Prof. Hess erforscht, wie Menschen Emotionen wahrnehmen, verarbeiten und in sozialen Interaktionen ausdrücken – insbesondere durch Gesichtsausdrücke und nonverbale Signale. Ihre aktuelle Arbeit konzentriert sich auf die Messung und Validierung von Emotionserkennung über Kulturen hinweg (z. B. das Nonverbal Emotion Assessment Tool), auf unbewusste emotionale Mimikry in natürlichen Kontexten sowie auf die Rolle von Emotionen bei sozialen Urteilen und intergruppalen Einstellungen (etwa gegenüber Geflüchteten). Diese Erkenntnisse sind relevant für Bereiche wie Personalauswahl, Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion, psychische Gesundheit und Organisationsentwicklung, wo das Verständnis emotionaler Signale und empathischer Reaktionen zentral ist.
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Prof. Dr. Ursula Hess
HU-FIS-Profil ↗Förderer: Volkswagen Stiftung Zeitraum: 11/2010 - 12/2014 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Ursula Hess
Förderer: DAAD Zeitraum: 01/2011 - 05/2013 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Ursula Hess
Zeitraum: 04/2011 - 03/2015 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Ursula Hess
Figshare · DOI
Abstract Background Members of receiving societies respond differently to arriving refugees. Person-centered factors can affect the level of perceived threat by refugees, the intensity of intergroup emotions, and attitudes toward refugees. However, it is largely unknown whether members of receiving societies display distinct profiles reflecting the co-occurrence of cognitive-affective-attitudinal responses and person-centered antecedents toward refugees. Methods The current study used latent profile analysis to examine distinct response profiles of Germans without migration background (N = 910). Participants completed a cross-sectional online survey, covering threat perceptions, intergroup emotions (anxiety, hope, anger, happiness), attitudes toward refugees, and person-centered antecedents (identity as German, intercultural contact, cognitive empathy). Results Four latent profiles with distinct cognitive-affective-attitudinal response patterns and antecedents were identified. The Threatened Angry (13.1%) displayed highly intense response patterns and low intercultural contact experiences. The Hopeful Approachable (28.6%) combined low threat perceptions with more intense positive emotions and attitudes. The Ambivalent (41.4%) displayed moderate, yet ambivalent response patterns. The Ambivalent and Anxious (16.9%) largely resembled the Ambivalent profile, but reported higher intergroup anxiety and more intercultural contact experiences. Conclusion Knowledge about different response patterns may inform the development of intervention programs and information campaigns with group-specific approaches, aiming to potentially lower threat perceptions, raise positive emotions, and address attitudes within this population. In addition, encouraging positive contact experiences between the German majority population and refugees could foster a more differentiated assessment of refugees.
Emotion · DOI
= 132). Cross-country intraclass correlations revealed cultural differences in emotion perception, yet the construct validity was high. Comparisons of the two European samples with the Southeast Asian sample yielded a lower level of agreement across countries than the comparison of the two European samples, suggesting more similarities between the German and Bulgarian samples and stronger differences between the European and the Malaysian sample. Together, these findings provide evidence that the NEAT is a useful and valid tool for the assessment of emotions in child and adult samples from different areas of the world. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
PLoS ONE · DOI
Humans readily mimic the emotional behavior of conspecifics -- a behavior linked to empathy. Yet, whether humans unconsciously mimic the emotional expressions of non-human primates remains an open question. Human observers watched short videos with positive (play-face), negative (open-mouth threat display) or neutral expressions by monkeys and apes (while their own facial expressions were filmed and automatically coded), rated the expressions for emotional content and indicated their degree of liking of and closeness to the primates. Participants mimicked both positive and negative expressions and were able to correctly identify the expressions as positive or negative. These findings shed new light on the deep-rooted, cross-species nature of emotional connection, suggesting that humans are able to empathize and mirror the emotions of other species.