Prof. Dr. Mario Gollwitzer

Research Interests

• Social psychological research on retributive justice (including revenge and punishment)
• Individual differences in "justice sensitivity" and their relation to moral reasoning and moral behavior
• Science communication and (motivated) science reception
• Replicability / Meta-Science

Academic Education and Positions

Current Research Projects

• Coordination of the DFG Priority Program META-REP (“A Meta-scientific Program to Analyze and Optimize Replicability in the Behavioral, Social, and Cognitive Sciences”; SPP 2317); funded by the German Research Foundation / DFG; 2021-2027
• „Agile-RDM: Introducing an agile and needs-based orientated strategy for research data management in psychology“ (together with Dr. Katharina Blask, ZPID Trier, and Prof. Dr. Felix Schönbrodt, LMU München; funded by the German Research Foundation / DFG; 2025-2027)
• “TiCS: Trust in Citizen Science” (together with Dr. Marlene Altenmüller; funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research / BMBF); 2023-2026
• „Revenge, Retribution, Justice: Legal Implications and Social-Psychological Research” (together with Prof. Dr. Ralf Kölbel; Program “NEXT – Law Between Normativity and Reality”; funded by the Volkwagen Foundation; 2023-2025;)

Scientific Engagement / Memberships

• Member, Senate and Grants Committee on Research Training Groups, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (2020-2025)
• Member, Selection Committee of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship (2022-2027)
• Editor for the book series “Perspectives on Justice and Morality” of the International Society for Justice Research (ISJR) (since 2018)
• Member in the Editorial Board of the Institute for Replication (I4R); Section „Behavioral Science“ (since 2024)
• Coordinator, DFG Priority Program META-REP (SPP 2317)

Editorial Activities / Editorial Board Memberships

• Consulting Editor, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSPB)
• Editorial Board Member, Personality Science
• Editorial Board Member, European Journal of Social Psychology (EJSP)
• Guest Associate Editor, Journal of Organizational Behavior (Special Issue: "Justice Enactment – Research on “Doing Justice” in Organizations"; Issue 42(6), July 2021)
• Guest Associate Editor, Zeitschrift für Psychologie (Topical Issue: "The Motivational Basis of Punishment: Conceptual Replications of the ‘Intuitive Retributivism’ Hypothesis", Issue 230(2), April 2022)
• Guest Handling Editor, Personality Science (Theme Bundle: "Ten Steps Toward a Better Personality Science – How Quality May Be Rewarded More in Research Evaluation"; Issue 3/2022)

Memberships in Scientific Societies

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie (DGPs)
European Association of Social Psychology (EASP)
International Society for Justice Research (ISJR)
Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP)
Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP)

Publications

Google Scholar Profile

Books (selected)

• Gollwitzer, M., Pohl, S. & Jäger, R. S. (2023). Evaluation kompakt [Evaluation compact] (3rd ed.). Weinheim: Beltz.
• Gollwitzer, M. & Schmitt, M. (2019). Sozialpsychologie kompakt [Social psychology compact] (2nd ed.). Weinheim: Beltz.
• Eid, M., Gollwitzer, M. & Schmitt, M. (2017). Statistik und Forschungsmethoden [Statistics and research methods] (5th ed.). Weinheim: Beltz.
• Eid, M., Gollwitzer, M. & Schmitt, M. (2016). Formelsammlung Statistik und Forschungsmethoden [Equations for statistics and research methods]. Weinheim: Beltz.
• Gollwitzer, M., Lotz, S., Schlösser, T. & Streicher, B. (Hrsg.) (2013). Soziale Gerechtigkeit: Was unsere Gesellschaft aus den Erkenntnissen der Gerechtigkeitspsychologie lernen kann [Social justice: What society can learn from research on the psychology of justice]. Göttingen: Hogrefe.

Recent peer-reviewed journal articles (selected)

• Brotzeller, F., van Houwelingen, G. G., Gollwitzer, M., & Fischer, M. (2025). Motive attributions shape judgments of whistleblowers’ moral characters. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. [Advance Online Publication]. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672251340111
• Brotzeller, F., & Gollwitzer, M. (2025). Exploring asymmetries in self-concept change after discrepant feedback. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 51(9), 1731-1744. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672241232738
• Cologna, V., Mede, N. G., Berger, S., Besley, J., Brick, C., Joubert, M., ... Gollwitzer, M., ... & Zwaan, R. A. (2025). Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries. Nature Human Behavior, 9, 713-730. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02090-5
• 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), e241311. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.241311
• Okimoto, T. G., & Gollwitzer, M. (2025). The social psychology of justice repair. Annual Review of Psychology, 76, 693-716. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-030124-114525
• Twardawski, M., Fischer, M., Agostini, P., Schwabe, J., & Gollwitzer, M. (2025). The role of just-world beliefs, victim identifiability, and the salience of an alternative target for victim blaming. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 119, e104721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2025.104721
• Zein, R. A., Altenmüller, M. S., & Gollwitzer, M. (2024). Longtime nemeses or cordial allies? How individuals mentally relate science and religion. Psychological Review, 131(6), 1459-1481. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000492
• Altenmüller, M. S., Kampschulte, L., Verbeek, L., & Gollwitzer, M. (2023). Science communication gets personal: Ambivalent effects of self-disclosure in science communication on trust in science. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 29(4), 793–812. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000489
• Fischer, M., Twardawski, M., Strelan, P., & Gollwitzer, M. (2022). Victims need more than power: Empowerment and moral change independently predict victims’ satisfaction and willingness to reconcile. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 123(3), 518–536. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000291
• Gollwitzer, M., & Schwabe, J. (2022). Context dependency as a predictor of replicability. Review of General Psychology, 26(2), 241-249. https://doi.org/10.1177/10892680211015635