I am a professor of social and personality psychology with a passion for quantitative methods and innovative assessment techniques.

My research examines how people judge others’ personality traits and the effects this has on social interactions. I am currently PI in two larger research projects. In the first project, called Who Knows, my team and I developed a free quiz app to assess the accuracy of people’s inferences about strangers. In the second project, called Glimpse, we measure positivity differences in people’s first impressions and relate this to their personality traits and interpersonal experiences.

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
  • Agency and Communion
  • Social Dynamics

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:

Here’s a selection of AI-generated podcasts about specific papers of mine (in German):

  • [Bauchgefühl_ist_nur_ein_schneller_Münzwurf](files/01 Bauchgefühl_ist_nur_ein_schneller_Münzwurf.m4a) [17 minutes]

Peer Reviewed Publications

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

Rau, R., Kueppers, S., Back, M. D., & Grosz, M. P. (2026). Item features affect how well people can predict self-reported personality traces of strangers. European Journal of Personality.

Preprint Code Dataset

Remmers, C., Anoschin, A., Zimmermann, J., Grosz, M. P., Back, M. D., & Rau, R. (2026). Intuitive judgments of strangers are more popular but not more accurate than deliberate ones. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506261452705

Preprint Code Dataset

Rau, R.*, Hönig, L.*, Back, M. D., & Grosz, M. P. (2026). Receiving applause "from the right": Punishing freeriding is socially rewarded by those high in right-wing authoritarianism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672261445479 * equal contribution

Preprint PDF Code Dataset

Rau, R., Weiner, L., & Vogel, L. (2026). Perceiver positivity differences originate in early-stage impression formation: Evidence from a recognition task. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672261424543

PDF Code Dataset

Schoedel, R., Altgassen, E., Back, M. D., Buss, M., Bühner, M., Etzel, J. M., Goecke, B., Grinschgl, S., Grunenberg, E., Hätscher, O., Hommel, B. E., Kordsmeyer, T. L., Körner, S., Kuper, N., Mata, R., Mussel, P., Petrasch, A., Rammstedt, B., Rau, R., Short, C. A., Sindermann, C., Stachl, C., Stasielowicz, L., Sust, L., Thelen, J., Weiss, S., Wilhelm, O., Wulff, D., Wrzus, C., & Ziegler, M. (2026). Künstliche Intelligenz und Individuelle Unterschiede. Eine Perspektive der Fachgruppe Differentielle Psychologie, Persönlichkeitspsychologie und Psychologische Diagnostik. Psychologische Rundschau, 77(3), 149–155. https://doi.org/10.1026/0033-3042/a000766 [english version retrievable from https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/j8szh_v2]

Preprint PDF

Thielmann, I., Back, M. D., Bleidorn, W., Bukowski, H., Carlson, E. N., Dufner, M., Hofer, G., Hofmann, W., Hopwood, C. J., Human, L. J., Jordan, C. H., Krueger, J. I., Langdon, J., Rau, R., Smillie, L. D., Strohminger, N., Sun, J., Vazire, S., Burghardt, M., …Seidl, A. (2026). A consensus statement on self-knowledge conceptualization, measurement, outcomes, and changeability. Nature Reviews Psychology, 5, 338-–351. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-026-00554-1

PDF Project

Dufner, M.*, Grapsas, S.*, & Rau, R. (2026). Behavioral and valuation contingency: Why the same dispositions lead to different social evaluations across contexts. Social Psychocological and Personality Science, 17(5), 579–-592. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506251356006 * equal contribution

PDF Code Dataset

Bleckmann, E., Rau, R., Lüdtke, O., Krause, S., & Wagner, J. (2025). How group personality composition affects person and group outcomes: An integrative analysis using the Group-Actor-Partner-Interdependence Model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 130(6), 1208–1228. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000588

Preprint Code Dataset

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, 116, 104596. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2025.104596 * equal contribution

PDF 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), Article 83. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-025-02601-w

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. https://doi.org/10.1177/08902070241235969

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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. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.332

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, 59(4), 879–893. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2024.2335411

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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, 127(4), 901–-919. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000496

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. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12893

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. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2023.104413

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. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221107205

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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. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000420 \*shared first authorship * equal contribution

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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. https://doi.org/10.1037/per0000589

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. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000407

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. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211066710

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. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211039101

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. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000278

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. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191120905015

PDF Code Dataset

Maaßen, E., Büttner, M., Bröcker, A.-L., Stuke, F., Bayer, S., Hadzibegovic, J., Just, S. A., Bertram, G., Rau, R., von Haebler, D. von, Lempa, G., & Montag, C. (2021). Measuring emotional awareness in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 725787. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.725787

PDF Dataset

Rau, R., Thielmann, I., Breil, S. M., Geukes, K., Krause, S., Nikoleizig, L., Back, M. D., & Nestler, S. (2020). Do perceiver effects in interpersonal perception predict cooperation in social dilemmas? Collabra: Psychology, 6(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.332

PDF Code 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), Article e0234232. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 * equal contribution

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. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000250

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Teaching

This winter term (2026/27) I teach the following courses:

  • Lecture Introduction to Social Psychology (undergraduate course)
  • Seminar Key Phenomena in Social Psychology (undergraduate course)
  • Lecture Introduction to Differential and Personality Psychology (undergraduate course)
  • Seminar Key Phenomena in Personality Psychology (undergraduate course)
  • Lecture Psychological Assessment I (undergraduate course)

See my CV for an overview of courses I have taught in the past.

Contact