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A recent development in video games is that players can design and personalize their own in-game characters. It was predicted that this innovation could lead to elevations in the intensity of the psychological effects of video games. The present study confirmed this hypothesis, revealing that participants who played an aggressive video game using their own, personalized character exhibited higher levels of aggressive behavior than participants who played an aggressive game with a non-personalized character. The aggressive behavior levels of the own-character players also exceeded those of individuals who played a non-aggressive game, regardless of whether or not they used a personalized character. Process analyses revealed that participants playing a violent video game with a personalized game character experienced more arousal and self-activation than they did when playing with an impersonal, default game character, which in turn increased aggressive responses.

In a series of three studies, we investigated the validity of implicit theories that the German public holds regarding Muslims. German participants expected Muslims to be more aggressive than Christians, and therefore be more supportive of terrorism than Christians. Furthermore, Muslims were assumed to be more intrinsically religious and to hold a stronger identity with their religion than Christians (Study 1). However, self-assessment surveys of Muslims and Christians in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS: ex-Soviet Union) revealed that Muslims were not more aggressive, more intrinsically religious, or more supportive of terrorism than Christians. In contrast, Muslims reported a stronger religious identification than Christians (Study 2). Correspondingly, threat to religious identity was found to affect only Muslims', but not Christians', attitudes toward terrorism conducted by outgroup perpetrators. In contrast to Germans' implicit theories regarding Muslims, it was the importance of religious identity and not increased aggression potential that mediated this effect (Study 3).

When people make decisions, they often prefer to receive information that supports rather than conflicts with their decision. To date, this effect has mainly been investigated in the context of decisions about gains, whereas decisions about losses have received less attention. Based on Prospect Theory, we expected information search to be differently affected by whether people previously have decided about gains or losses. Three studies have revealed that selectivity of information search is stronger after gain-framed rather than after loss-framed decision problems. An investigation of the underlying psychological processes revealed that gain decisions are made with increased subjective decision certainty (i.e. they are easier and less effortful to make), which in turn systematically increases confirmatory information search.

The present research reveals that people's implicit theories of civil courage and helping behavior are clearly distinguishable. In three studies, it was shown that situations requiring civil courage rather than helping assistance were perceived more quickly and were associated with greater perceived responsibility, less perceived intervention skills, a lower degree of expected positive social consequences, a higher degree of expected negative social consequences, a higher salience of societal norms, more evaluation apprehension, anger, and more empathy. Moreover, results revealed that the decisions on whether or not to engage in either civil courage or helping behavior are differentially influenced by perceived responsibility (the influence was greater for the decision to help than for the decision to show civil courage) and empathy (empathy was only important for the decision to help, but not for the decision to show civil courage). Implications of these results are discussed and the question of whether the determinants of helping behavior are also responsible for civil courage is pursued in detail.

Three studies were performed to investigate how identification with an exergame character increases motivation to perform physical activity and, in turn, actual physical activity. Study 1 showed that the extent to which players identified with their game character positively correlated with motivation to perform physical activity. Study 2 indicated that participants who were asked to write down similarities (high identification) compared with differences (low identification) between themselves and their exergame character strengthened their motivation to perform physical activity. Study 3 suggested that playing with a game character that looked similar to one's own appearance (vs. controls) was accompanied by increased motivation to perform physical activity and a higher level of actual physical activity 1 week later. The level of physical activity required by an exergame had no significant influence on our results.

The present research experimentally investigated the impact of terrorism salience on authoritarian practices. It was found that terrorist threat cues (induced by reminders of terrorist incidents) had a significant impact upon both attitudes and behaviors regarding authoritarian parenting practices (Studies 1 and 2) as well as their actual occurrence in a real parent-child playing interaction (Study 3). The implications of these findings for the social psychological perspective on threat and parenting style are discussed.

There is a large body of research showing that people selectively prefer information that supports their decisions and opinions, and avoid conflicting information (selective information processing). Three studies were conducted to examine how the different leadership styles of supervisors influence subordinates' selective information processing (i.e., the evaluation, seeking, and conveying of information). Studies 1 and 2 indicate that students in the role of subordinates who were exposed to transformational supervisors process information in a more balanced way than do those who were led by a transactional supervisor. Study 3 was carried out with professionals and showed that transformational leadership was negatively correlated with selective information seeking and conveying. This finding was mediated by the experience of positive emotions. Transactional leadership, by contrast, was not significantly associated with selective information processing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.