Refine
Has Fulltext
- yes (15)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (15)
Year of publication
Document Type
- Doctoral Thesis (15) (remove)
Keywords
- Psychologie (15) (remove)
Die vorliegende Arbeit hatte sich die Aufgabe gestellt, die Aktualität des "Handbuchs der Psychischen Anthropologie" von Jakob Friedrich Fries, in erster Auflage im Jahre 1818 erschienen, für die Wissenschaften der Gegenwart aufzuzeigen: Psychologie, Psychiatrie, Psychosomatik und (einzelne Randbereiche der) Neurophysiologie. Zu diesem Zwecke stand am Anfang eine immanente Darstellung dieses heute fast völlig unbekannten, weil vergessenen Werkes. Wie jede Neu-Aufnahme der Gedanken vergangener Zeiten war dies sowohl Hervorhebung als auch der Versuch einer "Übersetzung". Um die Adressaten zum Studium des Friesschen Handbuches aufzufordern, mußte sich der Übersetzer selbst von der Quelle entfernen. Dem Leser des ausgehenden Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts sollte der Zugang zu Fries bei möglichst geringem Verlust an Authentizität erleichtert werden. Fries gegenübergestellt wurden die Auffassungen namhafter Fachvertreter der Gegenwart aus den o. g. Wissenschaften. 1. Fries' Werk bietet eine Schichtentheorie des Psychischen an, als deren einheitssicherndes Moment die menschliche Vernunft herausgestellt wird. Diese Theorie ist Emanation der Friesschen Philosophie, d. h., Philosophie und Psychologie stehen bei ihm in einem wechselseitigen Abhängigkeitsverhältnis. Sein Wissenschaftssystem ist gleichwohl eines der ersten philosophiegeschichtlichen Beispiele einer Unterscheidung von Theorie und Metatheorie. 2. Fries' Ansatz zu einer (Wieder-) Herstellung der Einheit der Psychologie ist methodogisch begründet. Introspektion ist die (eigentliche) Methode der Psychologie. Nur introspektiv lassen sich ( per definitionem ) Fragen über die Psyche des Menschen beantworten. Fries' phänomenologische ( oder phänomenalistische ) Position hätte ihn zum Vorbild lange nach ihm entworfener Konzeptionen werden lassen können. Andere Methoden öffnen den Zugang zu anderen Gegenstandsbereichen: Neuro-(physio-)logie als Teil der somatischen Anthropologie und Neuropsychologie oder Leistungs- ( Test- ) Psychologie als Teile der Vergleichenden Anthropologie beschreiten andere Forschungsrichtungen. 3. Fries' Stellung zur Frage der Meßbarkeit psychischer Variablen weist viele Parallelen zu Überlegungen der Repräsenationstheorie auf. Für das Psychische kann nicht von einer transitiven Relation aller Variablen ausgegangen werden, was der Mathematisierbarkeit des Wissens vom Psychischen engere Grenzen setzt. 4. Fries unterscheidet innere und äußere Kausalität. Für den Bereich von Physik und Physiologie nimmt er die Geltung eines Kausalgesetzes an, für die Psychologie hingegen setzt er nur ein Kausalprinzip voraus. Unausweichlich ist für ihn deshalb der Rückgriff auf den Begriff psychischer Vermögen, den die Psychologie der Gegenwart durchweg ablehnt, ihn vielfach aber ebenfalls nicht umgehen kann. 5. Fries weist auch in manchen Einzelfragen der Wissenschaft Wege zur Psychologie des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts: u. a. sucht er nach einer Antwort zu den Problemen von Kontinuität und Einheit der Wahrnehmung, von Dimension und Einteilung der Gefühle und vom Zusammenhang von Trieb und Wille. 6. Freis versucht die Richtlinien einer Theorie der Psychosomatik vorzuzeichnen: Psychisches hat Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten im Somatischen. Sowohl Bewußtes als auch Nicht-Bewußtes kann krankheitsverursachend wirken. Das Bindeglied zwischen Psyche und Soma stellen bei Fries die Emotionen dar. 7. Fries' Psychopathologie hält sich an die Terminologie seiner Normal-Psychologie. Sie steht im Zentrum seiner Psychiatrie. 8. Fries' psychiatrisches System folgt einem methodischen Dualismus ( "Parallelismus" ): Der phänomenologische Mittelpunkt der Psychopathologie wird von seiner somatisch-medizinischen Krankheitsauffassung getragen. 9. Fries' Konzept zeigt unübersehbare Ansatzpunkte zu Kurt Schneiders triadischem System der klinischen Psychopathologie. Er unterscheidet bereits persönlichkeits-bedingte ( angelegte ) und reaktive psychische Störungen. Innerhalb seines Systems gibt Fries auch eine frappierend zutreffende Bestimmung dessen, was die Psychiatrie der Gegenwart als "endogene" Geisteskrankheiten bezeichnet. 10. Fries' Lehre vom menschlichen Geist basiert auf der Frage nach der Methode des Zugangs. Methodologie gibt Perpektiven vor, sie konstituiert jedoch keine unvereinbaren Entitäten. Sein System verlieh Fries die Sicherheit, seine Lehren auf überindividuelle Gemeinschaften, wie die Völkerpsychologie auszudehnen. Auch wenn er von psychischen Entartungen oder Degenerationen spricht, betritt er dabei Bereiche, die gegenwärtig brach liegen. 11. Der konsequent dualistische ( parallelistische ) Ansatz Fries' weist den Weg zu einer bis heute nur punktuell umgesetzten biaxialen Diagnostik in der Psychiatrie. Damit wird dem bereits von Fries verfochtenen Relativismus zwischen den Bereichen Symptomatologie und Ätiologie ( Psychopathologie und Physiologie ) ebenso Rechnung getragen wie der Tatsache, daß deren Zusammenhang ( Wechselwirkung ) bis dato weitestgehend ungeklärt geblieben ist.
Both specific stimulus valence and unspecific processing dynamics can influence evaluative responses. Eight experiments investigated their respective influence on evaluative judgments in the domain of stereotyping. Valence of stereotypic information and consistency-driven fluency were manipulated in an impression formation paradigm. When information about the to-be-evaluated target person was strongly valenced, no effects of consistency-driven fluency were observed. Higher cognitive processes, valence of inconsistent attributes, processing priority of category information, and impression formation instructions were ruled out as possible factors responsible for the non-occurrence of fluency effects. However, consistency-driven fluency did influence the evaluative judgment, if the information about a target person was not strongly valenced. It is therefore concluded that both stimulus valence and consistency-driven processing fluency play a role in evaluative judgments in the domain of stereotyping. The respective impact of stimulus valence is much stronger than the impact of unspecific processing dynamics, however. Implications for fluency research and the applied field of stereotype change are discussed.
The perception of pain can be modulated by a variety of factors such as biological/pharmacological treatments as well as potent cognitive and emotional manipulations. Placebo and nocebo effects are among the most prominent examples for such manipulations. Placebo and nocebo manipulations cause reliable psychological and physiological changes, although the administered agent or treatment is inert. The present dissertation aimed at investigating the role of cognitive and emotional influences in the generation of placebo and nocebo effects on pain perception. In addition, the feasibility of solely psychological placebo manipulations to alter the perception of pain was tested.
Two commonly discussed preconditions for the generation of placebo and nocebo effects are prior experiences (i.e., past encounter of drug effects) and expectations (i.e., positive or negative attitudes towards an intervention). So far, research on placebo and nocebo effects relied on the administration of sham interventions, which resembled medical treatments like inert pills, creams or injections. However, such experimental procedures deal with confounds due to earlier experiences and expectations resulting from the individual’s history with medical interventions. Accordingly, the implementation of a placebo manipulation that is completely new to an individual, seems necessary to disentangle the contribution of experience and expectation for the induction of placebo and nocebo effects.
To this end, in Experiment 1 the level of experience and expectation regarding a placebo-nocebo treatment was stepwise manipulated across three different experimental groups. To avoid any resemblances to earlier experiences and individual expectations, a mere psychological placebo-nocebo treatment was chosen that was new to all participants. They were instructed that visual black and white stripe patterns had been found to reliably alter the perception of pain. One group of participants received only the placebo-nocebo instruction (expectation), a second group experienced a placebo-nocebo treatment within a conditioning phase (experience) but no instruction, and a third group received the combination of both that is a placebo-nocebo instruction and a placebo-nocebo conditioning (experience + expectation).
It was shown that only the experience + expectation group revealed significantly higher pain ratings and physiological responses during nocebo, compared to placebo trials of the succeeding test phase. These findings demonstrate that the induction of a mere psychological placebo-nocebo effect on pain is in principle possible. Most important, results indicate that such effects most likely rely on both, a positive treatment experience, due to the encounter of an effective intervention (placebo conditioning), and a positive expectation about the intervention (placebo instruction).Besides experience and expectation, the current mood state has been shown to modulate pain and to impact the induction of placebo and nocebo effects. In this vein it has been demonstrated that placebo effects come along with positive affect, while nocebo effects often occur together with elevated feelings of anxiety. To clarify the interaction of emotions and placebo-nocebo manipulations on pain perception, in Experiment 2 the paradigm of Experiment 1 was modified. Instead of black and white stripe patterns, positive and negative emotional pictures were presented, which either cued pain increase (nocebo) or pain decrease (placebo). Two experimental groups were compared, which differed with regard to the instructed contingency of positive pictures serving as placebo and negative pictures serving as nocebo cues or vice versa (congruent vs. incongruent). Results indicate that the differentiation of placebo and nocebo trials (behaviorally and physiologically) was more pronounced for the congruent compared to the incongruent group. However, in the incongruent group, affective pain ratings were also significantly higher for nocebo (positive pictures) than placebo (negative pictures) trials, similar to the congruent group. These findings demonstrate that a placebo-nocebo manipulation is capable to dampen and even reverse the originally pain augmenting effect of negative emotions.
The results of Experiment 2 were further corroborated in Experiment 3, when the design was adapted to the fMRI scanner, and again a congruent and an incongruent experimental group were compared. Behavioral, physiological and neurophysiological markers of pain processing revealed a differentiation between nocebo and placebo conditions that was present irrespective of the experimental group. In addition, the fMRI analysis revealed an increased engagement of prefrontal areas for the incongruent group only, supposedly reflecting the reinterpretation or appraisal process when positive pictures were cueing negative outcomes.
Taken together, the results of the present studies showed (a) that it is possible to induce a placebo-nocebo effect on pain solely by a psychological manipulation, (b) that both, prior experiences and positive expectation, are necessary preconditions for this placebo-nocebo effect, (c) that the impact of negative emotion on pain can be dampened and even reversed by placebo-nocebo manipulations, and (d) that most likely a cognitive top-down process is crucial for the induction of (psychological) placebo-nocebo effects.
These results significantly enhance our understanding of psychological mechanisms involved in the induction of placebo-nocebo effects. Further, a fruitful foundation for future studies is provided, which will need to determine the contributions of primarily nocebo or placebo responses mediating the effects as demonstrated in the present studies. In a long-term perspective, the present findings may also help to exploit placebo effects and prevent from nocebo effect in clinical contexts by further elucidating crucial psychological factors that contribute to the placebo and nocebo response.
The present thesis examines embodiment—the body’s influence on psychological processes. Bodily states, perceptions, and actions influence cognitive processes; for example, a heavy backpack makes hills look steeper (Proffitt et al., 2003); and faint odors influence orderliness (Holland, Hendriks, & Aarts, 2005). In Chapter 2, embodiment phenomena are reviewed and classified according to three possible underlying mechanisms. Additionally, empirical tests for distinguishing between the workings of these mechanisms are discussed.
The empirical part of the thesis examines one specific embodiment in more detail, namely embodied cleansing. The basic idea in embodied cleansing is that physical cleansing reduces not only physical but also psychological remnants of the past. For example, Chapter 4 examines whether prosocial behavior after one’s own moral or immoral behavior is changed by embodied cleansing; and Chapter 5 examines how changes in optimism and self-esteem as a result of previous success or failure in an achievement test are reduced by embodied cleansing.
The present thesis examines psychological mechanisms that could explain embodied cleansing. For that, Chapter 3 derives and contrasts two possible explanations for embodied cleansing. Chapter 4 tests the effect of physical cleansing when both explanations make converging predictions (with morally negative memories) compared to when the two explanations make differing predictions (with morally positive memories). However, the results of embodied cleansing on prosocial behavior after (im)moral recall could not be examined as (im)moral recall, against expectations, did not influence prosocial behavior in the present paradigm.
Chapter 5 more closely examines one of the two explanations. For that, different aspects of the act of cleaning one’s hands are varied to examine necessary and sufficient criteria for embodied cleansing. The results show that deliberate cleaning is essential for embodied cleansing; additionally the cleaning action has to refer to one’s own body (and not to an object). Thus, a combination of inferential and automatic processes seem to play a role in embodied cleansing. Finally the results are discussed in relation to other embodiment effects and explanations.
Utility is perhaps the most central concept in modern economic theorizing. However, the behaviorist reduction to Revealed Preference not only removed the psychological content of utility but experimental investigations also exposed numerous anomalies in this theory.
This program of research focused on the psychological processes by which utility judgments are generated. For this purpose, the standard assumption of a homogeneous concept is substituted by the Utilitarian Duality Hypothesis.
In particular, judgments concerning categorical utility (uCat) infer an object's category based on its attributes which may subsequently allow the transfer of evaluative information like feelings or attitudes. In contrast, comparative utility (uCom) depends on the distance to a reference value on a specific dimension of comparison. Importantly, dimensions of comparison are manifold and context dependent.
In a series of experiments, we show that the resulting Dual Utility Model is able to explain several known anomalies in a parsimonious fashion. Moreover, we identify central factors determining the relative weight assigned to both utility components.
Finally, we discuss the implications of the Utilitarian Duality for both, the experimental practice in economics as well as the consequences for economic theorizing. In sum, we propose that the Dual Utility Model can serve as an integrative framework for both the rational model and its anomalies.
Costly signaling with mobile devices: An evolutionary psychological perspective on smartphones
(2016)
In the last decade, mobile device ownership has largely increased. In particular, smartphone ownership is constantly rising (A. Smith, 2015; Statista, 2016a), and there is a real hype for luxury brand smartphones (Griffin, 2015). These observations raise the question of which functions smartphones serve in addition to their original purposes of making and receiving calls, searching for information, and organizing. Beyond these obvious functions, studies suggest that smartphones express fashion, lifestyle, and one’s economic status (e.g., Bødker et al., 2009; Statista, 2016b; Vanden Abeele, Antheunis, & Schouten, 2014). Specifically, individuals seem to purchase and use conspicuous luxury brand smartphones to display and enhance status (D. Kim et al., 2014; Müller-Lietzkow et al., 2014; Suki, 2013). But how does owning a conspicuous, high-status smartphone contribute to status, and which benefits may these status boosts provide to their owners? From an evolutionary perspective, status carries a lot of advantages, particularly for males; high status grants them priority access to resources and correlates with their mating success (van Vugt & Tybur, 2016). In this sense, research suggests that men conspicuously display their cell phones to attract mates and to distinguish themselves from rivals (Lycett & Dunbar, 2000). In a similar vein, evolutionarily informed studies on conspicuous consumption indicate that the purchase and display of conspicuous luxuries (including mobile phones and smartphones) relate to a man’s interest in uncommitted sexual relationships and enhance his desirability as a short-term mate (Hennighausen & Schwab, 2014; Saad, 2013; Sundie et al., 2011). Drawing on these findings, this doctoral dissertation investigated how a man is perceived given that he is an owner of a high-status (vs. nonconspicuous, low-status) smartphone as a romantic partner and male rival. This was done in three experiments. In addition, it was examined how male conspicuous consumption of smartphones interacted with further traits that signal a man’s mate quality, namely facial attractiveness (Studies 1 and 2) and social dominance (Study 3). Study 1 revealed that men and women perceived a male owner of a conspicuous smartphone as a less desirable long-term mate and as more inclined toward short-term mating. Study 2 replicated these results and showed that men and women assigned traits that are associated with short-term mating (e.g., low loyalty, interest in flirts, availability of tangible resources) to a male owner of a conspicuous smartphone and perceived him as a stronger male rival and mate poacher, and less as a friend. The results of Study 2 further suggested that specifically more attractive men might benefit from owning a conspicuous smartphone in a short-term mating context and might be hence considered as stronger male rivals. Study 3 partially replicated the findings of Studies 1 and 2 pertaining to the effects of owning a conspicuous smartphone. Study 3 did not show different effects of conspicuous consumption of smartphones on perceptions of a man dependent on the level of his social dominance.
To conclude, the findings of this doctoral dissertation suggest that owning a conspicuous, high-status smartphone might not only serve proximate functions (e.g., making and receiving calls, organization) but also ultimate functions, which relate to mating and reproduction. The results indicate that owning a conspicuous smartphone might yield benefits for men in a short-term rather than in a long-term mating context. Furthermore, more attractive men appear to benefit more from owning a conspicuous smartphone than less attractive men. These findings provide further insights into the motivations that underlie men’s purchases and displays of conspicuous, high-status smartphones from luxury brands that reach beyond the proximate causes frequently described in media and consumer psychological research. By applying an evolutionary perspective, this doctoral dissertation demonstrates the power and utility of this research paradigm for media psychological research and shows how combining a proximate and ultimate perspective adds to a more profound understanding of smartphone phenomena.
To simplify a judgment, people often base it on easily accessible information. One cue that is usually readily available is processing fluency – a metacognitive feeling of ease of cognitive processing. Consequently, processing fluency is used as a cue for many different types of judgment, such as judgment of truth, confidence, and novelty. The present work describes results of three studies investigating various aspects of processing fluency effects on judgment.
Processing fluency has been sometimes equated with speed of a cognitive process. Therefore, response times have been used for evaluation of processing fluency. However, response times in experimental tasks often do not encompass only the time needed for a given process, but also the time needed for a decision based on the resulting information. The study described in Chapter II uses a novel experimental method that enables separation of reading and decision times. The results show that people make a decision about liking of pseudowords faster when the pseudowords are hard-to-pronounce (i.e., disfluent) than when they are moderate in pronounceability. This suggests that response times cannot be used as a proxy for processing fluency when they include the time needed to make a decision.
One of the studies of judgmental effects of processing fluency showed that food additives with easier pronounceable names are judged to be less harmful than those with hard-to-pronounce names. While people encounter food additives that are safe more often, this environmental association may be in the opposite direction for some categories of objects. For example, people are more likely to see names of especially dangerous criminals in the news. Chapter III describes a study which initially tested whether the fluency-safety association may be in the opposite direction for some categories of objects as a consequence of this selective exposure to especially dangerous exemplars. The results did not show support for this hypothesis. Furthermore, subsequent studies suggest that the previously found association between fluency and safety is replicable with the original stimuli used in the previous research, but not with newly constructed stimuli.
Chapter IV describes a study which applied a finding from the processing fluency literature to a positive psychology exercise in order to increase its effectiveness. Namely, the experiment manipulated the number of good things that participants listed daily for two weeks as part of the exercise. While listing more things was considered harder, the number of things listed each day had no effect on effectiveness of the exercise.
This dissertation contributes to deepen our understanding of constructs that play a key role in individuals’ vocational career construction. In this regard, many previous studies have focused exclusively on a specific phase of an individual’s career. Yet, modern societies
require continuous investments in one’s career to adapt to changing Environments throughout the life span. Consequently, this dissertation takes a broad approach to capture a wide spectrum of career construction processes.
According to Super’s (1990) developmental stage framework, individuals have to manage vocational developmental tasks corresponding to each of the developmental life stages in order to be career mature across the life span. As the two stages exploration and
maintenance set the stage for individuals’ future career pathways, they are especially important in individuals’ vocational career construction. Therefore, both of them are addressed in this dissertation.
By answering open research questions relevant to career choice in early career stages and to career development in later career stages, this dissertation contributes to the overarching goal of shedding more light on constructs relevant to individuals’ vocational career construction processes across the life span. Beyond the results presented within each study’s horizon, this dissertation aimed at offering practical guidance to career counselors,
trainees, and training and development (T&D) professionals. Career counselors and T&D professionals are involved in guiding vocational career construction processes of individuals across the life span. Thus, on the one hand, this dissertation supports career counselors’ work so that they can help deliberating individuals make optimal and effective career choices. On
the other hand, this dissertation facilitates T&D professionals’ work so that they can effectively design and evaluate e‐learning and classroom trainings in corporate educational settings. Identifying individuals’ vocational interests combined with cognitive abilities through adequate test measures and maximizing success of learning and success of transfer through fostering evidence‐based transfer support actions will help individuals adapt quickly to the changing nature of work environments in the 21st century and to continue to successfully construct careers across the life span.
Brain computer interfaces based on sensorimotor rhythms modulation (SMR-BCIs) allow people to emit commands to an interface by imagining right hand, left hand or feet movements. The neurophysiological activation associated with those specific mental imageries can be measured by electroencephalography and detected by machine learning algorithms. Improvements for SMR-BCI accuracy in the last 30 years seem to have reached a limit. The currrent main issue with SMR-BCIs is that between 15% to 30% cannot use the BCI, called the "BCI inefficiency" issue. Alternatively to hardware and software improvements, investigating the individual characteristics of the BCI users has became an interesting approach to overcome BCI inefficiency. In this dissertation, I reviewed existing literature concerning the individual sources of variation in SMR-BCI accuracy and identified generic individual characteristics. In the empirical investigation, attention and motor dexterity predictors for SMR-BCI performance were implemented into a trainings that would manipulate those predictors and lead to higher SMR-BCI accuracy. Those predictors were identified by Hammer et al. (2012) as the ability to concentrate (associated with relaxation levels) and "mean error duration" in a two-hand visuo-motor coordination task (VMC). Prior to a SMR-BCI session, a total of n=154 participants in two locations took part of 23 min sessions of either Jacobson’s Progressive Muscle Relaxation session (PMR), a VMC session, or a control group (CG). No effect of PMR or VMC manipulation was found, but the manipulation checks did not consistently confirm whether PMR had an effect of relaxation levels and VMC on "mean error duration". In this first study, correlations between relaxation levels or "mean error duration" and accuracy were found but not in both locations. A second study, involving n=39 participants intensified the training in four sessions on four consecutive days or either PMR, VMC or CG. The effect or manipulation was assessed for in terms of a causal relationship by using a PRE-POST study design. The manipulation checks of this second study validated the positive effect of training on both relaxation and "mean error duration". But the manipulation did not yield a specific effect on BCI accuracy. The predictors were not found again, displaying the instability of relaxation levels and "mean error duration" in being associated with BCI performance. An effect of time on BCI accuracy was found, and a correlation between State Mindfulness Scale and accuracy were reported. Results indicated that a short training of PMR or VMC were insufficient in increasing SMR-BCI accuracy. This study contrasted with studies succeeding in increasing SMR-BCI accuracy Tan et al. (2009, 2014), by the shortness of its training and the relaxation training that did not include mindfulness. It also contrasted by its manipulation checks and its comprehensive experimental approach that attempted to replicate existing predictors or correlates for SMR-BCI accuracy. The prediction of BCI accuracy by individual characteristics is receiving increased attention, but requires replication studies and a comprehensive approach, to contribute to the growing base of evidence of predictors for SMR-BCI accuracy. While short PMR and VMC trainings could not yield an effect on BCI performance, mindfulness meditation training might be beneficial for SMR-BCI accuracy. Moreover, it could be implemented for people in the locked-in-syndrome, allowing to reach the end-users that are the most in need for improvements in BCI performance.
Social attention is a ubiquitous, but also enigmatic and sometimes elusive phenomenon.
We direct our gaze at other human beings to see what they are doing
and to guess their intentions, but we may also absorb social events en passant as
they unfold in the corner of the eye. We use our gaze as a discrete communication
channel, sometimes conveying pieces of information which would be difficult
to explicate, but we may also find ourselves avoiding eye-contact with others in
moments when self-disclosure is fear-laden. We experience our gaze as the most
genuine expression of our will, but research also suggests considerable levels of
predictability and automaticity in our gaze behavior. The phenomenon’s complexity
has hindered researchers from developing a unified framework which can
conclusively accommodate all of its aspects, or from even agreeing on the most
promising research methodologies.
The present work follows a multi-methods approach, taking on several aspects
of the phenomenon from various directions. Participants in study 1 viewed dynamic
social scenes on a computer screen. Here, low-level physical saliency (i.e.
color, contrast, or motion) and human heads both attracted gaze to a similar extent,
providing a comparison of two vastly different classes of gaze predictors in
direct juxtaposition. In study 2, participants with varying degrees of social anxiety
walked in a public train station while their eye movements were tracked. With
increasing levels of social anxiety, participants showed a relative avoidance of gaze
at near compared to distant people. When replicating the experiment in a laboratory
situation with a matched participant group, social anxiety did not modulate
gaze behavior, fueling the debate around appropriate experimental designs in the
field. Study 3 employed virtual reality (VR) to investigate social gaze in a complex
and immersive, but still highly controlled situation. In this situation, participants
exhibited a gaze behavior which may be more typical for real-life compared to laboratory situations as they avoided gaze contact with a virtual conspecific unless
she gazed at them. This study provided important insights into gaze behavior in
virtual social situations, helping to better estimate the possible benefits of this
new research approach. Throughout all three experiments, participants showed
consistent inter-individual differences in their gaze behavior. However, the present
work could not resolve if these differences are linked to psychologically meaningful
traits or if they instead have an epiphenomenal character.