Professorship for Social and Economic Psychology

Prof. Dr. Jörg Gross

In our team at the department of Social- and Economic Psychology, we are broadly interested in understanding social decision making and the dynamics of group formation and dissolution.

In groups, people help and learn from each other and create public goods to the benefit of everyone. To uphold cooperation and coordinate collective action, individuals need to form mutually beneficial ties, develop shared norms, and reduce temptations to take advantage of others. By using models from behavioral economics, theoretical biology, and psychology, our research investigates how group dynamics shape cooperation and conflict between and within groups. To this end, we use controlled laboratory experiments and evolutionary-based simulations. Our research findings aim to advance our theoretical understanding of group-living, but also have implications for collective action problems and real-world public goods dilemmas such as climate change, sustainable consumption, and corruption.
You can learn more about our research through our recent publications (for a full list, click here).

If you are interested in experiencing research on group dynamics first-hand, you can sign up for our participant-pool to receive invitations for on-going studies.

Are you a student at the UZH, fascinated by group cooperation and models on human behavior and consider doing a PhD in the future? Then consider contacting us for potential research opportunities.