Research

Ralph Hertwig has made important contributions to answer the question of how people make decisions, if time is limited, information unreliable, and the future uncertain. The focal point of his work lies in the analysis of the boundedly rational strategies (“heuristics”) that people use to make decisions under such circumstances. He was able to show that the natural boundaries of the human mind do not necessarily have to be a handicap and that simple heuristics can benefit from, for example, systematic forgetting processes.

Relatedly, he has shown that simple heuristics can also be used in complex social contexts (for example, in parental investment decisions). His experimental demonstrations that our reasoning about risk and uncertainty depends strongly on whether people experience uncertain information sequentially or learn it in a symbolical summary format have stimulated numerous investigations.

Career

• since 2012 Director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
• 2005-2012 Full Professor, Cognitive and Decision Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland
• 2003-2005 Assistant Professor, Applied Cognitive Science, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland
• 2003 Research Scientist, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
• 2003 Habilitation, Free University Berlin, Germany
• 2000-2002 Research Fellow, Department of Psychology, Columbia University
• 1997-2000 Research Scientist, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
• 1996-1997 Research Scientist, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research, Munich, Germany
• 1995-1996 Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research, Munich, Germany
• 1995 Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology, University of Konstanz, Germany
• 1993-1994 Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, USA
• 1991-1992 Predoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Austria
• 1991 M.A., University of Konstanz, Germany

Projects

• since 2011 SINERGIA – “Biological Foundations of Risk Taking” (Prof. Dr. Jörg Rieskamp, Prof. Dr. Ralph Hertwig, Prof. Dr. Andreas Papassotiropoulos, Prof. Dr. Dominique De Quervain)
• since 2011 DFG priority program 2New Frameworks of Rationality“ SPP 1516 (Prof. Dr. Markus Knauff, Psychology, University of Gießen (Speaker); Prof. Dr. Ralph Hertwig, Psychology, University of Basel/Switzerland; Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schurz, Philosophy, University of Düsseldorf; Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Spohn, Philosophy, University of Konstanz; Prof. Dr. Michael Waldmann, Psychology, University of Göttingen)

Functions

• 2011-2012 Dean, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland
• 2008-2011 Dean of Research, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland

Honors and Memberships

• 2016 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
• 2012 Member of the Wilhelm-Wundt-Society
• 2011 Fellow of the Association of Psychological Science (APS)
• since 2010 Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 2008 Teacher of the year, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland
• 2007 Teacher of the year, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland
• 2006 Charlotte and Karl Bühler Prize, Young career award of the German Psychological Association
• 1996 Heinz Heckhausen Young Scientist Prize, German Psychological Association