Prof. Dr. Alexa Weiss

Professor of Social and Legal Psychology

Prof. Dr. Alexa Weiss is a professor of social psychology and legal psychology (group: social psychology and legal psychology II).

Alexa Weiss' research focuses on moral psychology. In particular, she is interested in the psychological processes underlying moral judgments of one's own and other people's norm-violating and prosocial behaviors, and potential resulting moral double standards (hypocrisy/hypercrisy). In addition, Alexa Weiss’s research group studies cooperation, interpersonal trust, social impression formation, social emotions such as empathy, gratitude, and guilt, close relationships, and religion. Questions in forensic psychology and the psychology of law form another research focus (in particular, attitudes toward and contextual factors of interpersonal and sexual violence). Further interests include psycholinguistics and social-cognitive development.

Research interests:

Moral cognition and moral behavior, behavioral ethics
Trust and distrust
Social emotions (gratitude, empathy, & guilt)
Close relationships
Sexual and intimate partner violence
Social and moral development
Psychology of religion

Media Coverage

Doppelmoral - Berechtigte Kritik oder Totschlagargument? [Moral Double Standards - Justified Criticism or Killer Argument?] | By Dörte Hinrichs | 23.03.2023 | Deutschlandfunk
Frau Dr. Weiss, was ist eigentlich Vertrauen? [Dr. Weiss, what is trust?] | By Lisa Hofmann | Junge Presse Journal | Online-Magazin | Ausgabe 01/2022 | Junge Presse Niedersachsen
Vertrauen – Instinkt oder lebenslange Übung? [Trust - Instinct or life-long practice?] | By Johanne Burkhardt | April 27, 2022 | SWR2 Wissen
Vertrauen und Misstrauen [Trust and distrust] | By Alexa Weiss & Michael Wenzler | March 2022 | Zentrum Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung (ZGV) | Perspektiefe 56
Researchers uncover a surprising way that narcissism can allow for less biased moral decisions [Forscher*innen untersuchen, unter welchen Umständen Narzissmus zu weniger verzerrten moralischen Entscheidungen führen kann] | By Eric W. Dolan | April 8, 2021 | PsyPost
Wer traut wem? Wann wir uns auf andere verlassen oder nicht, verrät mehr über uns selbst als über unsere Mitmenschen. [Who trusts whom? Whether or not we rely on others says more about ourselves than about other people.] | By Michael Wenzler | March 29, 2021 | Gehirn&Geist 5/2021
Zoom Escaper: Übers Schummeln und Lügen in digitalen Zeiten [Zoom Escaper: On cheating and lying in digital times] | By Jochen Dreier | March 27, 2021 | Deutschlandfunk Kultur | Breitband
Psychologie der Heuchelei [The psychology of hypocrisy] | By Wolfgang Streitbörger | January 30, 2020 | SWR2 Wissen
Moral Licensing - mit gutem Gewissen Schlechtes tun [Moral Licensing - Bad deeds, good conscience] | By Prisca Straub | October 17, 2018 | Bayern 2 radioWissen
In der Spirale der Heuchelei [The hypocrisy spiral]| By Sebastian Herrmann
- August 2, 2018 | Der Bund
- August 2, 2018 | Berner Zeitung
- August 2, 2018 | Tages-Anzeiger
Misstrauen schürt bei Menschen die Doppelmoral [Distrust promotes double moral standards] | By Kornelia Kirchner | July 27, 2018 | MDR Aktuell
Die Scheinheiligen / Wenn Menschen in Misstrauen baden [The hypocrites / Basking in distrust] | By Sebastian Herrmann | July 25, 2018 | Süddeutsche Zeitung / Sz.de

Prof. Dr. Alexa Weiss

alexa.weiss@uni-bonn.de

Website

+49 228 73-4353

office hours: by appointment

Room 1.005

Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9

53111 Bonn

Publications

Peer-reviewed Publikationen

Forstmann, M., & Weiss, A. (forthcoming). Outsourcing moral cognition: Delegation, diffusion of responsibility, and coalitional exclusion. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Burgmer, P., & Weiss, A. (forthcoming). Partner-serving moral cognition helps men to maintain romantic relationships from which they benefit more than women. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Norget, J., Weiss, A., & Mayer, A. (in press). Estimating latent state-trait models for experience-sampling data in R with the lsttheory package: A tutorial. Multivariate Behavioral Research. [OSF]

Persson, S., Milesi, P., Glaser, T., Lorenz, R., Wüst, M., Weiss, A., & Bohner, G. (2025). Three dimensions of modern myths about sexual aggression: Development and validation of the AMMSA-3D scale in English, German, and Italian. Journal of Criminal Psychology.

Weiss, A., & Forstmann, M. (2025). Outsourcing corruption: The role of fate beliefs and motivated fate attributions in delegating decisions about corrupt behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3139 [OSF] [PDF]

Zickfeld, J., Scigala, K., Elbaek, C. T., Michael, J., Tønnesen, M. T., Levy, G., ... Weiss, A., ... & Mitkidis, P. (2024). Effectiveness of ex ante honesty oaths in reducing dishonesty depends on content. Nature Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02009-0 [PDF] [Data]

Weiss, A., & Forstmann, M. (2024). Religiosity predicts the delegation of decisions between moral and self-serving immoral outcomes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Article 104605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2024.104605 [OSF][PDF]

Costa, D., Scharpf, F., Weiss, A., Ayanian, A. H., & Bozorgmehr, K. (2024). Intimate partner violence during COVID-19: Systematic review and meta-analysis according to methodological choices. BMC Public Health, 24, Article 313. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-17802-9 [PDF]

Weiss, A., Burgmer, P., Rom, S. C., & Conway, P. (2024). Taking the moral high ground: Deontological and absolutist moral dilemma judgments convey self-righteousness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 110, Article 104505. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104505 [OSF] [PDF]

Zickfeld, J. H., Ścigała, K. A., Weiss, A., Michael, J., & Mitkidis, P. (2023). Commitment to honesty oaths decreases dishonesty, but commitment to another individual does not affect dishonesty. Communications Psychology, 1, Article 27. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-023-00028-7 [OSF][PDF]

Bohner, G., Weiss, A., Schirch, C., Zöllner, L., Lipińska, A., Sempere, M.-J., & Megías, J. L. (2022). AMMSA-21: A revised version of the Acceptance of Modern Myths About Sexual Aggression Scale in English, German, Polish and Spanish. International Journal of Social Psychology, 37 (3), 460-491. https://doi.org/10.1080/02134748.2022.208329

Weiss, A., Burgmer, P., & Hofmann, W. (2022). The experience of trust in everyday life. Current Opinion in Psychology, 44, 245-251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.09.016

Weiss, A., & Burgmer, P. (2021). Other-serving double standards: People show moral hypercrisy in close relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 38 (11), 3198-3218. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075211022836 [OSF] [PDF]

Weiss, A., Forstmann, M., & Burgmer, P. (2021). Moralizing mental states: The role of trait self-control and control perceptions. Cognition, 214, Article 104662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104662 [OSF] [PDF]

Weiss, A., Dorrough, A.R., & Schmitz, L. (2021). Analytic atheism in a low-religiosity culture: Examining the relationship between analytic thinking and religious belief in Germany. Personality and Individual Differences, 178, Article 110854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110854 [OSF] [PDF]

Burgmer, P., Weiss, A., & Ohmann, K. (2021). I don't feel ya: How narcissism shapes empathy. Self and Identity, 20 (2), 199-215. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2019.1645730

Weiss, A., Michels, C., Burgmer, P., Mussweiler, T., Ockenfels, A., & Hofmann, W. (2021). Trust in everyday life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121 (1), 95–114. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000334 [OSF] [PDF]

Irlenbusch, B., Mussweiler, T., Saxler, D. J., Shalvi, S., & Weiss, A. (2020). Similarity increases collaborative cheating. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 178, 148-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2020.06.022

Weiss, A., Burgmer, P., & Lange, J. (2020). Surprise me! On the impact of unexpected benefits on other-praising gratitude expressions. Cognition and Emotion, 34 (8), 1608-1620. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1797638 [OSF] [PDF]

Weiss*, A., Burgmer*, P., & Mussweiler, T. (2018). Two-faced morality: Distrust promotes divergent moral standards for the self versus others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44 (12), 1712-1724. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218775693 *shared first authorship

Conway, P., Weiss, A.,Burgmer, P., & Mussweiler, T. (2018). Distrusting your moral compass: The impact of distrust mindsets on moral dilemma processing and judgment. Social Cognition, 36 (3), 245-380. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2018.36.3.345 [OSF]

Rom, S. C., Weiss, A., & Conway, P. J. (2017). Judging those who judge: Perceivers infer the roles of affect and cognition underpinning others' moral dilemma responses. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 69, 44-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.09.007

Mussweiler, T., Michels, C., & Weiss, A. (2016). Reflections on comparison: The selective accessibility mechanism. In R. Deutsch, B. Gawronski, & W. Hofmann (Eds.), Reflective and impulsive determinants of human behavior (pp. 19-33). Routledge.

Fort, M., Weiß, A., Martin, A., & Peperkamp, S. (2013). Looking for the bouba-kiki effect in prelexical infants. In F. Ouni, F. Berthommier, & A. Jesse (Eds.), Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Auditory-Visual Speech Processing (pp. 71-76).