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Faculty of Human SciencesSocial Cognition Center Cologne

Chair Unkelbach Group | Allgemeine Psychologie II

Prof. Dr. Christian Unkelbach

Phone +49-221-470-2001

E-mail christian.unkelbachSpamProtectionuni-koeln.de
Address Richard-Strauss-Str. 2, 50931 Köln | Germany

Room 1.A21
Office hours Mondays, 15-16 (Please register for the Office hours via Email)

Attention: There will be no office hours Jun 19th and July 3rd. In urgent cases, please contact me via email.

Research interests | Key publications |All publications | Academic distinctions

Research interests

Social Cognition • Evaluative Judgments • Information Ecologies • Stereotypes and Prejudice • Evaluative Learning • Fluency Effects • Sport Psychology

Key Publications

  • Unkelbach, C., Alves, H., & Koch, A. (2020). Negativity bias, positivity bias, and valence asymmetries: Explaining the differential processing of positive and negative information. In: B. Gawronski (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (pp. 115-187). Cambridge, MA: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2020.04.005

  • Unkelbach, C., Koch, A., & Alves, H. (2019). The Evaluative Information Ecology: On the frequency and diversity of “good” and “bad”. European Review of Social Psychology, 30, 216-270. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2019.1688474

  • Unkelbach, C., Fiedler, K., Bayer, M., Stegmüller, M., & Danner, D. (2008). Why positive information is processed faster: The density hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 36–49. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.36

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All Publications

Journal Publications

  • Zorn, T. J., & Unkelbach, C. (2023). Do people avoid extreme judgments at the beginning ? Calibration and contrast as explanations of serial position effects in evaluations. Social Cognition, 41(3), 209-238. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2023.41.3.209
  • Sperlich, L. M. & Unkelbach, C. (2022). When do people learn likes and dislikes from co-occurrences? A dual-force perspective on evaluative conditioning. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 103, Article 104377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104377

  • Silva, R., & Unkelbach, C. (in press). Fluent processing leads to positive stimulus evaluations even when base rates suggest negative evaluations. Consciousness and Cognition.

  • Lange, J., Unkelbach, C., Glöckner, A., Gollwitzer, M., Kaiser, F. G., & Sassenberg, K. (in press). Das Zusammenspiel von Theorie und Methodik. Psychologische Rundschau.

  • Alves, H., Ugurlar, P., & Unkelbach, C. (in press). Typical is trustworthy – Evidence for a generalized heuristic. Social Psychological and Personality Science.

  • Ruessmann, J., & Unkelbach, C. (in press). Rational dictators in the dictator game are seen as cold and agentic but not intelligent. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

  • Unkelbach, C., Koch, A., Alves, H. (in press). Explaining negativity dominance without processing bias. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

  • Unkelbach, C. & Speckmann, F. (2021). Mere Repetition Increases Belief in Factually True COVID-19-Related Information. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 10(2), 241-247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2021.02.001

  • Nicolas, G., Fiske, S. T., Koch, A., Imhoff, R., Unkelbach, C., Terache, J., Carrier, A., Yzerbyt, V. (in press). Relational versus structural goals prioritize different social Information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

  • Högden, F., & Unkelbach, C. (2021). The role of relational qualifiers in Attribute Conditioning: Does disliking an athletic person make you unathletic? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47, 643-656. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220945538

  • Moran, T., Hughes, S. J., Hussey, I., Vadillo, M., Olson, M., Aust, ... Unkelbach, C. ... & De Houwer, J. (2021). Incidental attitude formation via the surveillance task: A registered replication report of Olson and Fazio (2001). Psychological Science, 32, 120–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620968526

  • Speckmann, F., & Unkelbach, C. (2021). Moses, money, and multiple-choice: The Moses illusion in a multiple-choice format with high incentives. Memory & Cognition, 49, 843-862. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-020-01128-z

  • Alves, H. Högden, F., Gast, A., Aust, F., & Unkelbach, C. (2020). Attitudes from mere co-occurrences are guided by differentiation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119, 560-581. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000193

  • De keersmaecker, J., Dunning, D. A., Pennycook, G., Rand, D. G., Sanchez, C., Unkelbach, C., & Roets, A. (2020). Investigating the robustness of the illusory truth effect across individual differences in cognitive ability, need for cognitive closure, and cognitive style. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46, 204-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219853844

  • Högden, F., Stahl, C., & Unkelbach, C. (2020). Similarity-based and rule-based generalization in the acquisition of attitudes via evaluative conditioning. Cognition & Emotion, 34, 105-127. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2019.1588709

  • 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, 103995. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2020.103995

  • Unkelbach, C., & Fiedler, K. (2020). The challenge of diagnostic inferences from implicit measures: The case of non-evaluative influences in the evaluative priming paradigm. Social Cognition, 38, 208-222. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2020.38.supp.s208

  • Alves, H., Koch, A., & Unkelbach, C. (2019). The differential similarity of positive and negative information—An affect-induced processing outcome? Cognition and Emotion, 33, 1224-1238. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2018.1549022

  • Unkelbach, C., Koch, A., & Alves, H. (2019). The Evaluative Information Ecology: On the frequency and diversity of “good” and “bad”. European Review of Social Psychology, 30, 216-270. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2019.1688474

  • Unkelbach, C., Koch, A. S., Silva, R. R., & Garcia-Marques, T. (2019). Truth by repetition: Explanations and implications. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28, 247-253. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419827854

  • Unkelbach, C., & Högden, F. (2019). Why does George Clooney make coffee sexy? The case for Attribute Conditioning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28, 540-546. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419859354

  • Gräf, M., & Unkelbach, C. (2018). Halo effects from agency behaviors and communion behaviors depend on social context: Why technicians benefit more from showing tidiness than nurses do. European Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 701-717. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2353

  • Högden, F., Hütter, M., & Unkelbach, C. (2018). Does evaluative conditioning depend on awareness? Evidence from a continuous flash suppression paradigm. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 44, 1641-1657. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000533

  • Unkelbach, C., & Greifender, R. (2018). Experiential fluency and declarative advice jointly inform judgments of truth. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 79, 78-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2018.06.010

  • Lammers, J., Gast, A., Unkelbach, C., & Galinsky, A. D. (2018). Moral character impression formation depends on the valence homogeneity of the context. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9, 576-585. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617714585

  • Alves, H., Koch, A., & Unkelbach, C. (2017). The "common good" phenomenon: Why similarities are positive and differences are negative. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146, 512–528. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000276

  • Alves*, H., Koch*, A. S., & Unkelbach, C. (2017). Why good is more alike than bad: Processing implications. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21, 72–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.12.006  * shared first authorship

  • Schofield, T. P., Unkelbach, C., & Denson, T. F. (2017). Alcohol consumption increases bias to shoot at Middle Eastern but not White targets. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 20, 202–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430215603461

  • Alves, H., Koch, A., & Unkelbach, C. (2016). My friends are all alike — the relation between liking and perceived similarity in person perception. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 62, 103–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2015.10.011

  • Förderer, S., & Unkelbach, C. (2016). Changing US attributes after CS-US pairings changes CS-attribute-assessments: Evidence for CS-US associations in attribute conditioning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42, 350–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215626705

  • Gräf, M., & Unkelbach, C. (2016). Halo effects in trait assessment depend on information valence: Why being honest makes you industrious, but lying does not make you lazy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42, 290–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215627137

  • Koch, A., Imhoff, R., Dotsch, R., Unkelbach, C., & Alves, H. (2016). The ABC of stereotypes about groups: Agency/socioeconomic success, conservative–progressive beliefs, and communion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110, 675–709. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000046

  • Alves, H., Unkelbach, C., Burghardt, J., Koch, A. S., Krüger, T., & Becker, V. D. (2015). A density explanation of valence asymmetries in recognition memory. Memory & Cognition, 43, 896–909. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-015-0515-5

  • Fasold, F., Memmert, D., & Unkelbach, C. (2015). A theory-based intervention to prevent calibration effects in serial sport performance evaluations. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 18, 47–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2015.01.001

  • Förderer, S., & Unkelbach, C. (2015). Attribute conditioning: Changing attribute-assessments through mere pairings. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68, 144–164. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2014.939667

  • Garcia-Marques, T., Silva, R. R., Reber, R., & Unkelbach, C. (2015). Hearing a statement now and believing the opposite later. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 56, 126–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2014.09.015

  • Memmert, D., Plessner, H., Hüttermann, S., Froese, G., Peterhänsel, C., & Unkelbach, C. (2015). Collective fit increases team performances: Extending regulatory fit from individuals to dyadic teams. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 45, 274–281. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12294

  • Newman, E. J., Garry, M., Unkelbach, C., Bernstein, D. M., Lindsay, D. S., & Nash, R. A. (2015). Truthiness and falsiness of trivia claims depend on judgmental contexts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41, 1337–1348. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000099

  • Fiedler, K., & Unkelbach, C. (2014). Regressive judgment: Implications of a universal property of the empirical world. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 361–367. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414546330

  • Förderer, S., & Unkelbach, C. (2014). The moderating role of attribute accessibility in conditioning multiple specific attributes. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44, 69–81. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1994

  • Förderer, S., & Unkelbach, C. (2013). On the stability of evaluative conditioning effects: The role of identity memory, valence memory, and evaluative consolidation. Social Psychology, 44, 380–389. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000150

  • Unkelbach, C., Ostheimer, V., Fasold, F., & Memmert, D. (2012). A calibration explanation of serial position effects in evaluative judgments. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 119, 103–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.06.004

  • Unkelbach, C., Stahl, C., & Förderer, S. (2012). Changing CS features alters evaluative responses in evaluative conditioning. Learning and Motivation, 43, 127–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2012.04.003

  • Fasold, F., Memmert, D., & Unkelbach, C. (2012). Extreme judgments depend on the expectation of following judgments: A calibration analysis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13, 197–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2011.11.004

  • Hütter, M., Sweldens, S., Stahl, C., Unkelbach, C., & Klauer, K. C. (2012). Dissociating contingency awareness and conditioned attitudes: Evidence of contingency-unaware evaluative conditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 539–557. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026477

  • Förderer, S., & Unkelbach, C. (2012). Hating the cute kitten or loving the aggressive pit-bull: EC effects depend on CS–US relations. Cognition and Emotion, 26, 534–540. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2011.588687

  • Förderer, S., & Unkelbach, C. (2011). Beyond evaluative conditioning! Evidence for transfer of non-evaluative attributes. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2, 479–486. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550611398413

  • Unkelbach, C., Bayer, M., Alves, H., Koch, A., & Stahl, C. (2011). Fluency and positivity as possible causes of the truth effect. Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 594–602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2010.09.015

  • Guastella, A. J., Kenyon, A. R., Unkelbach, C., Alvares, G. A., & Hickie, I. B. (2011). Arginine Vasopressin selectively enhances recognition of sexual cues in male humans. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 36, 294–297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.07.023

  • Fiedler, K., & Unkelbach, C. (2011). Lottery attractiveness and presentation mode of probability and value information. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 24, 99–115. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.685

  • Fiedler, K., Freytag, P., & Unkelbach, C. (2011). Great oaks from giant acorns grow: How causal-impact judgments depend on the strength of a cause. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 162–172. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.750

  • Reber, R., & Unkelbach, C. (2010). The epistemic status of processing fluency as source for judgments of truth. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 1, 563–581. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-010-0039-7

  • Unkelbach, C., Schneider, H., Gode, K., & Senft, M. (2010). A turban effect, too: Selection biases against women wearing Muslim headscarves. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1, 378–383. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550610378381

  • Unkelbach, C., & Memmert, D. (2010). Crowd noise as a cue in referee decisions contributes to the home advantage. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 32, 483–498.

  • Memmert, D., Unkelbach, C., & Ganns, S. (2010). The impact of regulatory fit on performance in an inattentional blindness paradigm. Journal of General Psychology, 137, 129–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221301003645061

  • Unkelbach, C., von Hippel, W., Forgas, J. P., Robinson, M. D., Shakarchi, R. J., & Hawkins, C. (2010). Good things come easy: Subjective exposure frequency and the faster processing of positive information. Social Cognition, 28, 538–555. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2010.28.4.538

  • Unkelbach, C., Goldenberg, L., Müller, N., Sobbe, G., & Spannaus, N. (2010). A shooter bias in Germany against people wearing Muslims headgear. International Review of Social Psychology, 22, 181–201.

  • Stahl, C., Unkelbach, C., & Corneille, O. (2009). On the respective contributions of awareness of unconditioned stimulus valence and unconditioned stimulus identity in attitude formation through evaluative conditioning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 404–420. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016196

  • Fiedler, K., Unkelbach, C., & Freytag, P. (2009). On splitting and merging categories: A regression account of subadditivity. Memory & Cognition, 37, 383–393. https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.37.4.383

  • Stahl, C., & Unkelbach, C. (2009). Evaluative learning with single versus multiple unconditioned stimuli: The role of contingency awareness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 35, 286–291. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013255

  • Forgas, J. P., Goldenberg, L., & Unkelbach, C. (2009). Can bad weather improve your memory? An unobtrusive field study of natural mood effects on real-life memory. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 254–257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.014

  • Plessner, H., Unkelbach, C., Memmert, D., Baltes, A., & Kolb, A. (2009). Regulatory fit as a determinant of sport performance: How to succeed in a soccer penalty-shooting. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 10, 108–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2008.02.001

  • Unkelbach, C., Forgas, J. P., & Denson, T. F. (2008). The turban effect: The influence of Muslim headgear and induced affect on aggressive responses in the shooter bias paradigm. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1409–1413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.04.003

  • Unkelbach, C., Fiedler, K., Bayer, M., Stegmüller, M., & Danner, D. (2008). Why positive information is processed faster: The density hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 36–49. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.36

  • Unkelbach, C., & Memmert, D. (2008). Game management, context effects, and calibration: The case of yellow cards in soccer. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 30, 95–109.

  • Memmert, D., Unkelbach, C., Ertmer, J., & Rechner, M. (2008). Gelb oder kein Gelb? Persönliche Verwarnungen im Fußball als Kalibrierungsproblem [Yellow card or no yellow card? Soccer cautioning as a calibration problem]. Zeitschrift für Sportpsychologie, 15, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1026/1612-5010.15.1.1

  • Unkelbach, C., Fiedler, K., & Freytag, P. (2007). Information repetition in evaluative judgments: Easy to monitor, hard to control. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 103, 37–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.12.002

  • Unkelbach, C., & Plessner, H. (2007). "Category-Split" Effekte bei Urteilen über Sportlerinnen, Sportler und Sportarten ["Category-split" effects in judgments about sportswomen, sportsmen, and sports]. Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie, 38, 111–121. https://doi.org/10.1024/0044-3514.38.2.111

  • Unkelbach, C. (2007). Reversing the truth effect: Learning the interpretation of processing fluency in judgments of truth. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 219–230. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.33.1.219

Book Publications

  • Unkelbach, C., Alves, H., & Koch, A. (2020). Negativity bias, positivity bias, and valence asymmetries: Explaining the differential processing of positive and negative information. In: B. Gawronski (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 62, 115-187. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.

  • Unkelbach, C., & Koch, A. (2019). Gullible but functional? Information repetition and the formation of beliefs. In J. P. Forgas, & R. F. Baumeister (Eds.), The Social Psychology of Gullibility (pp. 42–60). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

  • Unkelbach, C., & Greifeneder, R. (2013). The experience of thinking: How the fluency of mental processes influences cognition and behaviour. New York, NY: Psychology Press.

  • Unkelbach, C., & Greifeneder, R. (2013). A general model of fluency effects in judgment and decision making. In C. Unkelbach & R. Greifeneder (Eds.), The experience of thinking: How the fluency of mental processes influences cognition and behaviour (pp. 11–32). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

  • Greifeneder, R., & Unkelbach, C. (2013). Experiencing thinking. In C. Unkelbach & R. Greifeneder (Eds.), The experience of thinking: How the fluency of mental processes influences cognition and behaviour (pp. 1–7). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

  • Unkelbach, C., & Greifeneder, R. (2013). Thinking about "experiences of thinking": Fluency in six principles. In C. Unkelbach & R. Greifeneder (Eds.), The experience of thinking: How the fluency of mental processes influences cognition and behaviour (pp. 257–261). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

  • Unkelbach, C., Plessner, H., & Memmert, D. (2009). "Fit" in sports: Self-regulation and athletic performances. In J. P. Forgas, R. F. Baumeister, & D. M. Tice (Eds.), Psychology of self-regulation: Cognitive, affective, and motivational processes (pp. 93–105). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

  • Fiedler, K., Blümke, M., & Unkelbach, C. (2009). Exerting control over allegedly automatic associative processes. In J. P. Forgas, R. F. Baumeister, & D. M. Tice (Eds.), Psychology of self-regulation: Cognitive, affective, and motivational processes (pp. 249–269). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

  • Unkelbach, C., Plessner, H., & Haar, T. (2009). Soziale Kognitionen im Sport [Social Cognition in Sports]. In W. Schlicht & B. Strauss (Eds.), Enzyklopädie der Psychologie, Themenbereich D – Praxisgebiete, Serie V, Sportpsychologie: Band 1: Grundlagen der Sportpsychologie (pp. 681–717). Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.

  • Brand, R., Plessner, H., & Unkelbach, C. (2008). Basic psychological processes underlying referees' decision-making. In P. Andersson, P. Ayton, & C. Schmidt (Eds.), Myths and facts about football: The economics and psychology of the world's greatest sport (pp. 173–190). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

  • Weisbuch, M., Unkelbach, C., & Fiedler, K. (2008). Remnants of the recent past: Influences of priming on first impressions. In N. Ambady & J. J. Skowronski (Eds.), First impressions (pp. 289–312). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

  • Unkelbach, C., & Plessner, H. (2008). The sampling trap of intuitive judgments. In H. Plessner, C. Betsch, & T. Betsch (Eds.), Intuition in judgment and decision making (pp. 283–294). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

  • Fiedler, K., Blümke, M., Freytag, P., Unkelbach, C., & Koch, S. (2008). A semiotic approach to understanding the role of communication in stereotyping. In Y. Kashima, K. Fiedler, & P. Freytag (Eds.), Stereotype dynamics: Language-based approaches to the formation, maintenance, and transformation of stereotypes (pp. 95–116). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

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Academic distinctions

  • Grants:
    Speaker Research Unit FOR2150 "Relativity in Social Cognition" (DFG), 2017-2021
    Emmy Noether Research Grant, German Science Foundation (DFG), 2009-2013
    Feoder Lynen Research Scholarship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, 2007-2008
    Fulbright Scholarship, Fulbright Commission, 1999-2000

  • Editor-in-Chief:
    Social Psychology (2013-2016)

  • Associate Editor:
    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2021-)
    Experimental Psychology (2011-2012)
    Social Psychology (2012-2013, 2016-2017)

  • Editorial boards:
    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2017-2020)
    Psychological Science (2012-2019)
    Experimental Psychology (2013-)
    Social Psychology (2017-)
    Social Psychology and Personality Science (2009-2015, 2018-2020)
    European Journal of Social Psychology (2007-2014)

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