Empirical Social Research (MZES)

In her research project, for which she received an ERC grant, Irena Kogan examines how male refugees who have recently immigrated to Germany find partners. Her research focuses on male refugees from Syria and Afghanistan aged between 18 and 30 years. In December 2019, the sociologist from Mannheim received an ERC Consolidator Grant for the project worth almost two million euros for a period of five years.

The project was developed from an ongoing long-term study the sociologist is involved in, which is conducted in Mannheim and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). This study examines the life course and integration processes of young people with and without a migrant background.

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In 2019, Professor Dr. Jochen E. Gebauer received a Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council (ERC) in the amount of 2 million euros. n Höhe von rund 2 Millionen Euro. He explores the question of what evolutionary advantage humans gain from performing an evaluation of themselves and others primarily on the basis of agency and communion, the “Big Two.”

In this project, Jochen Gebauer analyzes why people assess themselves and others primarily on the two personality trait dimensions of agency and communion. As part of an international and interdisciplinary team, the researchers are using long-term surveys and laboratory experiments to focus primarily on the evolutionary advantage that such an assessment could bring. 

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Political scientist Dr Constantin Wurthmann received an ERC Starting Grant worth 1.5 million euros in 2025. In his project, he is investigating how the identities of sexual and gender minorities develop and how these identities influence political attitudes and party preferences. Despite growing social relevance, there is currently little systematic data on the political orientation of LGBTQ* individuals. Wurthmann's project closes this research gap.

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Dr. Constantin Wurthmann
Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES)
University of Mannheim

E-Mail: constantin.wurthmannmail-uni-mannheim.de
Phone: +49 621 181-2881

The research project, led by Professor Thomas Gschwend, developed a method within the framework of election research for the 2025 federal election, which was divided into three subprojects:

1. The development of new methods has advanced the dynamic scientific prediction of elections in multi-party systems.
2. The project collected data to be used for forecasting at local and national level and for analyzing the consequences of election predictions.
3. Observational and experimental data are used to generate insights into the effects of election predictions on the attitudes and behavior of citizens and elites.

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The research of Professor Sabine C. Carey, PhD and her team focuses on the empirical analysis of various aspects of violent conflict, human rights violations, and the suppression of insurgencies. A particular focus is on the role of actors such as pro-government militias and the connection between government violence and repression.

Government militias 
In one of her projects, Professor Carey is researching the characteristics and causes of government militias as well as the consequences of their activities. Government militias are armed groups with links to the government, for example in countries affected by civil war such as Syria, Libya or Algeria – but also outside war zones. They often receive weapons and training from the government, but are outside the regular security institutions. The academic work is based on the Pro-Government Militias Database (PGMD), which records around 350 of these militias worldwide between 1981 and 2014. The database is currently being expanded and will in future cover the years up to 2020. An online guidebook presents the most important information. 
Professor Carey's research project was supported by an ERC Starting Grant until the end of 2019.

How can support for human rights be strengthened in times of crisis? 

A current project is investigating whether and under what conditions support for human rights can be strengthened in times of crisis. To this end, Carey and her team are conducting a series of innovative survey experiments with adults in Germany. The aim is to evaluate theoretically and empirically whether emphasizing the importance of human rights increases public support. It also examines how the characteristics of the rights holders and the attitudes of the respondents towards human rights influence the impact of various arguments in crisis situations.

The project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a period of four years until the end of 2026. 

As part of the “Reconfiguration and Internalization of Social Structure” (RISS) research group, Professor Dr. Richard Traunmüller and his team are investigating the effects of social change on people's social and political orientation. The Mannheim researchers are examining the phenomenon of sociocultural change from a higher-level perspective: simulation studies and meta-analyses provide them with multidimensional insights into sociostructural change and individuals' social identification with society as a whole and with social subgroups.

The RISS research project is a collaboration between the University of Mannheim and Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and is funded by the DFG with three million euros.

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