In my research, I am engaged in exploring how people assess the personality traits of their fellow human beings and how this impacts social dynamics. I investigate both methodological questions related to psychological assessment – such as how to measure whether people tend to see the good or the bad in others – and substantive questions related to social and personality psychology – such as the individual antecedents and social consequences of a good interpersonal intuition.

In our current most comprehensive research project, my team and I have developed a free quiz app for assessing one’s own interpersonal intuition. For more information, please visit the Who Knows project.

I am dedicated to the Open Science movement, regularly sharing research data, materials, and analysis scripts for my studies, which I also preregister whenever possible.

See my CV for details.

Interests

  • Interpersonal Perception
  • Psychometrics
  • Agency and Communion
  • Social Dynamics
  • Personality Pathology

Education

  • PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in Psychology, 2019

    University of Münster

  • M.Sc. in Psychology, 2016

    University of Leipzig

  • B.Sc. in Psychology, 2012

    University of Freiburg

Media

Here’s a selection of my media appearances:

Peer Reviewed Publications

See my CV for a publication list including working papers, talks, etc.

Schäpermeier, M. T., Thielmann, I., & Rau, R. (2024). Which measures of beliefs about others’ prosociality predict prosocial behavior in economic games?. Collabra: Psychology, 10(1), Article 121385.

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Kueppers, S., Rau, R., & Scharf, S. (2024). Using Monte Carlo Simulation to forecast the scientific utility of psychological app studies: A tutorial. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1–15.

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Scharbert, J., Utesch, K., Reiter, T. F., ter Horst, J., van Zalk, M., Back, M. D., & Rau, R. (2024). If you were happy and you know it, clap your hands! Testing the peak-end rule for retrospective judgments of well-being in everyday life. European Journal of Personality (accepted for publication).

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Bleckmann, E., Rau, R., Carlson, E. N., & Wagner, J. (2024). I think you might like me: Emergence and change of meta-liking in initial social interactions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (accepted for publication).

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Carlson, E. N., Elsaadawy, N., Pringle, V., & Rau, R. (2023). Individual differences in dissimilation: Do some people make more distinctions among targets’ personalities than others?. Journal of Personality, Advance Online Publication.

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Pringle, V., Carlson, E. N., & Rau, R. (2023). Self-knowledge of perceiver effects: Do people know how positively they tend to view targets relative to other people?. Journal of Research in Personality, Advance Online Publication.

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Schauf, T., Dufner, M., Nestler, S., & Rau, R. (2023). Do agency and communion explain the relationship between perceiver and target effects in interpersonal perception? A meta-analysis on generalized reciprocity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 49(10), 1479–1494.

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Thielmann, I.*, Rau, R.*, & Locke, K. D. (2023). Trait-specificity versus global positivity: A critical test of alternative sources of assumed similarity in personality judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 124(4), 828–847. *shared first authorship.

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Rau, R., Zimmermann, J., & Back, M. D. (2023). Applying multi-modal Social Relations Analyses in personality pathology research. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 14(1), 73–82.

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Rau, R., Carlson, E. N., Dufner, M., Geukes, K., Kraft, L., Krause, S., Nikoleizig, L., Nestler, S., & Back, M. D. (2022). Positivity in peer perceptions over time: Personality explains variation at zero-acquaintance, popularity explains differential change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 123(2), 423–443.

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Rau, R., Lawless DesJardins, N. M., Niemeyer, L. M., Back, M. D., Srivastava, S., & Nestler, S. (2022). Perceiver effects in first impressions reflect generalized stereotypes: Evidence of consistency across time, groups, and contexts. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 13(7), 1138–1150.

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Heynicke, M., Rau, R., Leising, D., Wessels, N., & Wiedenroth, A. (2022). Perceiver effects in person perception reflect acquiescence, positivity, and trait-specific content: Evidence from a large-scale replication study. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 13(4), 839–848.

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Rau, R., Carlson, E. N., Back, M. D., Barranti, M., Gebauer, J. E., Human, L. J., Leising, D., & Nestler, S. (2021). What is the structure of perceiver effects? On the importance of global positivity and trait-specificity across personality domains and judgment contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(3), 745–764.

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Rau, R., Nestler, W., Dufner, M., & Nestler, S. (2021). Seeing the best or worst in others: A measure of generalized other-perceptions. Assessment, 28(8), 1897–1914.

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Maaßen, E., Büttner, M., Bröcker, A.-L., Stuke, F., Bayer, S., Hadzibegovic, J., Just, S. A., Bertram, G., Rau, R., Haebler, D. von, Lempa, G., & Montag, C. (2021). Measuring emotional awareness in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders. Frontiers in Psychology, 0, 5225.

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Garbe, L.*, Rau, R.*, & Toppe, T.* (2020). Influence of perceived threat of Covid-19 and HEXACO personality traits on toilet paper stockpiling. PloS ONE, 15(6). *shared first authorship.

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Rau, R., Thielmann, I., Breil, S. M., Geukes, K., Krause, S., Nikoleizig, L., Back, M. D., & Nestler, S. (2019). Do perceiver effects in interpersonal perception predict cooperation in social dilemmas?. Collabra: Psychology, 6(1), 35.

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Rau, R., Nestler, S., Geukes, K., Back, M. D., & Dufner, M. (2019). Can other-derogation be beneficial? Seeing others as low in agency can lead to an agentic reputation in newly formed face-to-face groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(1), 201–227.

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Teaching

Once I began my Ph.D., I regularly conducted seminars and workshops on implementing statistical procedures using SPSS and R at both the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels. Furthermore, I held lectures on Psychological Diagnostics at the Master’s level and led seminars on targeted diagnostic interviewing, personality and performance measurement, and personality and interpersonal perception at zero-acquaintance at the University of Münster. At HMU, my teaching focus also lies in the field of Psychological Diagnostics.

In the winter term (WS 2025) I teach the following courses:

  • Lecture Introduction to Social Psychology
  • Seminar Key Phenomena in Social Psychology

See my CV for a detailed overview of courses I have taught.

Contact