Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Sep 8

👉 Register: www.soscisurvey.de/tutorial4620...

ℹ️ Info: www.psychologie.hhu.de/en/arbeitsgr...

#neuroeconomics #prosocial #neuroscience

Questionnaire | page 1

www.soscisurvey.de

2

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Sep 8

🧠✨ Düsseldorf Symposium on Decision Neuroscience.
📅 Sept 26, 2025 | 📍 Düsseldorf
A one-day, high-level event with leading speakers on dopamine, empathy, prosociality & neuroforecasting.
💸 Free! | 🌍 In person + online

@hhu.de @socforneuroecon.bsky.social @decisionneurop.bsky.social

1 2 5

Reposted by Tobias Kalenscher

Luca Marie Lüpken @luca-luepken.bsky.social · Aug 1

Yesterday I talked to David Cooper of The Last Show about our recent paper published in PNAS.
Listen here (starting around minute 51): open.spotify.com/episode/2tt9...

Mom, Don't Meddle In My Love Life - July 31, 2025

The Last Show with David Cooper · Episode

open.spotify.com

1 1 3

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Jul 25

@luca-luepken.bsky.social
@hhu.de @socforneuroecon.bsky.social @pnas.org @decisionneurop.bsky.social #prosocial #socialneuroscience #PNAS #Stress #Cortisol #populism

2

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Jul 25

New blog post! I summarize our recent paper (www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...) how stress concurrently fosters ingroup support and outgroup competition, and what this has to do with societal polarization and conflict.
Us Versus Them | Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-...

Us Versus Them

Does stress make us more aggressive or more helpful? New research suggests it does both. This dual effect may drive growing societal polarization and the persistence of conflict.

www.psychologytoday.com

1 2 5

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Jul 17

Read Stress enhances cooperation within groups while simultaneously increasing hostility toward outsiders on Kudos: www.growkudos.com/publications...

Stress enhances cooperation within groups while simultaneously increasing hostility toward outsiders

Stress is known to affect social behavior, but how exactly it does so is still unclear. In the past, its effects were contradictory: stress has been linked to either more aggressive reactions (fight-o...

www.growkudos.com

Reposted by Tobias Kalenscher

Science X / Phys.org @sciencex.bsky.social · Jul 15

Acute stress can enhance cooperation within groups while simultaneously increasing hostility toward outsiders, driven by distinct neurochemical pathways. doi.org/g9s8sw

How stress strengthens group bonds—and fuels intergroup conflict

Why do violent conflicts between groups persist—even when all sides suffer as a result? Researchers from psychology and medicine at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have now examined the dual effect of physiological stress messengers on social behavior in intergroup conflicts.

medicalxpress.com

4 6

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Jul 15

With Damon Dashti, Luca Lüpken, Douman Seidisarouei, Paul Forbes & Alfons Schnitzler
@hhu.de @socforneuroecon.bsky.social @pnas.org @hhu.de.web.brid.gy @decisionneurop.bsky.social #prosocial #socialneuroscience #PNAS #Neuroscience #Stress #Social #Polarization #ParochialAltruism #Cortisol #populism

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Jul 15

4/4
Our results, thus, offer a neurobiological mechanism for the populist playbooks how fear and stress contributes to rising polarization in society. It also sheds light on why intergroup conflicts escalate, and why they persist even among rational actors. Link: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

www.pnas.org

1 1

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Jul 15

3/4
Thus, we show that this dual effect (ingroup altruism plus outgroup aggression) amplifies an “us-vs.-them” mentality. This helps explain how fear-based political messaging may trigger group cohesion and, at the same time, fuel hostility toward outsiders.

1

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Jul 15

2/4
In our new study, we show:
🧪 Cortisol (main stress hormone) promotes cooperation with the ingroup
🧪 Noradrenaline (arousal transmitter) drives hostility toward outgroups, even at personal costs
Stress doesn't just make you aggressive or altruistic. It shapes who you support or oppose.

1

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Jul 15

1/4
New paper in @pnas.org! How does stress affect our social decisions in conflict? More aggression (fight-or-flight)? Or more altruism (tend-and-befriend)? Our new study suggests: it’s not either/or, stress promotes both at once, depending on the neurochemical balance and the social context. 🧠

1 5 15

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · May 1

link.growkudos.com/1ey6d6o82rk

Neural mechanisms of generosity

Why are we generous to some people but not to others? Which brain mechanisms govern our decision to be generous toward others? And how is the internal conflict between maximizing our own benefit and c...

link.growkudos.com

3

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Apr 16

Read the press release, too: www.hhu.de/en/news-arti...

Psychology: Publication in PNAS

Are there areas of the brain, which regulate prosocial, altruistic behaviour? Together with colleagues from the universities in Lausanne, Utrecht and Cape Town, researchers from Heinrich Heine Univers...

www.hhu.de

2

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Apr 16

👉 Check out the full study here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@pnas.org @hhu.de @socforneuroecon.bsky.social @decisionneurop.bsky.social #prosocial #socialneuroscience #neuroeconomics

Steeper social discounting after human basolateral amygdala damage | PNAS

Translational research suggests that the basolateral part of the amygdala (BLA) computes some of the core processes underlying social preferences, ...

www.pnas.org

1 2

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Apr 16

based on social-emotional distance between individuals. This finding is consistent with theoretical ideas highlighting the BLA’s importance in balancing self- and other-regarding motives, underlining its crucial role in model-based social cognition.

Steeper social discounting after human basolateral amygdala damage | PNAS

Translational research suggests that the basolateral part of the amygdala (BLA) computes some of the core processes underlying social preferences, ...

www.pnas.org

1

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Apr 16

varying in social-emotional distance. We found that, while BLA was not essential for prosociality per se, it played a critical role in calibrating generosity depending how socially close or distant the participants felt to the other people. Hence, BLA fine-tuned prosocial behavior

1

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Apr 16

We studied South-African individuals with the very rare Urbach-Wiethe disease who have selective damage to the BLA. Urbach-Wiethe subjects and matched controls played a social discounting game – a game in which they could distribute money between themselves and other people

1 2

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Apr 16

Why are we generous to some people but not to others? And which brain mechanisms govern our decision to be generous toward others? In our latest research, published in @pnas.org (www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...), we report steeper social discounting after human basolateral amygdala (BLA) lesions.

Steeper social discounting after human basolateral amygdala damage | PNAS

Translational research suggests that the basolateral part of the amygdala (BLA) computes some of the core processes underlying social preferences, ...

www.pnas.org

1 2 8

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Apr 3

Postdoc position 2025: for more information, please visit www.psychologie.hhu.de/en/research-...

News

www.psychologie.hhu.de

2 6

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Apr 3

- Experience in fMRI and behavioral analysis, documented by relevant publications

Interested? Please send us an email for more information: [email protected]

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Apr 3

We are looking for a candidate with the following profile:
- PhD degree in neuroscience, psychology or related fields, with a scientific background in human decision-making research
- Strong interest in human social neuroscience and/or neuroeconomics is essential

1

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Apr 3

headed by Tobias Kalenscher. We will combine psychopharmacology with fMRI to investigate the role of stress hormones in intergroup conflicts in humans. There is some flexibility regarding research topics, and your own project ideas are also welcome. The position is available from October 2025.

1

Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · Apr 3

3-year postdoc position (100% fte, TVL-E13) in human fMRI and psychopharmacology at the Institute of Experimental Psychology, Comparative Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. Applications are invited for a 3-year postdoc position in the Comparative Psychology research group

1 6 6

Reposted by Tobias Kalenscher

M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · Dec 1

Is it Bad to leave Twitter? No. Here are 7+ years of insights from my lab’s research that explain why.

Featuring work w/ @williambrady.bsky.social @killianmcloughlin.bsky.social

🧵

72 550 1.5K