Tobias Kalenscher

Mom, Don't Meddle In My Love Life - July 31, 2025 The Last Show with David Cooper · Episode

Yesterday I talked to David Cooper of The Last Show about our recent paper published in PNAS.
Listen here (starting around minute 51): open.spotify.com/episode/2tt9...

@luca-luepken.bsky.social
@hhu.de @socforneuroecon.bsky.social @pnas.org @decisionneurop.bsky.social #prosocial #socialneuroscience #PNAS #Stress #Cortisol #populism

Us Versus Them Does stress make us more aggressive or more helpful? New research suggests it does both. This dual effect may drive growing societal polarization and the persistence of conflict.

New blog post! I summarize our recent paper (www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...) how stress concurrently fosters ingroup support and outgroup competition, and what this has to do with societal polarization and conflict.
Us Versus Them | Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-...

Stress enhances cooperation within groups while simultaneously increasing hostility toward outsiders Stress is known to affect social behavior, but how exactly it does so is still unclear. In the past, its effects were contradictory: stress has been linked to either more aggressive reactions (fight-o...

Read Stress enhances cooperation within groups while simultaneously increasing hostility toward outsiders on Kudos: www.growkudos.com/publications...

How stress strengthens group bonds—and fuels intergroup conflict Why do violent conflicts between groups persist—even when all sides suffer as a result? Researchers from psychology and medicine at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have now examined the dual effect of physiological stress messengers on social behavior in intergroup conflicts.

Acute stress can enhance cooperation within groups while simultaneously increasing hostility toward outsiders, driven by distinct neurochemical pathways. doi.org/g9s8sw

With Damon Dashti, Luca Lüpken, Douman Seidisarouei, Paul Forbes & Alfons Schnitzler
@hhu.de @socforneuroecon.bsky.social @pnas.org @hhu.de.web.brid.gy @decisionneurop.bsky.social #prosocial #socialneuroscience #PNAS #Neuroscience #Stress #Social #Polarization #ParochialAltruism #Cortisol #populism

4/4
Our results, thus, offer a neurobiological mechanism for the populist playbooks how fear and stress contributes to rising polarization in society. It also sheds light on why intergroup conflicts escalate, and why they persist even among rational actors. Link: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

3/4
Thus, we show that this dual effect (ingroup altruism plus outgroup aggression) amplifies an “us-vs.-them” mentality. This helps explain how fear-based political messaging may trigger group cohesion and, at the same time, fuel hostility toward outsiders.

2/4
In our new study, we show:
🧪 Cortisol (main stress hormone) promotes cooperation with the ingroup
🧪 Noradrenaline (arousal transmitter) drives hostility toward outgroups, even at personal costs
Stress doesn't just make you aggressive or altruistic. It shapes who you support or oppose.

1/4
New paper in @pnas.org! How does stress affect our social decisions in conflict? More aggression (fight-or-flight)? Or more altruism (tend-and-befriend)? Our new study suggests: it’s not either/or, stress promotes both at once, depending on the neurochemical balance and the social context. 🧠

Neural mechanisms of generosity Why are we generous to some people but not to others? Which brain mechanisms govern our decision to be generous toward others? And how is the internal conflict between maximizing our own benefit and c...

link.growkudos.com/1ey6d6o82rk

Psychology: Publication in PNAS Are there areas of the brain, which regulate prosocial, altruistic behaviour? Together with colleagues from the universities in Lausanne, Utrecht and Cape Town, researchers from Heinrich Heine Univers...

Read the press release, too: www.hhu.de/en/news-arti...

Steeper social discounting after human basolateral amygdala damage | PNAS Translational research suggests that the basolateral part of the amygdala (BLA) computes some of the core processes underlying social preferences, ...

👉 Check out the full study here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@pnas.org @hhu.de @socforneuroecon.bsky.social @decisionneurop.bsky.social #prosocial #socialneuroscience #neuroeconomics

Steeper social discounting after human basolateral amygdala damage | PNAS Translational research suggests that the basolateral part of the amygdala (BLA) computes some of the core processes underlying social preferences, ...

based on social-emotional distance between individuals. This finding is consistent with theoretical ideas highlighting the BLA’s importance in balancing self- and other-regarding motives, underlining its crucial role in model-based social cognition.

varying in social-emotional distance. We found that, while BLA was not essential for prosociality per se, it played a critical role in calibrating generosity depending how socially close or distant the participants felt to the other people. Hence, BLA fine-tuned prosocial behavior

We studied South-African individuals with the very rare Urbach-Wiethe disease who have selective damage to the BLA. Urbach-Wiethe subjects and matched controls played a social discounting game – a game in which they could distribute money between themselves and other people

Steeper social discounting after human basolateral amygdala damage | PNAS Translational research suggests that the basolateral part of the amygdala (BLA) computes some of the core processes underlying social preferences, ...

Why are we generous to some people but not to others? And which brain mechanisms govern our decision to be generous toward others? In our latest research, published in @pnas.org (www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...), we report steeper social discounting after human basolateral amygdala (BLA) lesions.

Postdoc position 2025: for more information, please visit www.psychologie.hhu.de/en/research-...

- Experience in fMRI and behavioral analysis, documented by relevant publications

Interested? Please send us an email for more information: office.comparative@hhu.de

We are looking for a candidate with the following profile:
- PhD degree in neuroscience, psychology or related fields, with a scientific background in human decision-making research
- Strong interest in human social neuroscience and/or neuroeconomics is essential

headed by Tobias Kalenscher. We will combine psychopharmacology with fMRI to investigate the role of stress hormones in intergroup conflicts in humans. There is some flexibility regarding research topics, and your own project ideas are also welcome. The position is available from October 2025.

3-year postdoc position (100% fte, TVL-E13) in human fMRI and psychopharmacology at the Institute of Experimental Psychology, Comparative Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. Applications are invited for a 3-year postdoc position in the Comparative Psychology research group

Is it Bad to leave Twitter? No. Here are 7+ years of insights from my lab’s research that explain why.

Featuring work w/ @williambrady.bsky.social @killianmcloughlin.bsky.social

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