My research lies at the intersection of social-psychological research on stereotyping and prejudice, cognitive psychology, and methodology. In my work, I use basic laboratory methods to study attitudes and social cogniton as these topics pertain to  broad questions of intergroup relations, stereotyping, prejudice, and other social topics in modern societies. Discussions around these social problems are often replete with assumptions about human cognition, such as claims about inequality stemming from “unconscious racism”, or claims that people should be more or less “colorblind” or “multicultural”. My contribution to these debates is to ask: What are the empirical grounds for such claims? On what assumptions about basic human cognition do they rest? Are those assumptions justified given the available evidence? Using experimental laboratory methods, I try to advance our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in intergroup relations and attitude expression to apply them to relevant questions and challenges we experience in our current societies.

Key publications

• Hahn, A., & Gawronski, B. (2019). Facing one's implicit biases: From awareness to acknowledgement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 116, 769–794.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000155   [pdf]  [supp]  [osf]

• Hahn, A., Banchefsky, S., Park, B., & Judd, C. M. (2015). Measuring intergroup ideologies: Positive and negative aspects of emphasizing versus looking beyond group differences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 1646–1664. http://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215607351

• Hahn, A., Judd, C. M., Hirsh, H. K., & Blair, I. V. (2014). Awareness of implicit attitudes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 1369–1392. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0035028

• See all publications on the "Research Output" tab, or on google scholar at:
  https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=E1TLsdIAAAAJ&hl=en

Public Outreach (selection)

• Lutrell, Andy (2022, April 11): Episode 60: Unconscious Bias? with Adam Hahn. Episode on the podcast series “Opinion Science” dedicated to a 45-min interview with me about my research on awareness of bias. Twitter
  Apple Pods: https://buff.ly/3JwmuT8,
  Spotify: https://buff.ly/3jrfUTb,
  youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVJ3kh3uEXg

• And the majority remains silent? - Commemorative event on the occasion of the book burning in 1933 [Und die Mehrheit schweigt? – Gedenkveranstaltung aus Anlass der Bücherverbrennung 1933]. Panel discussion on May 12, 2021, live via Zoom. TH Köln and University of Cologne, Cologne Germany. https://www.th-koeln.de/hochschule/und-die-mehrheit-schweigt_84197.php

• “Afraid of your neighbour?” [„Angst vor dem Nachbarn“?]. Panel discussion at the University of Cologne on July 5, 2016. https://wwc.hypotheses.org/1776

Academic distinctions

• Winner (x2) of Teaching Award "Best Master's level Seminar 2019 (2020)" ("Lehrpreis 2019 (2020) für das beste Seminar des Jahres" - annual vote by students in the University of Cologne’s Department of Psychology) for "Core Topics in Social Cognition", Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Germany, academic years 2018/19 & 2019/20

• Early Career Award 2018, awarded by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), 2018

• Winner of the 2015 New Investigator Award for "the most outstanding publication written by an early-career scholar in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General" (Hahn et al. (2014), Awareness of implicit attitudes), American Psychological Association (APA), Division 3: Experimental Psychology, 2015

External Third-Party Grant Funding

• Research Grant Self-Insight into Attitudes: Distinguishing Introspective from Social Self-Awareness in Research on Implicit Evaluations, awarded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), 2017

• PhD scholarship from the European Recovery Program (ERP) fund of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foudation), 2009-2011

• Research grant by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany, 2008

• DAAD scholarships (German Academic Exchange Services) for a US-American academic education at Yale, 2003-2004 and 2005

• Full Tuition Fellowship and Stipend by Yale University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2003-2004

Internal Competitive University Grants and Awards

• Gender Research Grant Changing Gender Stereotypes via Self-Associations (together with Rita Silva), awarded by C-SEB, University of Cologne, 2018

• Seedcorn Grant Multiculturalism and colorblindness, awarded by C-SEB, University of Cologne, 2017

• International Fellowship Program Learning generalized mixed-model analysis from the expert: A methods workshop with Professor Charles Judd (together with Alex Koch), awarded by C-SEB, University of Cologne, 2017

• Winner and PI of Seedcorn Grant from the Center for Economic and Social Behavior Cologne (C-SEB) The Psychology of Self-insight, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, 2015/16

• Co-Investigator on Bridging Grant from the Center for Economic and Social Behavior Cologne (C-SEB, PI: Wilhelm Hofmann) Antecedents and Consequences of Solidary Giving, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, 2015/16

• Dissertation fellowship by the University of Colorado, 2012

• University of Colorado Travel Awards for various international conferences, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Grants Won by Students under My Supervision

• Co-Supervisor (together with Rita Silva) of Student Grant awarded to Elena Angerer to fund her Master's thesis titled Changing Tires or Changing Diapers—The Influence of Engaging in Counter-Stereotypic Behavior on Stereotyping, awarded by C-SEB, University of Cologne, 2018

• Supervisor of Student Grant awarded to Janine Flügels to fund her Master's thesis titled Acknowledgment of Implicit Biases and Discriminative Behaviors Against Ethnic Minorities, awarded by C-SEB, University of Cologne, 2018

I am looking for doctoral students interested in social cognition. I supervise quantitative projects (lab and online studies) concerned with the cognitive underpinnings of processes related to attitudes and stereotypes and prejudice. My currently most active line of research is concerned with awareness and implicit measures of attitudes and stereotyping and prejudice.

I would not be the right supervisor for qualitative research projects.