Research Profile

I am a behavioural scientist and I am used to applying methods from various fields (such as economics, psychology, endocrinology, or neuroscience) to the corresponding research questions. My research clusters around three central pillars, viz. ageing, social norm compliance, and new media.

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Beyond the toolbox of experimental economic, I run experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), eye-tracking, and hormonal sampling through blood and saliva. Although my research career started with ethologic studies during my licentiate in psychology, I moved on to run economic experiments in my doctorate. The topic of my doctoral thesis “Developmental neuroeconomics: lifespan changes in economic decision making” summarizes well the research I performed with various co-authors during this time. Most notably, I worked on age differences in decision making under uncertainty, both with instruments from behavioural economics and from neuroeconomics.

I further started working on social preferences or, more precisely, on age differences in competitiveness. My research portfolio is extended by my works on social norm compliance: I performed research on efficiency concerns (where methods from experimental economics are supplemented by hormonal measurements) and on fiduciary money management (which lies in the field of experimental finance). More recently, I started building up a third research pillar on new media, where I study media piracy using experimental methods, fapstinence using surveys, and drug trafficking on cryptomarkets with the tools of empirical economics. By organizing and participating in various workshops and conferences, I build up a large and international network of researchers with similar interests and with whom I am co-authoring a number of projects.