
Research Interests
Throughout my life as a scientist I have been interested in how humans form judgments and attitudes. I have conducted research on the topic of persuasion, integrating motivational, affective, and cognitive processes in attitude formation and change. In particular, I have been fascinated by the integrative power and parsimony of a Unimodel approach to persuasion phenomena. In the realm of social influence I have proposed a very general model – the mere consensus approach – to explain the social impact of minorities and majorities that may help explain compliance and deviation on a most basic level. More recently, I have developed interest in the personal need for uniqueness. I have conducted research on how this basic motivational need can be assessed and how it forms individual reactions in social contexts.
Major Publications
Erb, H.-P., Bioy, A., & Hilton, D. J. (2002). Choice preferences without inferences: Subconscious priming of risk attitudes. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 15(3), 251–262. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.416
Erb, H.-P., & Bohner, G. (2007). Social influence and persuasion: Recent theroretical developments and integrative attempts. In: K. Fiedler (Ed.), Frontiers of Social Psychology: Social Communication (pp.191–221). Psychology Press.
Erb, H.-P., Bohner, G., Rank, S., & Einwiller, S. (2002). Processing minority and majority communications: The role of conflict with prior attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(9), 1172–1182. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672022812003
Erb, H.-P., Bohner, G., Schmälzle, K., & Rank, S. (1998). Beyond conflict and discrepancy: Cognitive bias in minority and majority influence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24(6), 620–633. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167298246006
Erb, H.-P., Hilton, D. J., Bohner, G., & Roffey, L. (2015). The minority decision – A risky choice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 57, 43–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2014.11.003
Erb, H.-P., Kruglanski, A. W., Chun, W. Y., Pierro, A., Mannetti, L., & Spiegel, S. (2003). Searching for commonalities in human judgment: The parametric unimodel and its dual mode alternatives. European Review of Social Psychology, 14(1), 1–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463280340000009
Tilner, A., Schumpe, B., & Erb, H.-P. (2022). Need for uniqueness as a motor for social change. In R. A. R. Gurung (Ed.), The Routledge research encyclopedia of psychology applied to everyday life. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367198459-REPRW108-1
Emig, Y., & Erb, H.-P. (2024). The Minority Extremity Bias. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3084
Tilner, A., & Erb, H.-P. (2024). Unique and worthy: Extending the nomological network of the need for uniqueness by aspects of the self-concept. Personality and Individual Differences, 231, 112839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.112839
Academic career
1987 – 1993 Studies of Psychology at the University of Mannheim, (“Diplom-Psychologe” on 06/30/1993).
06/93 – 08/97 Research assistant on various projects at the Department of Social Psychology at the University of Mannheim and at the Otto Selz Institute for Psychology at the University of Mannheim.
1993 – 96 Doctoral studies at the University of Heidelberg supervised by Klaus Fiedler and Gerd Bohner; dissertation: “Information about consensus influences the processing of persuasive communication”.
09/96 – 03/97 and 09/97 – 07/99 University assistant at the Chair II for Psychology, Würzburg
07/99 – 06/01 Research assistant at the University of Maryland, in the project “Persuasion by a Single Route” by Arie W. Kruglanski
09/01 – 04/03 Research assistant at the Psychiatric University Hospital, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
05/03 – 03/04 Research assistant at the Department of Social Psychology, University of Jena, in the project “Positive-Negative Asymmetry of Social Discrimination” under the direction of Thomas Kessler and Amélie Mummendey
10/04 Postdoctoral lecture qualification (Habilitation) in ‘Psychology’ conferred by the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Jena
04/04 – 09/07 Substitute professorships in Bonn, Chemnitz and Magdeburg
Since 10/07 Professor of Social Psychology at the Helmut Schmidt University / University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg
Professional activities
Senate Representative for the Media Centre at Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg (since March 2019)
Chairman of the Examination Board for the degree programmes in Psychology at Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg (since January 2013)
Member of the Examination Board for Education (Bachelor’s, Master’s and Diploma programmes) of the Faculty of Humanities at Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg (January 2008 to December 2012)
Member or deputy member of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Helmut Schmidt University since 2009
Member of the Senate of Helmut Schmidt University, January 2013 to December 2014, before that since 2009 and from January 2015 deputy member
Organisation of the 13th Conference of the Division of Social Psychology in the German Psychological Society, Helmut Schmidt University, 09/18/2011 – 09/21/2011
Appointed member of the selection committee of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for doctoral candidates in psychology on 08/20/2013 for the years 2014 – 2017, also ad hoc reviewer since 2008
Member of the Management Committee of the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action IS1205 “Social psychological dynamics of historical representations in the enlarged European Union”, total budget € 644.000,-, duration 11/19/2012 – 11/18/2016; appointed as German representative by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research on 08/30/2012
Reviewer activities
Fritz Thyssen Foundation, since May 2019
PRO*Niedersachsen funding programme, Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, since March 2019
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, since July 2013
Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts, Baden-Württemberg, since September 2011
Volkswagen Foundation, since January 2009
German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development, since January 2009
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), since August 2007
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, since August 2007
Political Psychology, since July 2006
German Research Foundation (DFG), since June 2007
Psychologische Rundschau, since March 2006
Journal für Betriebswirtschaft, since May 2005
Business Psychology, since March 2005
Israel Science Foundation (ISF), since March 2004
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, since September 2003
Journal of Environmental Psychology, since July 2003
Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, since August 2001
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, since July 1999
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, since September 1998
British Journal of Social Psychology, since June 1998
European Journal of Social Psychology, since April 1997
Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie / Social Psychology, since October 1996
Editorial activities
European Journal of Social Psychology (Editorial Board from 2005 – 2009)
Social Psychology (Associate Editor 2008 – 2010 and 2012 – 2013)
Social Psychology (Editor-In-Chief 2010 – 2012)
Letzte Änderung: 8. November 2024