I am a full-time Professor in Social Psychology with a Focus on Work, Society, and Economcy at the University of Vienna, Faculty of Psychology. Additionally, I am a part-time Professor in Applied Social Psychology and Behavioral Science at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Psychology. I am also affiliated with Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science (SODAS, https://sodas.ku.dk/). 

I am interested in the description and prediction of human decisions and behaviors in social interactions. I am particularly intrigued in changing human behaviors related to global challenges, such as preventing conflict and violence, eliminating infectious diseases, and mitigating climate change. My research often has a multidisciplinary perspective, using theories and methods from psychology, economics, evolutionary biology, and related disciplines.

Selected Recent Publications

Gross, J., & Böhm, R. (2020). Voluntary restrictions on self-reliance increase cooperation and mitigate wealth inequality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117, 29202-29211.

Pfattheicher, S., Nockur, L., Böhm, R., Sassenrath, C., & Petersen, M. B. (2020). The emotional path to action: Empathy promotes physical distancing and wearing of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological Science, 31, 1363-1373.

Betsch, C., Korn, L., Sprengholz, P., Felgendreff, L., Eitze, S., Schmid, P., & Böhm, R. (2020). Social and behavioral consequences of mask policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117, 21851-21853.

Habersaat, K., Betsch, C., Danchin, M., Sunstein, C. R., Böhm, R., Falk, A., Brewer, N. T., Omer, S. T., Scherzer, M., Sah, S., Fischer, E. F., Scheel, A. E., Fancourt, D., Kitayama, S., Dubé, E., Leask, J., Dutta, M., MacDonald, N. E., Temkina, A., Lieberoth, A., Jackson, M., Lewandowsky, S., Seale, H., Fietje, N., Schmid, P., Gelfand, M., Korn, L., Eitze, S., Felgendreff, L., Sprengholz, P., Salvi, C., Butler, R. (2020). Ten considerations for effectively managing the COVID-19 transition. Nature Human Behaviour, 4, 677-687.

Korn, L., Böhm, R., Meier, N., & Betsch, C. (2020). Vaccination as a social contract. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 17, 14891-14899.

Betsch, C., & Böhm, R. (2018). Moral values do not affect prosocial vaccination. Nature Human Behaviour, 2, 881-882.

Böhm, R., Theelen, M. M. P., Rusch, H., & Van Lange, P. A. M. (2018). Costs, needs, and integration efforts shape helping behavior toward refugees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115, 7284-7289.

Pfattheicher, S., & Böhm, R. (2018). Honesty-Humility under threat: Self-uncertainty destroys trust among the nice guys. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114, 179-194.

Betsch., C., Böhm, R., Korn, L, & Holtmann, C. (2017). On the benefits of explaining herd immunity in vaccine advocacy. Nature Human Behaviour, 1, 0056.