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Department of Social and Legal Psychology
JGU Mainz
Binger Str. 14-16
Room 01-101
55122 Mainz
roland.imhoff@uni-mainz.de
Phone: +49 6131 39-39291
Consultation hour by appointment via email

Since 10/2015Professor of social and legal psychology (W2) at the Psychological Institute of Gutenberg University Mainz
09/2012 – 09/2015Junior professor (W1) for social psychology: Social cognition at the Department of Psychology, University of Cologne
04/2010 – 08/2012Research associate at the Department of Social and Legal Psychology at the Institute of Psychology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University Bonn
10/2006 – 3/2010Doctoral scholarship holder of the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst e.V. and graduate assistant at the Department of Social and Legal Psychology at the Institute of Psychology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University Bonn
3/2005Diplom in psychology
  • Conspiracy mentality
  • Data-driven approaches to the content-based description of stereotypes
  • Prejudice, stigmatization, and labeling effects
  • Representations of history and intergroup relations
  • Implicit social cognition
  • Automatic processes of sexual interest
  • Associate editor
    Archives of Sexual Behavior
  • Editorial board
    British Journal of Social Psychology
    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
    Social Psychology
    Journal of Sex Research

  • Ecker, Y., Diel, K., Hofmann, W., Unkelbach, C., & Imhoff, R. (in press). The Role of Comparison Processes in Maintenance Goals. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being.
  • Kazarovytska, F., Árnadóttir, K, D’Ottone, S., Halabi, S., Clarke, E., Sharma, S., Heidrich, V., & Imhoff, R. (in press). Do People Across the World Want to Remember Positive Ingroup Histories? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
  • Heidrich, V., Flade, F., & Imhoff, R. (in press). Face the Difference: Meta-contrast as an Affordance to Spontaneous Social Categorization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
  • Imhoff, R. (in press). The psychology of Conspiracy Mentality. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology.
  • Ecker, Y., Lange, J., & Imhoff, R. (in press). The General Maintenance Orientation: Interindividual differences in nurturing what we have. European Journal of Psychological Assessment
  • Frenken, M., & Imhoff, R. (2026). Law and order, magical spirits, and false flag operations: On the co-occurrence of authoritarianism, spirituality, and conspiracy beliefs and their association with support of violent protests. Political Psychology, 47, e70034.
  • Coenen, A.-C., Feist, F., Imhoff, R., Obaidi, M., & Kunst, J. (2025). The Psychology of Querfront Tactics: How Protesters Perceive and Navigate Conflicting Ideologies to Mobilize Collectively. British Journal of Social Psychology, 64, e70015.
  • Oeberst, A., Mischkowski, D., & Imhoff, R. (2025). Belief-consistent information processing or coherence-based reasoning: Integrating two parsimonious frameworks for biases. European Journal of Social Psychology, 55, 1131-1135.
  • Heidrich, V. & Imhoff, R. (2025). Through the lens of race: Accounting for majority-minority relations in cross-race categorization and individuation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Article 104763.
  • Imhoff, R., & Oeberst, A. (2025). Understanding Belief-Behavior Correspondence Requires More Conceptual Clarity [Commentary]. Psychological Inquiry, 36, 36-39.
  • Kazarovytska, F., Imhoff, R., & Hirschberger, G. (2025). Beyond Victimhood and Perpetration: Reconstruction of the Ingroup’s Historical Role in Eight Eastern and Western European Countries Under Nazi Occupation. Political Psychology, 46, 785-805.
  • Frenken, M., Reusch, A., & Imhoff, R. (2025). “Just Because It’s a Conspiracy Theory Doesn’t Mean They’re Not Out to Get You”: Differentiating the Correlates of Judgments of Plausible Versus Implausible Conspiracy Theories. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 16(6), 684-696.
  • Bertlich, T., Bräscher, A.-K., Germer, S., Witthöft, M., & Imhoff, R. (2025). Owners of a conspiratorial heart? Investigating the longitudinal relationship between loneliness and conspiracy beliefs. British Journal of Social Psychology, 64, e12865.
  • Koch, A., Dotsch, R., Imhoff, R., Unkelbach, C., & Alves, H. (2025). Ideological beliefs as cues to exploitation-exploration behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 117, Article 104718.
  • Röseler, L., Weber, L., Helgerth, K., Stich, E., Günther, M., Tegethoff, P., … Imhoff, R., …, & Schütz, A. (2024). The Open Anchoring Quest Dataset: Anchored Estimates from 96 Studies on Anchoring Effects.Journal of Open Psychology Data, 10: 1, 16.
  • Ecker, Y., Busch, A., Schreiber, S., & Imhoff, R. (2024). From Social Traditions To personalized Routines: Maintenance Goals as a Resilience Factor. European Journal of Social Psychology, 54, 1198-2120.
  • Mokros, A., Schemmel, J., Oeberst, A., Körner, A., Imhoff, R., Suchotzki, K., Oberlader, V., Banse, R., Kannegießer, A., Gubi-Kelm, S., Lehmann, R. & Volbert, R. (2024). Entgegnung: Unterschiedliche Überzeugungen, aber nur eine Wahrheit [Ritual sexual violence: A critical appraisal of dubious empirical evidence for a doubtful phenomenon]. Psychologische Rundschau, 75(3), 231-233.
  • Gollwitzer, M., Nuding, S., Schramm, L., Glöckner, A., Gruber, R., Hajek, K. V., Häusser, J. A., Imhoff, R., & Rudert, S. C. (2024). How the pandemic affected psychological research. Royal Society Open Science, 11(11). Article 11241311.
  • Flade, F., & Imhoff, R. (2024). Closing a conceptual gap in race perception research: A functional integration of other-race face recognition task and “Who said what?” paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 127, 1-30.
  • Flade, F., Messer, M., & Imhoff, R. (2024). Confronting consumers’ complicity: Do confrontations with causal responsibility for sweatshop labor raise moral obligation? International Review of Social Psychology, 37, 4.
  • Kazarovytska, F., & Imhoff, R. (2024). Rejecting an intergroup apology attenuates perceived differences between victim and perpetrator groups in morality and power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 127, 846-879.
  • Mokros, A., Schemmel, J., Körner, A., Oeberst, A., Imhoff, R., Suchotzki, K., Oberlader, V., Banse, R., Kannegießer, A., Gubi-Kelm, S., Lehmann, R. & Volbert, R. (2024). Rituelle sexuelle Gewalt: Eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit fragwürdigen empirischen Belegen für ein fragliches Phänomen [Ritual sexual violence: A critical appraisal of dubious empirical evidence for a doubtful phenomenon]. Psychologische Rundschau, 75, 216-228.
  • Imhoff, R.*, Müller, B.*, & Heidrich, V. (2024). Do They Look the Same Unless They are Angry? Investigating the other-race Effect in the Presence of Angry Expressions. Psychological Science, 35, 405-414.
  • Kazarovytska, F. & Imhoff, R. (2024). Three Fish at One Hook? — Future-oriented, Reconciliatory, and Defensive Claims for Historical Closure as Expressions of the Same Defensive Desire. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50, 351-370. [Preprint] [Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R., Cichocka, A., Gjoneska, B., & Klein, O. (2024). Not all conspiracy theories are created equal: The relationship, differences, and commonalities of general conspiracy mindsets versus specific conspiracy beliefs [Editorial]. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 232(1), 3-6.
  • Imhoff, R. (2024). On the Usefulness of the Conspiracy Mentality Concept. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 232(1), 53-57.
  • Wertz, M., Hank, L., Hausam, J., Konrad, N., Schiltz, K., Imhoff, R., & Rettenberger, M. (2024) The Use and Reporting Practice of Psychological Tests in German Risk and Criminal Responsibility Expert Reports. Psychology, Crime & Law, 30, 68-85.
  • Imhoff, R., & Barker, P. (2023). Connecting the Dots: Non-linear Patterns in the Presence of Symbolic and Non-symbolic Numerical Standards. Judgement and Decision Making, 18, e34.
  • Unkelbach, C., Crusius, J., Gast, A., Hofmann, W., Imhoff, R., Genschow, O., Lammers, J., Schneider, I., Topolinski, S., Mussweiler, T., Westfal, M., Pauels, E., Alves, H., & Baldwin, M. (2023). Relativity in Social Cognition: Basic processes and novel applications of social comparisons. European Review of Social Psychology, 34, 387-440.[Open Access Article]
  • Oeberst, A., & Imhoff, R. (2023). Towards parsimony in bias research. Proposing a common framework of belief-consistent information processing. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18, 1464-1487. [Open Access Article]
  • Ecker, Y., Gilead, M., & Imhoff, R. (2023). The phenomenology of maintenance goals: lower threat and greater satisfaction with the current state. Motivation and Emotion, 47, 246–256. [Open Access Article] [Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R., & Hoffmann, L. (2023). Prenatal sex role stereotypes: Gendered expectations and perceptions of (expectant) parents. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 52, 1095–1104.[Open Access Article] [Open materials and data]
  • Ecker, Y., Gilead, M., & Imhoff, R. (2023). An Examination of the Motivations to Maintain, Approach, and Avoid by Proximity to the Ideal State. Social Cognition, 41, 88-102.
  • Kazarovytska, F. & Imhoff, R. (2023). No Differences Between Memory Performance for Instances of Historical Victimization and Historical Perpetration: Evidence from Four Large-Scale Experiments on Memory of the Second World War. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 105, Article 104440. [Open Access Article] [Open materials and data]
  • Meuer, M., Oeberst, A., & Imhoff, R. (2023). How Do Conspiratorial Explanations Differ from Non-Conspiratorial Explanations? A Content Analysis of Real-World Online Articles. European Journal of Social Psychology, 53, 288-306. [Preprint] [Open materials and data]
  • Alves, H., & Imhoff, R. (2023). Evaluative Context and Conditioning Effects Among Same and Different Objects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 124, 735–753. [Open materials and data]
  • Alper, S., & Imhoff, R. (2023). Suspecting Foul Play When It Is Objectively There: The Association of Political Orientation with General and Partisan Conspiracy Beliefs as a Function of Corruption Levels. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 14, 610–620. [Open Access Article]
  • Frenken, M., & Imhoff, R. (2023). Don’t trust anybody: Conspiracy mentality and the detection of facial trustworthiness cues. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 37, 256-265. [Open Access Article] [Open materials and data]
  • Frenken, M., Bilewicz, M., & Imhoff, R. (2023). On the relation between religiosity and the endorsement of conspiracy theories: The role of political orientation. Political Psychology, 44, 139-156. [Open Access Article] [Open materials and data for Study 5 – all other studies based on re-analyses]
  • Barker, P., & Imhoff, R. (2022). The Attentional Cost of Comparisons: Evidence for a General Comparison Induced Delay. Acta Psychologica, 230, Article 103745. [Open Access Article] [Open materials and data]
  • Kazarovytska, F. & Imhoff, R. (2022). Too Great to be Guilty? Collective Narcissists Demand Closure regarding the Past to Attenuate Collective Guilt. European Journal of Social Psychology, 52, 748-771. [Open Access Article] [Open materials and data]
  • Bilewicz, M., & Imhoff, R. (2022). Political Conspiracy Beliefs and Their Alignment on the Left-Right Political Spectrum. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 89, 679-706.
  • Frenken, M., & Imhoff, R. (2022). Malevolent intentions and secret coordination. Dissecting cognitive processes in conspiracy beliefs via diffusion modeling. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 103, Article 104383. [Preprint] [Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R., Bertlich, T., & Frenken, M. (2022). Tearing apart the “evil” twins: A general conspiracy mentality is not the same as specific conspiracy beliefs.Current Opinion in Psychology, 46, Article 101349. [Preprint]
  • Imhoff, R., Zimmer, F., Klein, O., António, J. H. C., Babinska, M., Bangerter, A., Bilewicz, M., Blanuša, N., Bovan, K., Bužarovska, R., Cichocka, A., Delouvée, S., Douglas, K. M., Dyrendal, A., Gjoneska, B., Graf, S., Gualda, E., Hirschberger, G., Kende, A., Kutiyski, Y., …, & van Prooijen, J.-W. (2022). Conspiracy Mentality and Political Orientation across 26 countries. Nature Human Behavior, 6, 392-403. [Open Access Article] [Open materials and data]
  • Nicolas, G., Fiske, S., Koch, A., Imhoff, R., Unkelbach, C., Terache, J., Carrier, A., & Yzerbyt, V. (2022). Relational versus structural goals prioritize different social information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122, 659-682.
  • Kazarovytska, F., Kretzschmar, M., Lamberty, P., Rees, J., Knausenberger, J., & Imhoff, R. (2022). From Moral Disaster to Moral Entitlement – The Impact of Success in Dealing with a Perpetrator Past on Claims for Historical Closure. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 10, 48-71. [Open Access Article] [Open materials and data]
  • Hirschberger, G., Imhoff, R., Kahn, D. T., & Hanke, K. (2022). Making sense of the past to understand the present: Attributions for historical trauma predict contemporary social and political attitudes. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 25, 509-526. [Preprint][Open materials and data]
  • Molenaar, C., Blessin, M., Erfurth, L., & Imhoff, R. (2022). Were we stressed or was it just me – and does it even matter?: Efforts to disentangle individual and collective resilience within real and imagined stressors. British Journal of Social Psychology, 61, 167-191. [Open Access Article]
  • Imhoff, R. (2022). Conspiracy Theories Through a Cross-Cultural Lens. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 5(3).
  • Frenken, M., Hemmerich, W., Izydorczyk, D., Scharf, S. E., & Imhoff, R. (2022). Cognitive processes behind the shooter bias: Dissecting response bias, motor preparation and information accumulation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 98, Article: 104230. [Preprint] [Open materials and data]
  • Rudert, S., Gleibs, I. H., Gollwitzer, M., Häfner, M., Hajek, K. V., Harth, N., Häusser, J. A., Imhoff, R., & Schneider, D. (2021). Us and the virus: Understanding the COVID-19 pandemic through a social psychological lens. European Psychologist, 26, 259-271.
  • Frenken, M., & Imhoff, R. (2021). A uniform conspiracy mindset or differentiated reactions to specific conspiracy beliefs? Evidence from Latent Profile Analyses. International Review of Social Psychology, 34(1):27, 1–15. [Open Access Article] [Open materials and data]
  • Meuer, M., Oeberst, A., Imhoff, R. (2021). Believe It or Not – No support for an effect of providing explanatory or threat-related information on conspiracy theories’ credibility. International Review of Social Psychology, 34(1):26, 1-13. [Open Access Article] [Open materials and data]
  • Ecker, Y., Imhoff, R., & Lammers, J. (2021). Self-control failure increases a strategic preference for submission as means to avoid future failure. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 95, Article 104155. [Preprint] [Open materials and data]
  • Wertz, M., Hausam, J., Konrad, N., Schiltz, K., Imhoff, R., & Rettenberger, M. (2021). Qualität von Schuldfähigkeitsgutachten: Mindestanforderungen, unterbringungsrelevante Gefährlichkeitsprognose und Berücksichtigung im richterlichen Urteil. Recht & Psychiatrie, 39, 202-211. [Link zur Publikation auf KrimPub]
  • Lammers, J., & Imhoff, R. (2021). A Chronic Lack of Perceived Personal Control increases Women and Men’s Self-Reported Preference for High-Status Characteristics when Selecting Romantic Partners in Simulated Dating Situations. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12, 1345-1357.
  • Barker, P. & Imhoff, R. (2021). The Dynamic Interactive Pattern of Assimilation and Contrast: Accounting for Standard Extremity in Comparative Evaluations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 97, Article 104190. [Open Access Article] [Open materials and data]
  • Rösch, D., Ruckelshaußen, S., Kirsch, J., Gerhard, S., Sroka, L. A., & Imhoff, R. (2021). Schwachsinnig und abartig? Wahrgenommene Stigmatisierung und tatsächliche Etikettierungseffekte der alten und modernisierten Eingangsmerkmale in § 20 Strafgesetzbuch (StGB). Forensische Psychiatrie, Psychologie, und Kriminologie, 15, 159-168.
  • Oeberst, A., Wachendörfer, M., Imhoff, R., & Blank, H. (2021). Rich false memories of autobiographical events can be reversed. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, 118 (13).
  • Meuer, M. & Imhoff, R. (2021). Believing in Hidden Plots is Associated with Decreased Behavioral Trust: Conspiracy Belief as Greater Sensitivity to Social Threat or Insensitivity Towards its Absence?  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 93, Article 104081. [Open materials and data]
  • Troian, J., Wagner-Egger, P., Motyl, M., Arciszewski, T., Imhoff, R., Zimmer, F., … van Prooijen, J.-W. (2021). Investigating the Links Between Cultural Values and Belief in Conspiracy Theories: the Key Roles of Collectivism and Masculinity. Political Psychology, 42, 597-618.
  • Imhoff, R., Nickolaus, C. (2021). Combined Anchoring: Prosecution and defense sentencing recommendations as sequential anchors in the courtroom. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 26, 215-227. [Preprint] [Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R., Dieterle, L., & Lamberty, P. (2021). Resolving the puzzle of conspiracy worldview and political activism: Belief in secret plots decreases normative but increases non-normative political engagement. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12, 71-79.[Open materials and data]
  • Dang, J., Barker, P., Baumert, A., Bentvelzen, M., Berkman, E., Buchholz, N., …, Imhoff, R., …, Zinkernagel, A. (2021). A Multi-Lab Replication of the Ego Depletion Effect. Social and Personality Psychology Science, 12, 14-24.[Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R. (2020). Assessment of Evidential Value Requires More Than a Single Data Point [Commentary]. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49, 2755–2759.
  • Wertz, M., Schiltz, K., Imhoff, R., & Rettenberger, M. (2020). Der Einfluss des richterlichen Auftrags auf die Qualität der Arbeit von Sachverständigen im Rahmen der Prognosebegutachtung. Recht & Psychiatrie, 38, 193-200. [Link zur Publikation auf KrimPub]
  • Imhoff, R., & Lamberty, P. (2020). A bioweapon or a hoax? The link between distinct conspiracy beliefs about the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and pandemic behavior. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11, 1110-1118. [Preprint][Open materials and data]
  • Betsch, C., Korn, L., Felgendreff, L., Eitze, S., Schmid, P., Sprengholz, P., … & Imhoff, R. (2020). German COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) – Welle 10 (05.05.2020). PsychArchives. https://doi.org/10.23668/PSYCHARCHIVES.2900
  • Koch, A., Dorrough, A., Glöckner, A., & Imhoff, R. (2020). The ABC of society: Perceived similarity in agency/socioeconomic success and conservative-progressive beliefs increases intergroup cooperation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 90, Article 103996.[Open materials and data]
  • Koch, A., Imhoff, R., Unkelbach, C., Nicolas, G., Fiske, S., Terache, J., Carrier, A., & Yzerbyt, V. (2020). Groups’ warmth is a personal matter: Understanding consensus on stereotype dimensions reconciles adversarial models of social evaluation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 89, Article 103995.[Open materials and data]
  • Barker, P., Dotsch, R., & Imhoff, R. (2020). Assimilation and contrast in Spontaneous Comparisons: Heterogeneous Effects of Standard Extremity in Facial evaluations. International Review of Social Psychology, 33, Article 11.[Open materials and data]
  • Landy, J. F., Jia, M., Ding, I. L., Viganola, D., Tierney, W., … Imhoff, R., … Uhlmann, E. L. (2020). Crowdsourcing hypothesis tests: Making transparent how design choices shape research results. Psychological Bulletin, 146, 451-479.[Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R., & Zimmer, F. (2020). Men’s Reasons to Abstain from Masturbation May Not Reflect the Conviction of “reboot” Websites [Letter to the editor]. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 491429-1430.
  • Zimmer, F., & Imhoff, R. (2020). Abstinence from Masturbation and Hypersexuality. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 491333-1343.
  • Marhenke, T., & Imhoff, R. (2020). Increased accessibility of semantic concepts after (more or less) subtle activation of related concepts: support for the basic tenet of priming research. Journal of General Psychology, 147, 186-211.[Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R., Barker, P., & Schmidt, A. F. (2020). To what extent do erotic images elicit visuospatial vs. cognitive attentional processes? Consistent support for a (non-spatial) Sexual Content Induced Delay. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49, 531-550. [Open materials and data]
  • Flade, F., Klar, Y., & Imhoff, R. (2019). Unite Against: A common threat invokes spontaneous decategorization between social categories. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 85, Article 103890.[Open materials and data]
  • Lamberty, P. & Imhoff, R. (2019). From sperm to fatherhood – an experimental approach to determinants of paternal responsibility. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48, 2217-2228. [Open materials and data]
  • Bartels, R. M., Lister, V. P. M., Imhoff, R., & Banse, R. (2019). Tracking mouse trajectories related to decisions about sexual interest. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48, 1387–1401.
  • Petrowski, K., Schmalbach, B, Schurig, S., Imhoff, R., Banse, R., Strauss, B. (2019). Implicit Attachment Schemas and Therapy Outcome for Panic Disorder Treated with Manualized Confrontation Therapy. Psychopathology, 52, 184-190.
  • Marhenke, T., & Imhoff, R. (2019). Does Bem´s Psychological Androgyny map on gender or sex differences in faces?. Psychology, Society, & Education, 11, 99-112.
  • Petrowski, K., Schurig, S., Kirchmann, H., Singh, S., Banse, R., Imhoff, R., & Strauss, B. (2019). Incongruence between implicit attachment schemes and unconscious attachment representations. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 207, 423-428.
  • Imhoff, R., & Messer, M. (2019). In search of experimental evidence for secondary antisemitism – A file drawer report. Meta-Psychology, 3, MP.2018.880.[Open materials and data]
  • Klein, V., Imhoff, R., Reiniger, K. M., & Briken, P. (2019). Perceptions of Sexual Script Deviation in Women and Men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48, 631-644.
  • Imhoff, R., Lange, J., & Germar, M. (2019). Identification and location tasks rely on different mental processes: A diffusion model account of validity effects in spatial cueing paradigms with emotional stimuli. Cognition and Emotion, 33, 231-244. [Open materials and data]
  • Lamberty, P., & Imhoff, R. (2018). Powerful Pharma and its Marginalized Alternatives? Effects of Individual Differences in Conspiracy Mentality on Attitudes towards Medical Approaches. Social Psychology, 49, 255-270.[Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R., & Lamberty, P. (2018). How paranoid are conspiracy believers? Towards a more fine-grained understanding of the connect and disconnect between paranoia and belief in conspiracy theories. European Journal of Social Psychology 48, 909-926. [Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R., Lamberty, P., & Klein, O. (2018). Using power as a negative cue: How conspiracy mentality affects epistemic trust in sources of historical knowledge. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44, 1364-1379.[Open materials and data]
  • Koch, A. S., Kervyn, N., Kervyn, M., & Imhoff, R. (2018). Studying the cognitive map of the U.S. states: Ideology and prosperity stereotypes predict interstate prejudice. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9, 530-538. [Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R., Koch, A., & Flade, F. (2018). (Pre)occupations: A data-driven model of jobs and its consequences for categorization and evaluation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 77, 76-88. [Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R., & Jahnke, S. (2018). Determinants of Punitive Attitudes Toward People with Pedophilia: Dissecting Effects of the Label and Intentionality Ascriptions. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47, 353-361. [Open materials and data]
  • Imhoff, R., Smith, J., & van Zomeren, M. (2018). Opening up to openness [Editorial]. European Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 1-3.
  • Imhoff, R. & Lamberty, P. (2017). Too special to be duped: Need for uniqueness motivates conspiracy beliefs. European Journal of Social Psychology, 47, 724-734.
  • Imhoff, R., Bilewicz, M., Hanke, K., Kahn, D. T., Henkel-Guembel, N., Halabi, S., Shani-Sherman, T., & Hirschberger, G. (in press). Explaining the inexplicable: Differences in attributions to the Holocaust in Germany, Israel and Poland. Political Psychology.
  • Bilewicz, M., Witkowska, M., Stefaniak, A., & Imhoff, R. (2017). The lay historian explains intergroup behavior: Identification and epistemic abilities as correlates of ethnocentric historical attributions. Memory Studies, 10, 310-322.
  • Imhoff, R., Banse, R., & Schmidt, A. F. S. (2017). Toward a Theoretical Understanding of Sexual Orientation and Sexual Motivation. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 29-33.
  • Imhoff, R. & Koch, A. (2017). How orthogonal are the Big Two of social perception? On the curvilinear relation between agency and communion. Perspectives in Psychological Science, 12, 122-137.
  • Koch, A.*, Imhoff, R.*, Dotsch, R., Unkelbach, C., & Alves, H. (2016). The ABC of stereotypes about groups: Agency / socio-economic success, conservative-progressive Beliefs, and Communion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110, 675–709. * geteilte Erstautorenschaft
  • Imhoff, R. (2016). Zeroing in on the effect of the schizophrenia label on stigmatizing attitudes: A large scale study. Schizophrenia Bulletin,42, 456-463.
  • Lammers, J., & Imhoff, R. (2016). Power and sadomasochism: Understanding the antecedents of a knotty relationship. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7, 142-148.
  • Bergen, E., Ahto, A., Schulz, A., Imhoff, R., Antfolk, J., Schuhmann, P., Alanko, K., Santtila, P., & Jern, P. (2015). Adult-adult and adult-child/adolescent online sexual interactions: An exploratory self-report study on the role of situational factors. Journal of Sex Research, 52, 1006-1016.
  • Schmidt, A. F., Zimmermann, P. S., Banse, R., & Imhoff, R. (2015). Ego depletion moderates the influence of automatic and controlled precursors of reactive aggression: A double dissociation. Social Psychology, 46, 132-141.
  • Heser, K., Imhoff, R., & Banse, R. (2015). Affiliation or power: What motivates behavior on social networking sites? Swiss Journal of Psychology, 74, 37-47.
  • Imhoff, R. (2015). Punitive attitudes against pedophiles or persons with sexual interest in children: Does the label matter? Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44, 35-44.
  • Jahnke, S., Imhoff, R., & Hoyer, J. (2015). Stigmatization of people with pedophilia: Two comparative surveys. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44, 21-34.
  • Imhoff, R., Schmidt, A. F., & Gerstenberg, F. (2014). Exploring the Interplay of Trait Self-Control and Ego Depletion: Empirical Evidence for Ironic Effects. European Journal of Personality, 28, 413-424.
  • Imhoff, R., & Bruder, M. (2014). Speaking (Un-)Truth to Power: Conspiracy Mentality as a Generalized Political Attitude. European Journal of Personality, 28, 25-43.
  • Larue, D., Schmidt, A. F., Imhoff, R., Eggers, K., Schönbrodt, F. D., & Banse, R. (2014). Validation of direct and indirect measures of preference for sexual violence. Psychological Assessment, 26, 1173-1183.
  • Imhoff, R., & Schmidt, A. F. (2014). Sexual disinhibition under sexual arousal: Evidence for domain specificity in men and women. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 43, 1123-1136.
  • Imhoff, R., & Dotsch, R. (2013). Do we look like me or like us? Visual projection as self- or ingroup-projection. Social Cognition, 31, 806-816.
  • Gerstenberg, F. X. R., Imhoff, R., Banse, R., & Schmitt, M. (2014). Discrepancies between implicit and explicit self-concepts of intelligence: relations to modesty, narcissism, and achievement motivation. Frontiers in Psychology, 5:85.
  • Imhoff, R., Woelki, J., Hanke, S., & Dotsch, R. (2013). Warmth and competence in your face! Visual encoding of stereotype content. Frontiers in Psychology, 4:386.
  • Imhoff, R., Bergmann, X., Banse, R., & Schmidt, A. F. (2013). Exploring the Automatic Undercurrents of Sexual Narcissism: Individual Differences in the Sex-Aggression-Link. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42, 1033-1041.
  • Gerstenberg, F., Imhoff, R., Banse, R., Altstötter-Gleich, C., Zinkernagel, A., & Schmitt, M. (2013). How Implicit-Explicit Consistency of the Intelligence Self-Concept Moderates Reactions to Performance Feedback. European Journal of Personality, 27, 238-255.
  • Bruder, M., Haffke, P., Neave, N., Nouripanah, N., & Imhoff, R. (2013). Measuring individual differences in generic beliefs in conspiracy theories across cultures: conspiracy mentality questionnaire. Frontiers in Psychology, 4:225.
  • Imhoff, R., Wohl, M., Erb, H.-P. (2013). When the past is far from dead: How ongoing consequences of genocides committed by the ingroup impact collective guilt. Journal of Social Issues, 69, 74-91.
  • Banse, R., Imhoff, R., Steffens, M., Schramm, N., Rösch, A., Robert, M., & Stangier, U. (2013). Partner-AMP and well-being: Evidence for an implicit secure base script? Personal Relationships, 20, 140-154.
  • Gerstenberg, F. X. R., Imhoff, R., & Schmitt, M. (2012). “Women are bad at math, but I’m not, am I?” Narcissistic Mathematical Self-Concept Predicts Vulnerability to Stereotype Threat Effect on Mathematical Performance. European Journal of Personality, 26, 588-599.
  • Imhoff, R., & Recker, J. (2012). Differentiating Islamophobia: Introducing a new scale to measure Islamoprejudice and Secular Islam Critique. Political Psychology, 33, 811-824.
  • Imhoff, R., Schmidt, A. F., Weiß, S., Young, A. W., & Banse, R. (2012). Vicarious Viewing Time: Prolonged response latencies for sexually attractive targets as a function of task- or stimulus-specific processing. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 41, 1389-1401.
  • Imhoff, R., Bilewicz, M., & Erb, H.-P. (2012). Collective Guilt versus Collective Regret. Different emotional reactions to ingroup atrocities. European Journal for Social Psychology, 42, 729-742.
  • Blaison, C., Imhoff, R., Hess, U., & Banse, R. (2012). The affect misattribution procedure: Hot or not? Emotion, 12, 403-412.
  • Dislich, F. X. R., Imhoff, R., Banse, R., Altstötter-Gleich, C., Zinkernagel, A., & Schmitt, M. (2012). Am I smart or not? Discrepancies between the implicit and the explicit self-concept of intelligence predict IQ test performance. European Journal of Personality, 26, 212-220.
  • Imhoff, R.*, Dotsch, R.*, Bianchi, M., Banse, R., & Wigboldus, D. (2011). Facing Europe: Visualizing spontaneous ingroup projection. Psychological Science, 22, 1583-1590. * geteilte Erstautorenschaft
  • Imhoff, R., & Banse, R. (2011). Implicit and explicit attitudes towards ex-partners differentially predict breakup adjustment. Personal Relationships, 18, 427-438.
  • Imhoff, R., Schmidt, A. F., Bernhardt, J., Dierksmeier, A., & Banse, R. (2011). An inkblot for sexual preference: A semantic variant of the Affect Misattribution Procedure. Cognition and Emotion, 25, 676-690.
  • Bilewicz, M.*, Imhoff, R.*, & Drogosz, M. (2011). The humanity of what we eat. Conceptions of human uniqueness among vegetarians and omnivores. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 201-209. * geteilte Erstautorenschaft
  • Imhoff, R., Schmidt, A. F., Nordsiek, U., Luzar, C., Young, A. W. & Banse, R. (2010). Viewing Time revisited: Prolonged response latencies for sexually attractive targets under restricted conditions. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39, 1275-1288.
  • Imhoff, R. (2010). Zwei Formen des modernen Antisemitismus? Eine Skala zur Messung primären und sekundären Antisemitismus [Two forms of modern anti-Semitism? A scale for the measurement of primary and secondary ant-Semitism]. Conflict and Communication Online, 9.
  • Imhoff, R., & Banse, R. (2009) Ongoing victim suffering increases prejudice: The case of secondary antisemitism. Psychological Science, 20, 1443-1447.
  • Imhoff, R., & Erb, H.-P. (2009). What motivates nonconformity? Uniqueness Seeking blocks Majority Influence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 309-320.
  •  Imhoff, R. (2026). The Social Psychology of Conspiracy Theories. In H. Beyer & A. Schauer (Eds.) Return of Ideology (pp. 375-389). Oxford University Press.
  • Imhoff, R., & Bertlich, T. (2026). Stabilisieren sich verschwörungstheoretische Weltbilder bereits in der Jugend? In E. Firsova-Eckert, J. Schuster, & B. Vajen (Hrsg.) Verschwörungstheorien als Herausforderung in der Pädagogik und Politischen Bildung: Theoretische Ansätze und fachdidaktische Praxisperspektiven (pp. 35-49). Springer
  • Imhoff, R. (2026). Verschwörungstheorien als heterodoxes Wissen. In M. Lesau & H.-C. Riechers (Hrsg.) Überzeugungskräfte: Über das Vertrauen in Wissenschaft (und Pseudowissenschaft) (pp. 72-85). Brill.
  • Imhoff, R. (2025). Vom Antisemitismus und anderen verschwörungstheoretisch bedingten Weltbildern. In R. Daniel, J. Haberer, & C. Jänke (Hrsg.) ZusammenHalten: Vielstimmig und streitbar, beherzt und besonnen (pp. 140-157).  Ostfildern: Patmos.
  • Imhoff, R., & Heidrich, V. (2025). Austauschbare Unterscheidungen. Kognitive Humandifferenzierung im Vergleich. In S. Hirschauer, P. Hofmann, A. Friedrichs, & G. Schabacher (Hrsg.) Humandifferenzierung im Vergleich (pp. 124-147). Weilerswist: Velbrück.
  • Imhoff, R. (2024). Connecting conspiracy beliefs and experiences of social exclusion. In M. Pfundmair, A. H. Hales, & K. D. Williams (Eds.) Exclusion and Extremism: A Psychological Perspective (pp. 287-307). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Imhoff, R. (2024). Verschwörungstheorien als Fragment rechtsextremer Theorien. In T. Rothmund & E. Walther (Hrsg.) Psychologie der Rechtsradikalisierung: Theorien, Perspektiven, Prävention (pp. 93-102). Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
  • Imhoff, R. (2023). Nonconformity. In: Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17125-3_18-1
  • Imhoff, R. (2023). Verschwörungstheorien im digitalen Raum. In M. Appel, F. Hutmacher, C. Mengelkamp, J.-P. Stein, & S. Weber (Eds.) Digital ist besser?! Die Psychologie der Online- und Mobilkommunikation (pp. 233-246). Berlin: Springer.
  • Imhoff, R. (2023) The psychology of pandemic conspiracy theories. In M. Butter & P. Knight (Eds.) Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective (pp. 15-25). Taylor & Francis.
  • Imhoff, R. (2023). Herausforderungen aufgrund erodierender geteilter Realität: Die Psychologie der Verschwörungsmentalität. In M. S. Staller, S. Koerner, B. Zaiser (Eds.) Handbuch Polizeipsychologie (pp. 817-832). Berlin: Springer.
  • Schmidt, A. F., & Imhoff, R. (2021). Towards a theory of chronophilic sexual orientation in heterosexual men. In L. A. Craig & R. M. Bartels (Eds.), Sexual deviance: Understanding, assessing, and managing deviant sexual interests and paraphilic disorders (pp. 41-52). Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Imhoff, R. (2021). Antisemitismus, die Legende der jüdischen Weltverschwörung und die Psychologie der Verschwörungsmentalität. In K. Schnebel (Ed.). Antisemitismus – uralt und doch gefährlich! (pp. 118-126). Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren.
  • Imhoff, R. (2021). Kognitive Humandifferenzierung: Sozialpsychologische Perspektiven auf Unterscheidung und Kategorisierung. In D. Dizdar, S. Hirschauer, J. Paulmann, & G. Schabacher (Eds.), Humandifferenzierung: Disziplinäre Perspektiven und empirische Sondierungen (pp. 84 – 105). Weilerswist: Velbrück.
  • Imhoff, R. (2020). Verschwörungsmentalität und Antisemitismus. In: J. Häfele, B. Bogerts, & B. Schmidt (Eds.) Gruppenbezogene Menschenfeindlichkeit in der modernen Gesellschaft ‐ Transdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Aggression, Gewalt und Exzess gegen die Anderen. (pp. 69-90) Wiesbaden: Springer.
  • Imhoff, R., & Lamberty, P. (2020). Conspiracy beliefs as psychopolitical reactions to perceived power. In M. Butter & P. Knight (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories. Routledge.
  • Koch, A. & Imhoff, R. (2019). Rethinking the nature and relation of fundamental dimensions of meaning. In A. E. Abele & B. Wojciszke (Eds.) Agency and Communion in Social Psychology (pp. 167-180). New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Bilewicz, M., Witkowska, M., Stubig, S., Beneda, M., & Imhoff, R. (2017). How to educate about the Holocaust? Psychological obstacles in historical education in Poland and Germany. In C. Psaltis, M. Carretero & S. Cehajic-Clancy (Eds.) History teaching and conflict transformation: Social psychological theories, history teaching and reconciliation (pp. 169-197). London: Palgrave.
  • Banse, R., Schmidt, A. F., & Imhoff, R. (2016). Aggression from the perspective of the Reflective-Impulsive Model: Testing predictions using indirect measures. In R. Deutsch, B. Gawronski, & W. Hoffmann (Eds.). Reflective and impulsive determinants of human behavior (pp. 239-256). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
  • Imhoff, R. (2015). Beyond (right-wing) authoritarianism: Conspiracy mentality as an incremental predictor of prejudice. In. M. Bilewicz, A. Cichocka, & W. Soral (Eds.) The Psychology of Conspiracy (pp. 122-141).London: Routledge.
  • Schmidt, A. F., Banse, R., & Imhoff, R. (2015). Indirect measures in forensic contexts. In F. J. R. van de Vijver & T. Ortner (Eds.), Behavior Based Assessment in Personality, Social, and Applied Psychology (pp. 173-194). Göttingen: Hogrefe.
  • Imhoff, R. (2013). Fragebogen zur Erfassung von Verschwörungsmentalität – Kurzform. In C. J. Kemper, E. Brähler, & M. Zenger (Hrsg.), Psychologische und sozialwissenschaftliche Kurzskalen (pp. 334-336). Berlin: Medizinisch Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft.
  • Imhoff, R. (2013). Skala zur Erfassung von Vorurteilen gegenüber dem Islam und säkularer Kritik am Islam – Kurzform. In C. J. Kemper, E. Brähler, & M. Zenger (Hrsg.), Psychologische und sozialwissenschaftliche Kurzskalen (pp. 279-282). Berlin: Medizinisch Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft.
  • Imhoff, R. (2013). Skala zur Messung von primärem und sekundärem Antisemitismus – Kurzform. In C. J. Kemper, E. Brähler, & M. Zenger (Hrsg.), Psychologische und sozialwissenschaftliche Kurzskalen (pp. 220-223). Berlin: Medizinisch Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft.
  • Banse, R., & Imhoff, R. (2013). Implicit cognition and relationship processes. In J. A. Simpson and L. Campbell (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Close Relationships (pp. 475-499). Oxford University Press.
  • Imhoff, R., & Decker, O. (2013). Verschwörungsmentalität als Weltbild. In: O. Decker, J. Kiess & E. Brähler (Hrsg.), Rechtsextremismus der Mitte (S. 130-145). Wiesbaden: Psychosozial Verlag.
  • Imhoff, R. (2009). Holocaust at the table – Experiences from seven years of “German-Israeli Exchange”. In C. Misselwitz, & C. Siebeck (Eds.) Dissonant Memories – Fragmented Present. Exchanging young discourses between Israel and Germany (pp. 35-43). Bielefeld: transcript.
  • Imhoff, R. (2023). Die Psychologie der Verschwörungstheorien: Von dunklen Mächten sonderbar belogen… Göttingen: Hogrefe.
  • Imhoff, R. (2010). The Dynamics of Collective Guilt Three Generations after the Holocaust: Young Germans’ Emotional Experiences in Response to the Nazi Past. Hamburg: Kovac.
  • Imhoff, R. (2006). Attraktivität von Minderheitenmeinungen. Saarbrücken: VDM.
  • Monschau, A., Zimmer, F., & Imhoff, R. (2018). Preference for Anglicisms and Social Attitudes.Unpublished Project Report. [Report in PDF format]

External Funding Acquired

  • DFG Material Resources Grant “Secondary Antisemitism – Underlying Psychological Processes” (IM 147/1-1) (€ 120,600)
  • German-Israeli Foundation Research Funding “Seventy Years Later: Historical Representations of the Holocaust and their Effects on German-Israeli Relations” (I-1218-358.4/2012) – (€165,000) – with Gilad Hirschberger and Katja Hanke
  • University of Cologne Advanced Postdoctoral Researcher Grant: “Content and Application of Fundamental Stereotype Dimensions” (€ 169,260)
  • DFG Material Resources Grant “Taking a Measure of Comparative Thinking” (IM 147/3-1) (€ 139,800) within the research unit “Relativity in Social Cognition: Antecedents and Consequences of Comparative Thinking” (FOR 2150) – with Ron Dotsch and Daniël Wigboldus
  • DFG Material Resources Grant “Taking a Measure of Comparative Thinking” (IM 147/3-2) (€ 244,800) within the research unit “Relativity in Social Cognition: Antecedents and Consequences of Comparative Thinking” (FOR 2150) – with Ron Dotsch
  • CRC Subproject “B01 Cognitive Human Differentiation. The Situational Emergence and Disappearance of Relevant Categorizations” (€ 458,220) within the DFG Collaborative Research Center “Human Differentiation” (SFB 1482)
  • DFG Material Resources Grant “German Victimhood Memories: The Role of (Motivated) Memory Distortion and Transmission” (IM 147/6-1) (€ 259,720)