Tobias Kalenscher
@kalenscher.bsky.social
Cognitive neuroscientist interested in neuroeconomics, decision-making, social (neuro)science and oysters
https://www.psychologie.hhu.de/en/research-teams/comparative-psychology
https://www.psychologie.hhu.de/en/research-teams/comparative-psychology
New paper out in Autism! Last year, we showed that Autistic adults are more generous toward strangers than neurotypical people. But this finding raised the question: was this true generosity or just an artefact of task design? Quick answer: true generosity! ...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Increased prosocial value orientation in autistic adults - Paul AG Forbes, Gillian Hughes, Leonhard Schilbach, Sarah White, Tobias Kalenscher, 2025
Social discounting describes the tendency to give fewer resources to those we feel less close to. Previous work suggests autistic individuals show a flatter dec...
journals.sagepub.com
October 31, 2025 at 12:09 PM
New paper out in Autism! Last year, we showed that Autistic adults are more generous toward strangers than neurotypical people. But this finding raised the question: was this true generosity or just an artefact of task design? Quick answer: true generosity! ...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
New paper out in the Journal of Neuroscience! What happens when the brain’s “social reward” circuits go off track? Rats overexpressing human DISC1 show specific deficits in social reward learning, but intact nonsocial learning, …
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
Social Reward Learning Deficits and Concordant Brain Alterations in Rats Overexpressing Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1)
Social deficits are a hallmark of schizophrenia, often characterized by impairments in processing and integrating socially transmitted information. However, translational models that accurately captur...
doi.org
October 30, 2025 at 11:27 AM
New paper out in the Journal of Neuroscience! What happens when the brain’s “social reward” circuits go off track? Rats overexpressing human DISC1 show specific deficits in social reward learning, but intact nonsocial learning, …
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
🧠✨ Düsseldorf Symposium on Decision Neuroscience.
📅 Sept 26, 2025 | 📍 Düsseldorf
A one-day, high-level event with leading speakers on dopamine, empathy, prosociality & neuroforecasting.
💸 Free! | 🌍 In person + online
@hhu.de @socforneuroecon.bsky.social @decisionneurop.bsky.social
📅 Sept 26, 2025 | 📍 Düsseldorf
A one-day, high-level event with leading speakers on dopamine, empathy, prosociality & neuroforecasting.
💸 Free! | 🌍 In person + online
@hhu.de @socforneuroecon.bsky.social @decisionneurop.bsky.social
September 8, 2025 at 9:01 AM
🧠✨ Düsseldorf Symposium on Decision Neuroscience.
📅 Sept 26, 2025 | 📍 Düsseldorf
A one-day, high-level event with leading speakers on dopamine, empathy, prosociality & neuroforecasting.
💸 Free! | 🌍 In person + online
@hhu.de @socforneuroecon.bsky.social @decisionneurop.bsky.social
📅 Sept 26, 2025 | 📍 Düsseldorf
A one-day, high-level event with leading speakers on dopamine, empathy, prosociality & neuroforecasting.
💸 Free! | 🌍 In person + online
@hhu.de @socforneuroecon.bsky.social @decisionneurop.bsky.social
Reposted by Tobias Kalenscher
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...
Listen here (starting around minute 51): open.spotify.com/episode/2tt9...
Mom, Don't Meddle In My Love Life - July 31, 2025
The Last Show with David Cooper · Episode
open.spotify.com
August 1, 2025 at 6:58 PM
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...
Listen here (starting around minute 51): open.spotify.com/episode/2tt9...
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-...
Us Versus Them | Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-...
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.
www.psychologytoday.com
July 25, 2025 at 9:41 AM
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-...
Us Versus Them | Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-...
Read Stress enhances cooperation within groups while simultaneously increasing hostility toward outsiders on Kudos: www.growkudos.com/publications...
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...
www.growkudos.com
July 17, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Read Stress enhances cooperation within groups while simultaneously increasing hostility toward outsiders on Kudos: www.growkudos.com/publications...
Reposted by Tobias Kalenscher
Acute stress can enhance cooperation within groups while simultaneously increasing hostility toward outsiders, driven by distinct neurochemical pathways. doi.org/g9s8sw
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.
medicalxpress.com
July 15, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Acute stress can enhance cooperation within groups while simultaneously increasing hostility toward outsiders, driven by distinct neurochemical pathways. doi.org/g9s8sw
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. 🧠
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. 🧠
July 15, 2025 at 8:59 AM
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. 🧠
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. 🧠
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.
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, ...
www.pnas.org
April 16, 2025 at 7:43 PM
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-...
News
www.psychologie.hhu.de
April 3, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Postdoc position 2025: for more information, please visit www.psychologie.hhu.de/en/research-...
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
April 3, 2025 at 1:33 PM
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
Reposted by Tobias Kalenscher
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
🧵
Featuring work w/ @williambrady.bsky.social @killianmcloughlin.bsky.social
🧵
December 1, 2024 at 10:48 PM
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
🧵
Featuring work w/ @williambrady.bsky.social @killianmcloughlin.bsky.social
🧵