Wilhelm Hofmann studies social and personality psychology, with a special emphasis on self-regulation and consumer, health, and moral decision making. “I am intrigued by the question of why people sometimes (and some more often) act against their better judgments and intentions. The problem of self-control is not only fascinating from a theoretical perspective, it has huge implications for how we life our everyday lives.” says Hofmann. His research has been published in major Psychology Journals, such as Psychological Bulletin, Psychological Science, Social and Personality Psychology Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Perspectives on Psychological Science. His work has been featured in Scientific American Mind, Discovery News, The New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Forbes, and several TV and radio stations including ABC, CBC, News Channel 9, and NBC. Furthermore, Hofmann serves on the editorial board of of Social Psychological and Personality Science and the European Journal of Personality.
He received the 2012 Social Cognition Early Career Award of the International Social Cognition Network, the 2010 Distinguished Young Scientist Award (Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Award) of the German Science Foundation, and the 2009 William Stern Award of the German Psychological Society. He also received several research exchange grants that allowed him to build collaborations at Harvard University, Utrecht University (The Netherlands) and the University of Padova (Italy).
Hofmann earned his MA in psychology and in sociology with distinction from Trier University and his Ph.D in psychology summa cum laude from the University of Landau, both in Germany. In 2007, he joined the Social and Organizational Psychology area at the University of Würzburg (head: Fritz Strack) and held a part-time research and teaching position at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Selected Publications
With Baumeister, R. F., Foerster, G., & Vohs, K., "Everyday temptations: An experience sampling study of desire, conflict, and self-control," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 1318-1335 (2012).
With De Houwer, J., Perugini, M., Baeyens, F., & Crombez, G., "Evaluative conditioning in humans: A meta-analysis," Psychological Bulletin, 136, 390-421 (2010).
With Friese, M., & Strack, F., "Impulse and self-control from a dual-systems perspective," Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4, 162-176 (2009).
With Strack, F., & Deutsch, R., "Free to buy? Explaining self-control and impulse in consumer behavior, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 18, 22-26 (2008).
With Gawronski, B., Gschwendner, T., Le, H., & Schmitt, M., "A meta-analysis on the correlation between the Implicit Association Test and explicit self-report measures, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 1369-1385 (2005).
For a listing of research publications please visit Wilhelm Hofmann’s
university library listing page.