Master Psychologie
Parcours Psychologie de la Cognition

Our nextCentre for Decision Research seminar is online via Teams THIS WEEK Wednesday April 15th. All are welcome.

CDR Spring Seminar

Non-Native Speakers: Judged More Harshly, Better Content?

Nicole Abi-Esber

London School of Economics

Wednesday 15th April 2026, 2pm to 3pm (UK time)

On Teams (meeting link here)

Abstract: Speaking in a non-native language is cognitively challenging, and leads to bias; perceivers evaluate those with a non-native accent more negatively compared to native speakers. But could speaking in a non-native language also have positive outcomes? Existing research demonstrates that when speaking a non-native language, individuals engage in more System 2 processing, evidenced by economic games and brain teasers. We explore whether this also has implications for the quality of verbal communication. Specifically, we hypothesize that non-native speakers will produce higher-quality verbal content compared to native speakers, as rated by third parties, and that this is due to increased System 2 processing. Across three studies, we manipulate the presence of accents by creating stimuli in two conditions: an audio condition (where accents are perceptible) and a transcript condition (with identical verbal content, but without accent cues). We replicate prior work finding that in the audio condition, non-native speakers are evaluated more negatively. However, in the transcript condition, we find that this difference disappears (Study 1) or that it reverses, such that non-native speakers are evaluated more favourably relative to native speakers (Studies 2 & 3). Linguistic analysis of the text in the transcript condition reveals that non-native speakers use more System 2 (analytical) language in all studies, and we find evidence that this explains the effect of increased competence ratings. This work suggests a practical way to mitigate accent-based bias, and also invites a reappraisal of non-native speakers as producing higher-quality and more analytical verbal content.

The speaker

Dr. Nicole Abi-Esber has a doctoral degree in Organizational Behavior from the Harvard Business School, and is an Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour in the Management Department at the London School of Economics. Her research examines how leaders can empower employees to feel psychologically safe and speak up at work. She uses experiments and computational social science methods, including natural language processing. Nicole previously worked as a product manager for mobile products in tech startups in emerging markets.

Microsoft Teams meeting

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Dear all,

*** Please help me spread the news by forwarding this to people who may be

interested, or to colleagues who may know such people ***

I currently have an open, fully funded PhD position (starting Sep 2026) to

investigate how unreliable information shapes beliefs and behaviours using

reinforcement learning. [*To be eligible for full funding, applicants must

qualify for UK home fees*.]

I’m looking for candidates with some experience and interest in

computational modelling, programming, and reinforcement learning.

Deadline: 18/05/2026

More details can be found here:

*https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/characterising-cognitive-biases-elicited-by-unreliable-information-using-reinforcement-learning/?p195682

<https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/characterising-cognitive-biases-elicited-by-unreliable-information-using-reinforcement-learning/?p195682>*

Many thanks for your help and support!

--

Rani Moran,

Lecturer in Psychology,

School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences,

Queen Mary, University of London

Honorary Research Fellow,

Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing,

University College London (UCL)

We are inviting applications for a fully funded PhD position focused on human-AI interaction starting in October 2026.

The candidate will be supervised by Dr. Stepan Bahnik and Dr. Emir Efendić.

* The project: To understand how human cognitive biases interact with biases present in state-of-the-art AI systems. The project you will be working on will investigate how AI interactions can augment, but also diminish, our reasoning and decision-making skills.

* Your colleagues: The candidate will join an interdisciplinary research team as a part of the Decision Lab Prague at the Prague University of Economics and Business and the Marketing and Supply Chain Management (MSCM) department at Maastricht University.

This PhD position offers a double degree structure awarded by Maastricht University (UM) and the Prague University of Economics and Business (VŠE). The candidate will spend the first two years at VŠE in Prague, embedded in the Decision Lab and its active behavioral research community, before relocating to Maastricht for the final two years, where you will complete and defend your dissertation.

This setup gives you the opportunity to build your research skills across two internationally recognized institutions, drawing on distinct academic communities, laboratory facilities, and professional networks in both Prague and Maastricht.

For more details on the project and how to apply, please visit: https://decisionlab.vse.cz/english/we-are-hiring/

Dear all,

I am happy to share an opening for a PhD position at the University of Cologne (Germany), as part of a DFG-funded research unit on task switching and decision making. The position is for four years and does not include teaching obligations.

The project investigates the cognitive processes underlying task switching decisions, drawing on and extending methods from judgment and decision making research (e.g., two-stage decision paradigms, decisions from description vs. experience, cognitive modeling). The research unit comprises ten subprojects and offers a collaborative and interdisciplinary research environment bridging JDM and cognitive psychology.

The PhD position will be supervised by me and is scheduled to start on July 1, 2026.

Further details and application information are available here:

https://jobportal.uni-koeln.de/ <https://jobportal.uni-koeln.de/>

Please search for the reference code: *Wiss2603-15*

I would be very grateful if you could forward this announcement to potentially interested candidates or colleagues.

Best regards,

Andreas Glöckner

--

Prof. Dr. Andreas Glöckner (home <http://soccco.uni-koeln.de/andreas-gloeckner.html>)

Chair of Social Psychology, University of Cologne

Richard-Strauss-Str. 2 (Room 2.A11), D-50931 Cologne, Germany, phone +49-221 470 7916

De : Maquestiaux <francois.maquestiaux@univ-rouen.Fr>

Nous avons le plaisir de vous annoncer que jeudi 26 mars de 12h15 à 13h15 aura lieu le séminaire en ligne de Lorenzo Ciccione (Université Paris 8).

Titre : Repenser les fondements de la cognition mathématique : au-delà du sens du nombre

Résumé : Des décennies de recherches ont montré qu’aux fondements de la cognition mathématique se trouvent la capacité à extraire et à comparer intuitivement les quantités (ce qu’on appelle le « sens du nombre »), la compréhension du principe de cardinalité (qui nous permet de compter avec précision des ensembles d’objets), ainsi que la capacité à effectuer des opérations arithmétiques simples à l’aide de notations symboliques. Ce que je chercherai à défendre au cours de cette présentation, en m’appuyant sur des recherches que j’ai menées récemment, c’est qu’il existe également, aux fondements des mathématiques, d’autres intuitions et capacités (que j’appelle proto-mathématiques), de nature non strictement numérique ou arithmétique, et que l’on retrouve chez des individus d’âges, de niveaux d’éducation, de cultures et de conditions physiques différents. Parmi ces capacités, on trouve :

1. Le groupitizing, c’est-à-dire la capacité grâce à laquelle les êtres humains dénombrent plus rapidement et plus facilement des éléments organisés en groupes. Je montrerai que cette capacité ne semble pas uniquement liée à la maîtrise de l’arithmétique (puisqu’on l’observe aussi chez des enfants d’âge préscolaire et chez les Himba non scolarisés), ni à des capacités visuelles (puisqu’elle est également présente chez des personnes aveugles de naissance).

2. La compréhension intuitive des patterns, grâce à laquelle nous sommes capables d’extraire des motifs et des fonctions à partir de stimuli visuels et auditifs. Je montrerai que cette compréhension est présente non seulement chez des adultes scolarisés, mais aussi chez des enfants d’âge préscolaire et chez les Himbas non scolarisés.

3. L’extraction intuitive de propriétés géométriques, grâce à laquelle nous sommes capables de distinguer, sans enseignement explicite, des formes géométriques sur la base de déviations minimes de propriétés fondamentales. Je montrerai que cette capacité ne semble pas dériver de compétences visuelles, dans la mesure où nous l’avons également observée chez des individus aveugles de naissance, auxquels nous avons présenté les formes en modalité tactile.

Si ces capacités (ainsi que d’autres) sont réellement au fondement de la cognition mathématique, nous pouvons formuler plusieurs prédictions empiriques, que je chercherai à étudier dans les années à venir : que ces capacités intuitives sont corrélées au développement ultérieur des connaissances mathématiques ; qu’elles devraient être prises en compte dans les tests consacrés au diagnostic de la dyscalculie, actuellement centrés uniquement sur les capacités numériques et de calcul ; et qu’elles devraient faire l’objet d’un entraînement spécifique et précoce, dans la mesure où leur maîtrise ne nécessite ni de connaissances mathématiques ni de connaissances linguistiques.

Lien visio : prochainement disponible sur https://sites.google.com/view/collectif-cognitif

Bien amicalement,

Gaën Plancher, Thérèse Collins, François Maquestiaux

Dear all,

I am happy to share that I will be hiring a PhD student in Data Science and Decision Making to join my new research group at ESCP Business School (Berlin Campus), starting on 1 September 2026.

The research will broadly use Data Science / AI tools to study how people and organizations make decisions and how to improve them. This includes forecasting algorithms, large language models, behavioral experiments, and other methods. We are particularly interested in settings where professionals must act under time pressure, with limited information, and with imperfect models of the world.

The position is fully funded and offers substantial opportunities for independent research, close supervision, as well as access to the wider Berlin decision-making community.

The application deadline is 17 April 2026.

The full advertisement and application details are available here:

https://escp.eu/sites/default/files/PDF/jobs/berlin/2026-03-23_Job_Advert_WiMi_LS_Artinger_fa.pdf

If you know candidates who may be interested in this position, I would be very grateful if you could share this with them.

For any questions, do not hesitate to contact me at: fartinger@escp.eu<mailto:fartinger@escp.eu>

Best wishes,

Florian

We have a job opening – A PhD position in Leadership and Decision-Making at the Department of Organizational Behavior at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. The full job add can be found here: https://urls.fr/37ybOx

Graduate Assistant in Leadership and Decision-Making (22707)

The Department of Organizational Behavior at the Faculty for Business and Economics at the University of Lausanne provides a stimulating and highly interdisciplinary research environment. We value the diverse areas of expertise among department members, who variously hold Ph.D.s in psychology, management, business, economics, and population biology. More broadly, the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Lausanne is one of the largest faculties on campus and consists of 10 integrated departments. We publish in top-tier journals in numerous disciplines, including management (e.g., Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, and Organizational Behavior and Decision Processes), psychology (e.g., Psychological Review, Psychological Bulletin, and Journal of Applied Psychology), and cross-discipline journals (e.g., PNAS, Science, and Nature). Department members come from several different countries, and the working language of the department is English.

Expected starting date: August 1st, 2026, or a mutually acceptable alternative

Contract duration: The initial contract is one year. The contract is twice renewable for two years, and thus maximum funding period is five years.

Place of work: University of Lausanne, Faculty of Economics and Business, Lausanne/Dorigny

Type of position: 100%

Salary: According to legal stipulations <https://www.unil.ch/files/live/sites/unil/files/05-travailler/0503-avantages/baremes-2026/BARM_%20Assistant_doctorant_2026.pdf>

Supervisors: Julian Marewski (supervisor) and Joerg Dietz (co-supervisor)

Your qualifications

We are looking for someone with the following profile:

* Master’s in psychology, organizational behavior, management, human cognition, computational social science, or other behavioral science. Applications from candidates from other fields (e.g., history, sociology, physics, computer science, biology) are welcome, too if the candidate has corresponding research interests

* Very strong interests in the study of leadership and decision-making processes

* Strong quantitative skills with an interest in experimental methods and modeling as tools to study human behavior

* Curiosity to cross disciplinary boundaries in the study of human behavior

* Fluent in English

* Must be accepted to the doctoral program in Management within the first year of the contract and interested candidates must simultaneously apply to this PhD program

*

Your responsibilities

* 50% of the assistant’s time will be dedicated to completion of doctoral studies in Management.

* 50% of the assistant’s time will be dedicated to providing teaching, administrative, and research support for Julian Marewski.

Your application

Deadline: April 15th, 2026

--------------------------------------------------

Dr. Julian Marewski

Full Professor - Professeur ordinaire

Head of the Department of Organizational Behavior (OB)

University of Lausanne

Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC), Department of Organizational Behavior (OB)

Quartier UNIL-Chamberonne; Bâtiment Internef, Office 601

CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Phone: 0041 (0)21 692 33 81

De : Laurence Raphaël <laurence.raphael@msh-alpes.fr>

L'Agenda des évènements de la MSH-Alpes [Mars 2026]

Conférence du séminaire Humanibots avec Lionel Obadia, professeur des universités en anthropologie sociale et culturelle (LARHRA ; ASSP - Université Lyon 2).

Cette communication abordera la question de la « magie » et de la « pensée magique » dans les interactions modernes avec l'IA et les robots. S'appuyant sur des travaux ethnographiques menés en Europe et en Asie, on s'interrogera sur la nature même de ce qui est en jeu dans l'interaction directe avec des dispositifs robotiques, qu'ils soient humanoïdes ou non.

La prédominance de la « religion » comme répertoire d'interprétation des émotions et croyances non rationalistes qui surgissent lorsque des humains interagissent avec des robots pourrait conduire à négliger une autre dimension, celle des schémas et processus de la pensée magique. Bien que valable pour la recherche en sciences religieuses, en sciences sociales et humaines et en robotique, la « magie » est un concept complexe, qui fait référence à l'émerveillement, à l'instrumentalisme ou à l'illusion, alternativement ou conjointement.

Sur la base d'exemples empiriques tirés de mes travaux de terrain, cette communication s'interrogera sur la pertinence de la notion de « magie » en tant que concept opérationnel pour l'étude des croyances dans l'interaction homme-machine, dans le contexte de la réinvention de la « magie » comme un terme à la mode pour l'image de marque et la commercialisation des robots et des technologies de pointe, ou comme critère d'évaluation des « progrès technologiques » en cours des technologies de pointe, évaluées en termes évolutifs, généralement comme un primitivisme résiduel, une proposition contestée par le slogan souvent cité d'Arthur Clarke « toute technologie suffisamment avancée est indissociable de la magie ».

***

Public : enseignant·es-chercheur·es, étudiant·es et toutes personnes intéressées par la thématique

GRATUIT SANS INSCRIPTION

En VISIOCONFÉRENCE

Lien de connexion disponible ici : https://www.msh-alpes.fr/actualites/robots-sont-objets-magiques

Our nextCentre for Decision Research seminar is online via Teams and in person THIS WEEK Wednesday March 11th. All are welcome.

CDR Spring Seminar

Behavioural Sludge: Where Have We Been, and Where Are We Going?

Dr Stuart Mills (Leeds University Business School)

Wednesday 11th March 2026, 2pm to 3pm (UK time)

University of Leeds, Charles Thackrah (SR G.07),

Also online on Teams (meeting link here)

Abstract: Perhaps to the surprise of some, it has been nearly a decade since Richard Thaler coined the term ‘sludge’ to describe choice architectures that make choices harder. In that decade, behavioural policy researchers have dedicated much time to unpackaging the idea of sludge, investigating where it comes from, and developing tools to overcome it. Many more questions have now been asked than have been answered: what is sludge, where does it come from, how do we measure it, and might some sludge even be a good thing? This talk will provide an overview of the past decade of research into behavioural sludge. I will cover the various perspectives which have emerged around the topic, and outline some ideas for where behavioural sludge research may be heading.

The speaker:

Stuart Mills is a lecturer in Economics at Leeds University Business School. His research considers user responses to the commercial use of behavioural economics. His published work includes papers on the political application of behavioural economics, contemporary political economy and technology and has appeared in leading journals including Public Administration Review, Public Administration, AI and Society, Technology in Society and Regulation and Governance.

__________________________________________________________________

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/38980510889862?p=8SEoAAtoEIJv5AwpgC

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Our next Centre for Decision Research seminar is online via Teams and in person THIS WEEK  Wednesday March 4th. All are welcome. 

      CDR Spring Seminar

Can a video move you to make a prosocial decision?

Professor Gaëlle Vallée-Tourangeau 

Kingston Business School

Wednesday 4th March 2026, 2pm to 3pm (UK time)

University of Leeds, Charles Thackrah (SR G.07), 

Also online on Teams (meeting link here)

Abstract

Abstract: This research explores what makes people decide to reach out and offer support to others. Charities and health organisations increasingly use multimedia content to promote prosocial actions for mental health support, yet little is known about how effective different formats can be to nudge people to act. We examined (1) whether a professionally-produced film narrative is a more effective video format compared to informational video with text overlay to create an emotional connection and encourage people to reach out to their friends, and (2) whether the extent to which viewers experience an emotional reaction to the video impacts their subsequent decision to reach out to others. We measured both implicit emotional processing (automated facial expression analysis) and explicit emotional experience (kama muta—the feeling of being moved by communal bonds), alongside behavioural decisions. In this talk, I will present analyses of data from over 200 participants and discuss the implications for understanding how moving images can impact decisions.

The speaker

Gaëlle Vallée-Tourangeau is professor of Behavioural Science at Kingston Business School, where she served as Director of Research and Enterprise (2019–2025). Her research explores the psychological and behavioural mechanisms that shape human decision-making, creativity, and motivation—particularly in contexts such as organisational change, sustainability and healthcare.

A former president of the European Association for Decision Making, Gaëlle’s expertise spans cognitive psychology, applied behavioural science, and innovative research methods such as multimedia cognitive ethnography and eye-tracking. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals including Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Psychological Science, Cognition andVaccine, and has received funding from the Wellcome Trust, Leverhulme Trust, Sanofi-Pasteur, and the French National Research Agency. 

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/38338812269628?p=0RuPH5shh4hqbZPwl7

Meeting ID: 383 388 122 696 28

Passcode: em9N3oG3

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