I am a postdoctoral researcher in the field of personality and social psychology with a strong interest in psychological assessment and quantitative methodology.

My research explores how people assess the personality traits of their fellow human beings and how this impacts social dynamics. For instance, I study why some people are better than others at making accurate inferences about strangers and what social consequences it has for someone to tend towards positively or negatively biased views of others.

In one of my current research projects, 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. In another current project of mine, we are measuring whose first impressions are positively or negatively biased and try to understand this tendency by embedding it in their personality. For more information, please visit the Glimpse 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 on my biography.

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.

Rau, R.*, Schömann, L. M.*, & Grosz, M. P. (2025). People “fake-good” on personality self-reports more strongly in a job context than in a dating context. Journal of Research in Personality (accepted for publication). *shared first authorship.

Preprint Code Dataset

Rau, R., Grosz, M. P., & Back, M. D. (2025). A large-scale, gamified online assessment of first impressions: The Who Knows project. Behavior Research Methods, 57 (3), 83.

PDF Code Dataset

Scharbert, J., Utesch, K., Reiter, T., ter Horst, J., van Zalk, M., Back, M. D., & Rau, R. (2025). 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, 39 (1), 55–69.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code

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).

Preprint Code Dataset

Carlson, E. N., Elsaadawy, N., Pringle, V., & Rau, R. (2024). Individual differences in dissimilation: Do some people make more distinctions among targets’ personalities than others?. Journal of Personality, 92(5), 1341–1355.

PDF Code Dataset

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, 106, 104413.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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.

PDF Code Dataset

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 Social Psychology and Psychological Assessment.

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