Prof. Dr. Ursula Hess Humboldt Universität Berlin

Prof. Dr. Ursula Hess

Principal Investigator
Encounters of Cohesion
Tel: +49 30 2093-9327
Mail: ursula.hess@hu-berlin.de
Website: www.ursulakhess.com

Short Vita

I am Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology at the Humboldt-University of Berlin. I am President of the International Society for Research on Emotion and Past President of the Society for Psychophysiological Research.

What I find exciting about this research initiative

Social cohesion is a complex construct that is relevant for societal discourse and much discussed various scientific domains. In these discussions, the consequences of social cohesion or its absence is usually of central interest. My own research focuses on how social cohesion is enacted in everyday interactions between individuals. Specifically, I am interested to understand the intersection between social values and beliefs that define social group membership and the micro-processes that mediate liking and positive interactions (or dislike and strife) in dyadic and small group interactions as these processes ultimately shape social cohesion in society.

What my discipline can contribute to this research initiative

Group interactions and the social cognitive processes that underlie these interactions are one of the central domains of social psychology. This discipline therefore disposes of a rich repertoire of theoretical and methodological tool for the study of the processes that underlie social cohesion.

Five key publications

  • Hess, U. (2021). Presidential Address 2019: Who to whom and why: The social nature of emotional mimicry. Psychophysiology, 58, 1, e13675

  • Hess, U., Landmann1, H., David, S., & Hareli, S. (2018). The bidirectional relation of emotion perception and social judgments: The effect of witness’ emotion and vice versa. Cognition and Emotion, 32, 1152-1165

  • Landmann1, H. & Hess, U. (2017). What elicits third-party anger? The effects of moral violation and others’ outcome on anger and compassion. Cognition and Emotion, 6, 1097-1111

  • Hess, U., Kafetsios, K., Mauersberger, H., Blaison, C., & Kessler, C.-L. (2016). Signal and Noise in the Perception of Facial Emotion Expressions: From Labs to Life. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42, 1092-1110

  • Hess, U. & Fischer, A. (2013). Emotional mimicry as social regulation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 17, 142-157