Kai Epstude
Kai Epstude has a background in social psychology. He studies different aspects of social judgments and their consequences for affect and decision making. He’s particularly interested in thoughts about what might have been (counterfactuals thoughts) or thoughts about a situation may evolve (prefactual thoughts). Both types of thoughts have quite strong consequences for whether humans will engage in a certain behavior in the future. They involve thinking through the antecedents and consequences of actions that will ultimately determine whether a certain behavior is or is not shown. These thoughts also determine the experience of regret and guilt regarding one’s actions. In light of the fact that actors involved in illicit trade at some point make the decision to participate, psychological research on these experiences delivers valuable insights on the underlying psychological mechanisms.
His additional research includes studies on the social integration of refugees, political communication and the psychological processes behind the influence of misinformation on individual judgments. .