Best Practices

Principle Investigator: Jana Berkessel (MZES), ORCIDid https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5053-6901 

Abstract: Lower socioeconomic status (SES) can harm psychological well-being, an effect responsible for widespread human suffering. In a previous, large-scale correlative study, we have found that cultural religiosity can buffer this psychological burden of lower SES. In the proposed project I want to apply a citizen science approach to take a more in-depth look at the underlying processes of the buffering effect of cultural religiosity. In a first exploratory study, I will engage participants from various cultural and religious backgrounds to generate hypotheses as to which religious norms could potentially buffer the negative consequences of lower SES. In a second confirmatory study, I will then competitively test these religious norms as process variables.

Open Science Practices: Preregistration, open data, open code, open access, citizen science, science communication

Subject Area: Psychology

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2022

Principle Investigator: Dr. Ioli Baroncini, ORCIDid https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5048-6673

Abstract: Cross-linguistic influence (CLI), i.e., the use/acceptance of a linguistic property in one of bilinguals’ languages under the influence of the other, is a widely attested phenomenon. However, it is still not clear why it occurs, what are its limits and whether its strength is influenced by age. The goal of this study is to shed light on these unanswered questions by examining a specific type of CLI: the production of null and overt subjects by German-Italian bilinguals. By conducting two priming experiments across languages with bilinguals of different ages, we will test theoretical predictions concerning which conditions are necessary for CLI to occur, as well as examining the role of age in this process. Results will advance our understanding of bilingualism and will help language education professionals understand how to support second language learners.

Open Science Practices: Registered report, open data, open code, open access, third mission

Subject Area: Multilingualism research

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2022

Principle Investigator: Dr. Sandra Morgenstern (MZES), ORCIDid https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9978-4690 and Felix Jäger (MZES)

Abstract: It is increasingly becoming a stylized fact that threat rhetoric influences the formation of political preferences. However, the underlying causal mechanism remains unclear. This is due in no small part to the challenges of conducting a causal mediation design in which the independent and mediator variables must be randomly and independently manipulated. In our theoretical model, we argue that strategic emotional appeals in threat rhetoric elicit different emotions in the recipient, which in turn mediate support for policies related to the liberty-security nexus. To translate this into a rigorous research design, we propose a survey experiment with a parallel encouragement design. In addition to a treatment based on recent migration newspaper articles, we experimentally divide the sample into two groups (parallel) and indirectly manipulate the emotion mediator via an emotion memory task (encouragement) in one of them.

Open Science Practices: Preregistration or registered report, open data, replication code

Subject Area: Migration and integration

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2022

Principle Investigator: Dr. Nikoletta Symeonidou

Abstract: Previous studies have shown that people remember socially threatening contexts (= sources) better than safe or neutral contexts. In a preceding study, we could extend this memory benefit to negative contexts in general, suggesting a negativity bias in source memory. Based on this, I would like to investigate whether older adults show similar memory benefits for emotional contexts, using more naturalistic materials (faces paired with scenery pictures). The study is planned to be conducted online and in the lab to check whether (and if yes, why) results potentially differ between the lab and the (increasingly popular) online environment.

Open Science Practices: Preregistration, open material, open data, open code

Subject Area: Cognitive psychology and cognitive ageing

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2022

Principal Investigator: Dr. Chung-hong Chan (MZES/School of Humanities), https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6232-7530

Abstract: The project consists of creating a dataset de novo that can be used for benchmarking the performance of content analysis of media frames. This dataset will be released under a permissive license. The dataset will contain both the media content and the ground truth status of the so-called “generic” media frame: attribution of responsibility frame, conflict frame, economic consequences frame, human interest frame, or morality frame. Experiments will be performed to test how close the articles in this de novo dataset resemble actual news.

Open Science Practices: open data, preregistration

Subject Area: communication studies

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2021

Principal Investigator: Dr. Tobias Ebert (School of Social Sciences/MZES), https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0146-2517
Co-Investigators: Friedrich Götz (University of British Columbia) and Michael Ohlinger (University of Mannheim)

Abstract: Digitalization and the big data revolution provide unprecedented amounts of textual data. Previous research has shown that it is possible to predict personality from such textual data. This offers unprecedented possibilities for personality psychologists. First it allows to assess personality fast and in unprecedented magnitudes. Second it gives access to persons or groups which are difficult to access otherwise. However, currently, there are high methodological entry barriers to conduct such research. Specifically, even for the most widely studied personality taxonomy (i.e., Big Five traits) there exists no open-access tool to extract personality from text-data. We here introduce a novel data source (transcripts of famous TV-shows) to create exactly such a free, easy to use, open-access tool for text-based personality assessment.

Open Science Practices: open material, preregistration, open access

Subject Area: personality psychology

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2021

Links:

• Preregistration on OSF

Principal Investigator: Jana Berkessel [since 2022] (MZES), https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5053-6901
Felix Henninger [until 2021] (MZES), https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7730-9511
Co-Investigators: Dr. Ira Maschmann (University of Mannheim), Juliane Tkotz (ZI Mannheim) and Dr. Alexander Wuttke (University of Mannheim)

Abstract: The Mannheim Open Science Meetup has become a central meeting point for local researchers interested in adopting transparent research practices. As the restrictions for in-person meetings are lifted, we are looking forward to returning to physical meetings with an expanded range of topics and speakers, with the goal of attracting more colleagues from more disciplines and covering topics in further details than was possible so far. Besides increasing the reach of the meetup locally we want to strengthen links between the local community and related initiatives by inviting further guests and sending members of our team to other locations, representing the local community and the University of Mannheim in particular.

Subject Area: interdisciplinary

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2021

Links:

• Twitter
• Mailinglist

Principal Investigator: Moritz Ingendahl (School of Social Sciences), https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2124-0754
Co-Investigators: Dr. Ira Maschmann (University of Mannheim) and Prof. Dr. Tobias Vogel (Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences)

Abstract: The articulatory in-out effect describes the empirically robust preference for linguistic stimuli with an inward (e.g., BODIKA) over stimuli with an outward (e.g., KODIBA) consonant sequence. We outline a research plan to test a theoretical model that integrates different processes to reconcile mixed findings from previous research on the in-out effect.

Open Science Practices: replication, registered report, preregistration, open material

Subject Area: psychology

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2021

Principal investigator: Christoph Kling (Department of Law)

Abstract: The database contains all bankruptcy proceedings in the 15 most populated cities in the German Empire and comprises 55,197 bankruptcy proceedings in the period from 1879 until 1914. The database has detailed information on all debtors and bankruptcy administrators. The digitized complete edition of the Deutsche Reichsanzeiger und Preußischer Staats­anzeiger is the origin of the data. The database consists of the data itself, quick search possibilities, an online SQL query interface and the possibility to downlad the data completely. It is accessible to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. The only condition is naming the source.

Open Science Practices: open data, reproducability

Subject Area: legal history

Links:

• Bankruptcy Database
• Talk at the Open Science Event 2019: Glauben versus Wissen in der Geschichte des Rechts: Zur Konzeption einer konkurshistorischen Datenbank für das Deutsche Kaiderreich (PDF, 13 MB)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Maja Linthe (School of Humanities), https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7668-8102
Co-Investigators: Prof. Dr. Angela Borgstedt (University of Mannheim)

Abstract: Im Frühjahr-Sommer-Semester 2022 soll ein Tandem-Hauptseminar zum Thema „Die deutsche Wikipedia und der Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus“ von Prof. Angela Borgstedt und Dr. Maja Linthe für Studierende der Geschichte und der Germanistik angeboten werden. Die Studierenden sollen ihr Spezialwissen aus beiden Seminaren anwenden und vermitteln lernen, indem sie jeweils zu zweit, in Tandems aus beiden Seminaren, Wikipedia-Artikelseiten zu Widerstandskämpfern aus der Region erstellen.
Parallel zur Lehre forschen Angela Borgstedt und Maja Linthe zum Seminarthema, tragen die Ergebnisse zum Abschluss des Seminars öffentlich vor und publizieren die Aufsätze open access. Weitere gemeinsame Veranstaltungen, wie z.B. Vorträge und die Abschluss­veranstaltung, sollen für eine interessierte Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht werden. Sowohl die Studierenden als auch die Lehr­enden werden auf einem Blog vom Prozess der Artikelerstellung bzw. der Forschungs­arbeit öffentlich berichten.

Open Science Practices: third mission, science communication, open access

Subject Area: German linguistics, history

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2021

Links:

• project website on wikipedia
• several blog posts from the students and about the project

Principal investigator: Dr. Lena Nadarevic (School of Social Sciences), https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1852-5019
Co-Investigators: Alina Kias (University of Mannheim)

Abstract: In this project we aim to investigate color-validity associations with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Based on a series of four IAT experiments in which we examined color-validity associations across different color contexts and stimulus materials, we want to test the underlying mechanism of the observed IAT effects in a final, to be preregistered experiment. Previous research has shown that IAT effects cannot only stem from conceptual associations of categories, but that other stimulus similarities can also drive IAT effects. For this reason, the goal of the planned experiment is to test if the previously observed findings truly reflect color-validity associations or, alternatively, can be explained by differences in stimulus salience or valence instead of validity.

Open Science Practices: preregistration, registered report, open material

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2021

Subject Area: psychology

Principal Investigator:Dr. Florian Pethig (Business School), https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6001-2391
Co-Investigators: Dr. Kevin Bauer (Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE), Prof. Dr. Hartmut Hoehle (University of Mannheim)

Abstract: Humans increasingly engage with information created or augmented by artificial intelligence (AI). While prior work mainly considers the demand for information, little work has studied how humans process and disseminate AI-generated information once they obtain it. Specifically, our research aims to contribute to this novel research stream by studying (i) how humans process and act upon AI-generated compared to human-generated information, and (ii) how humans disseminate AI-generated information. We will perform a series of preregistered and incentivized online experiments to advance open science and contribute to the understanding of human perceptions of AI.

Open Science Practices: open data, open material, preregistration

Subject Area: information systems, business studies

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2021

Principal investigator: Dr. Alexander Wuttke (MZES), https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9579-5357
Co-Investigators: Richard Traunmüller (University of Mannheim) and Matthias Revers (University Leeds)

Abstract: Wissenschaft­liche Kontroversen werden in der Regel in Form von Kritik und Gegenkritik ausgetragen. Dieser Form des wissenschaft­lichen Dialogs dokumentiert Dissens, aber vermag nicht ihn aufzulösen und leistet daher in der Regel kinen Beitrag um den allgemein akzeptierten Wissensbestand einer Disziplin zu mehren.
Am Beispiel einer Studie zur Meinungs­freiheit an deutschen Universitäten, die in Forschung und Tagespresse für großes Aufsehen gesorgt hatten, demonstrieren wir wie sich die Unterschiedlichkeit der Perspektiven durch Open Science Methoden konstruktiv nutzen lassen. In einer pre-registered adversarial collaboration werden KritikerInnen und Originalforscher zusammenkommen und sich gemeinsam auf ein Studien­design zu einigen.

Open Science Practices: preregistration, transparent research

Subject Area: political science

Awarded an Open Science Grant 2021