Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Lebenswissen­schaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Psychologie

Curriculum Vitae

Forschungsinteressen 

Emotionsregulation in sozialen (Stress-)Situationen: 

Ist Reappraisal wirklich immer (d.h. in jeder sozialen (Stress-)Situation) und für alle Beteiligten die adaptivste Emotionsregulationsstrategie? Gibt es Personen, für die Reappraisal in einer bestimmten sozialen Stresssituation dysfunktional ist? 

Konflikte am Arbeitsplatz: 

Welche Auswirkungen haben Meinungsverschiedenheiten auf das Wohlbefinden und die Leistungsfähigkeit von Arbeitnehmern? Wie kann man erklären, dass aufgabenbezogene Meinungsverschiedenheiten in bestimmten Konstellationen die Leistungsfähigkeit verbessern und in anderen hingegen verschlechtern - welche emotionalen und kognitiven Prozesse spielen hierbei eine Rolle? 

Mimicry und die Qualität sozialer Interaktionen: 

Inwiefern beeinflusst emotionales Mimicry (die Nachahmung von Emotionen des Gegenübers) die Zufriedenheit in sozialen Interaktionen? Hat das Mimicry von positiven Emotionen einen anderen Einfluss auf das soziale Miteinander als das Mimicry von negativen Emotionen? Inwiefern hängen Persönlichkeitseigenschaften mit dem Mimicry verschiedener Emotionen zusammen?

Soziale Modulation von Schmerzempfindungen:

Können Hunde Schmerzen abschwächen sowie das physiologische Arousal beim Erleben von Schmerzen reduzieren? Wirken eigene Hunde ähnlich auf das Schmerzempfinden wie freundliche unbekannte Hunde?

Publications 

Mauersberger, H., Blaison, C., & Hess, U. (2025). Task‑irrelevant emotional expressions are not mimicked, but may modulate the mimicry of task‑relevant emotional expressions. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1491832. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1491832

Parisi, M., Raffard, S., Slangen, P., Kastendieck, T., Hess, U., Mauersberger, H., … & Marin, L. (2024). Putting a label on someone: Impact of schizophrenia stigma on emotional mimicry, liking, and interpersonal closeness. Cognition and Emotion, 38(7), 1015–1031. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2024.2339531

Mauersberger, H., Springer, A., Fotopoulou, A., Blaison, C., & Hess, U. (2024). Pet dogs succeed where human companions fail: The presence of pet dogs reduces pain. Acta Psychologica, 249, 104418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104418

Hess, U., Huppertz, D., Mauersberger, H., & Kastendiek, T. M. (2023). Wrinkles are neither beautiful nor nice: The effect of facial wrinkles on person perception and interpersonal closeness. Acta Psychologica. 241, 104077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.104077

Czarna, A. Z., Mauersberger, H.,* Kastendieck, T., Zdunek, R. R., Sedikides, C., & Hess, U. (2023). Narcissism predicts noise perception but not signal decoding in emotion recognition. Scientific Reports, 13, 14457. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41792-0
*Equal contribution by A.Z.C. & H.M.

Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., & Hess, U. (2022). I looked at you, you looked at me, I smiled at you, you smiled at me—The impact of eye contact on emotional mimicry. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.970954

Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., Hetmann, A., Schöll, A., & Hess, U. (2022). The different shades of laughter: When do we laugh and when do we mimic other’s laughter? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 377, 20210188. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0188

Kastendieck, T., Mauersberger, H., Blaison, C., Ghalib, J., & Hess, U. (2021). Laughing at funerals and frowning at weddings: Top‑down influences of context‑driven social judgments on emotional mimicry. Acta Psychologica, 212, 103195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103195

Mauersberger, H., Hess, U., & Hoppe, A. (2019). Measuring task conflicts as they occur: A real‑time assessment of task conflicts and their immediate affective, cognitive and social consequences. Journal of Business and Psychology, 35, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-019-09640-z

Mauersberger, H., & Hess, U. (2019). When smiling back helps and scowling back hurts: Individual differences in emotional mimicry are associated with self‑reported interaction quality during conflict interactions. Motivation and Emotion, 43, 471–482. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9743-x

Mauersberger, H., Hoppe, A., Brockmann, G., & Hess, U. (2018). Only reappraisers profit from reappraisal instructions: Effects of instructed and habitual reappraisal on stress responses during interpersonal conflicts. Psychophysiology, 55, e13086. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13086

Hess, U., Arslan, R., Mauersberger, H., Blaison, C., Dufner, M., Denissen, J. J. A., & Ziegler, M. (2017). Reliability of surface facial electromyography. Psychophysiology, 54, 12–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12676

Hess, U., Kafetsios, K., Mauersberger, H., Blaison, C., & Kessler, C.‑L. (2016). Signal and noise in the perception of facial emotion expressions: From labs to life. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42, 1092–1110. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216651851

Mauersberger, H., Blaison, C., Kafetsios, K., Kessler, C.‑L., & Hess, U. (2015). Individual differences in emotional mimicry: Underlying traits and social consequences. European Journal of Personality, 29, 512–529. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2008

Conference Papers & Posters 

Mauersberger, H., Klewes, G., Winkielman, P., & Hess, U. (2025, July). When smiles don’t fit: How knowledge about intent shapes emotional contagion and emotional mimicry. Paper presented at the Consortium of European Research on Emotion (CERE), Grenoble, France.

Mauersberger, H. Rethinking the Relationship Between Emotional Mimicry and Emotional Contagion: Revisiting Theoretical Models and Empirical Evidence. (2025, July). Symposium organized at the Consortium of European Research on Emotion (CERE), Grenoble, France.

Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., Klewes, G., & Hess, U. (2024, October). Context and perceived emotions jointly influence emotional mimicry of “pure” and ambiguous emotions. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR), Prague, Czech Republic.

Klewes, G., Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., Hareli, S., & Hess, U. (2024, July). Navigating truth: Unraveling the impact of emotional expressions on news credibility in the era of misinformation. Paper presented at the Conference of the International Society for Research on Emotion (ISRE), Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Mauersberger, H., & Hess, U. (2023, July). If I don’t see the sadness in your face, I will not mimic it: Further evidence for the Emotional Mimicry as Social Regulator view. Poster presented at the 19th General Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology (EASP), Krakow, Poland.

Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., & Hess, U. (2023, May). Did you laugh because a mouse chased a cat or because somebody fell off a boat? The meaning of the laughter‑evoking event changes our perception of and reaction to a laughing other. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Consortium of European Research on Emotion (CERE), Haifa, Israel.

Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., & Hess, U. (2022, September). When laughing at others’ misfortunes brings us together: The role of appropriateness for emotional mimicry. Paper presented at the 52nd Congress of the German Psychological Society (DGPs), Hildesheim, Germany.

Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., Czarna, A., & Hess, U. (2022, July). I feel positive and you feel negative: Grandiose and vulnerable narcissists experience different types of emotions during social interactions. Paper presented at the European Conference of Personality (ECP), Madrid, Spain.

Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., & Hess, U. (2022, June). The influence of eye contact on emotional mimicry. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Consortium of European Research on Emotion (CERE), Granada, Spain (accepted 2020; postponed to 2022).

Doroszuk, M., Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., Czarna, A., & Hess, U. (2022, June). Being aware of others’ emotions: The relationship between communal narcissism and emotion recognition. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Consortium of European Research on Emotion (CERE), Granada, Spain (accepted 2020; postponed to 2022).

Kastendieck, T., Blaison, C., Mauersberger, H., Ghalib, J., & Hess, U. (2022, June). Laughing at funerals and frowning at weddings: Emotional scene information moderates emotional mimicry. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Consortium of European Research on Emotion (CERE), Granada, Spain (accepted 2020; postponed to 2022).

Kastendieck, T., Zillmer, S., Mauersberger, H., Masch, L., Dippel, N., Asbrand, J., & Hess, U. (2022, June). “I see behind each mask that wonder a kindred soul”: What do face masks mean for emotional mimicry research? Paper presented at the Meeting of the Consortium of European Research on Emotion (CERE), Granada, Spain (accepted 2020; postponed to 2022).

Kastendieck, T., Zillmer, S., Mauersberger, H., Masch, L., Dippel, N., Asbrand, J., & Hess, U. (2022, June). Changing faces, changing emotions? Effects of face masks on emotion communication during the COVID‑19 pandemic in light of the affective turn in cognitive science. Paper presented at the Affective Turn in Cognitive Science (AISC) Midterm Conference, Parma, Italy.

Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., & Hess, U. (2021, October). How the heart helps to deal with unfamiliar others. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR), virtual.

Kastendieck, T., Mauersberger, H., Blaison, C., Ghalib, J., & Hess, U. (2021, October). Laughing at funerals and frowning at weddings: Emotional mimicry of happy and sad expressions in scenes. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR), virtual.

Mauersberger, H., & Hess, U. (2021, June). The impact of emotional mimicry on social interactions. Paper presented at the Social Emotions Meeting 2021, virtual.

Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., & Hess, U. (2020, October). Please show me your eyes: The influence of eye contact on emotional mimicry. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR), virtual.

Mauersberger, H. & Hess, U. (2019, September). The soothing effects of pets during challenging times – The presence of pet dogs reduces physical and social pain. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR), Washington, D.C., USA.

Mauersberger, H. (2019, July). From lab to work life – How physiological stress indicators predict well‑being. Paper presented at the 6th Sales Management Congress, Berlin, Germany.

Mauersberger, H., & Hess, U. (2019, March). Individual differences in emotional mimicry predict self‑reported interaction quality during disagreements over and above the emotional tone of the disagreement. Poster presented at the International Convention of Psychological Science (ICPS), Paris, France.

Mauersberger, H. (2018, December). Physiology as a valid index for the effectiveness of stress‑buffering interventions? Paper presented at the Research Retreat BSOW Group: Using New Technologies in Workplace Intervention Research, Berlin, Germany.

Mauersberger, H., Hess, U., & Hoppe, A. (2018, September). The dynamics of workplace conflicts – Not stress but lack of energy explains the damaging effects of relationship conflicts during task conflicts on post‑conflict performance. Paper presented at the 52nd Congress of the German Psychological Society (DGPs), Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Mauersberger, H., Hess, U., & Hoppe, A. (2018, June). The damaging effects of relationship conflicts during task conflicts on performance. Paper presented at the 9th European Conference on Positive Psychology (ECPP), Budapest, Hungary.

Mauersberger, H., & Hess, U. (2018, May). Individual differences in emotional mimicry predict self‑reported interaction quality during disagreements over and above the emotional tone of the disagreement. Poster presented at the Association for Psychological Science (APS) Annual Convention, San Francisco, USA.

Mauersberger, H., & Hess, U. (2016, September). Mimicry as a predictor of social interaction quality. Paper presented at the 50th Congress of the German Psychological Society (DGPs), Leipzig, Germany.

Mauersberger, H., & Hess, U. (2016, May). Same situations, but different conflicts? How emotion regulation influences the perception of workplace conflicts. Poster presented at Psychology and Brain (42nd Congress), Berlin, Germany.