Director (Institute for Planetary Health Behaviour (IPB))

Contact

Weltbeziehungen / C19.01.27

Visiting address

C19 – Forschungsbau „Weltbeziehungen”
Max-Weber-Allee 3
99089 Erfurt

Mailing address

Universität Erfurt
Institute for Planetary Health Behaviour (PF 44)
Nordhäuser Str. 63
99089 Erfurt

Professor of Health Communication (Faculty of Philosophy)

Contact

Lehrgebäude 4 / room 220

Office hours

Monday 09-10 am only online at

https://uni-erfurt.webex.com/meet/cornelia.betsch

Visiting address

C19 – Forschungsbau „Weltbeziehungen”
Max-Weber-Allee 3
99089 Erfurt

Mailing address

University of Erfurt
Seminar für Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft
Postfach 90 02 21
99105 Erfurt
Germany

Responsible for Master Program Health Communication (Seminar für Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft)

Contact

Lehrgebäude 4 / room 220

Office hours

Monday 09-10 am only online at

https://uni-erfurt.webex.com/meet/cornelia.betsch

Visiting address

C19 – Forschungsbau „Weltbeziehungen”
Max-Weber-Allee 3
99089 Erfurt

Mailing address

University of Erfurt
Faculty of Philosophy
Postfach 90 02 21
99105 Erfurt

Head of the Working Group Health Communication at the Bernhard-Nocht-Institut for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg (Extern)

Mailing address

Bernhard-Nocht-Institut für Tropenmedizin
Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74
20359 Hamburg

Prof. Dr. Cornelia Betsch

 

Our research aims to help design effective policy frameworks and good, explanatory communication. To do this, we try to understand as comprehensively as possible what influences climate-friendly behaviour in order to find good levers.

Cornelia Betsch is a psychologist and professor of health communication at the University of Erfurt. She is also head of the Health Communication Working Group at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg. Her research includes social aspects in health decisions, especially in the context of vaccination and vaccination opposition. During the Corona pandemic, she initiated the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) followed by the Planetary Health Action Survey (PACE), which generates insights into people's knowledge, risk perceptions, protective behaviors, and trust regarding the Corona and now climate crisis. She received the German Psychology Prize in 2021 and the Thuringian Research Prize in 2022. She presently is a member of the German government’s COVID-19 Expert Advisory Council, as well as the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Behavioral and Cultural Insights and the Interdisciplinary Commission for Pandemic Research of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

 

Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. (L. Pasteur)

Read more about my credo here.

 

Psychology and Infectious Diseases Lab

Research

Research focus

  • Social and individual aspects in health and medical decision making
  • psychology and infection control (vaccination decisions, prudent use of antibiotics)
  • Risk perception and communication
  • Evidence-informed health communication

Current research projects

  • COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO)
  • Reducing negative effects of communicating vaccine safety events – Erkenntnistransfer-Projekt SAFECOMM (DFG)

  • Vaccination as strategic behavior: Vaccine hesitancy (DFG)
  • Vaccination60+: Influenza and pneumococcal vaccination and sepsis prevention (BMBF)
  • Increasing influenza vaccine uptake: Targeting health-care personnel (BMBF)

Open science

I am committed to Open Science and a member of the Erfurt Open Science Initiative. I embrace the values of openness and transparency in science by applying Open Science practices in my research, teaching, support of young researchers and interactions with my institution.

 

Press

Curriculum Vitae

Current memberships

  • Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Science Media Center, Köln, since 2015.
  • Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the GErn Study (Health and nutrition monitoring in Germany), Robert Koch-Institute and Max Rubner-Institute, Berlin, since 2018.
  • Member of the time-limited WHO working group „Data for vaccination acceptance and demand“, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

Academic career

full CV

  • 02/2006 Habilitation, University of Erfurt: “Die Rolle von Risikowahrnehmung und Risikokommunikation bei Präventionsentscheidungen am Beispiel der Impfentscheidung” (The role of risk perception and risk communication in prevention decisions – the example of vaccination decisions); venia legendi: psycholgy
  • 02/2006 PhD (Dr. phil.), University of Heidelberg: “Preference for intuition and deliberation– measurement and consequences of affect- and cognition based decision making” (summa cum laude). Advisor: Prof. Dr. Henning Plessner
  • 12/2002 Diplom in Psychology (Dipl.-Psych.), University of Heidelberg 
  • 10/2002 Diplom thesis: Decision support and post-choice satisfaction 
  • 1998 Abitur (German university entrance diploma), Carl-Benz-Gymnasium Ladenburg 

Employment

full CV

  • 11/2017-current University of Erfurt, DFG Heisenberg-Professur (W3)
  • 11/2013 - 11/2017 University of Erfurt: promotion to «Akademische Oberrätin auf Zeit» (A14) – senior research fellow until 2017, 100%
  • 12/2008- 2013 University of Erfurt: promotion to «Akademische Rätin auf Zeit» (A13) – research fellow, 100%
  • 2006 - current University of Erfurt: Researcher and Scientific Manager of the Center for Empirical Research in Economics and Behavioral Sciences (CEREB); 100% 
  • 06/2006-06/2007 Maternity and parental leave (Mutterschutz und Elternzeit)
  • 04/2004-07/2004 Maternity leave (Mutterschutz)
  • 01/2003 - 02/2006 University of Heidelberg/University of Mannheim: Researcher (50%) at the Collaborative Research Centre (Sonderforschungsbereich SFB 504 on concepts of rationality, decision behaviour and economic modeling); Project A 10 (Intuitive and reflective use of behavioral knowledge in decision making) with Prof. Dr. Klaus Fiedler and PD Dr. Henning Plessner.

Selected Publications

full list of publications

request publication

Publikationen in Hochschulbibliographie anzeigen

 

Betsch, C., Korn, L., Sprengholz, P., Felgendreff, L., Eitze, S., Schmid, P., & Böhm, R. (2020). Social and behavioral consequences of mask policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. P Natl Acad Sci USAhttps://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011674117.

Habersaat, K., Betsch, C., Danchin, M., Sunstein, C., Böhm, R., Falk, A., Brewer, N.T., Omer, S.B., Scherzer, M., Sah, S., Fischer, E.F., Scheel, A.E., Fancourt, D., Kitayama, S., Dubé, E., Leask, J., Dutta, M., MacDonald, N.E., Temkina, A., Lieberoth, A., Jackson, M. Lewandowsky, S., Seale, H., Fiethe, N., Schmid, P., Gelfand, M., Korn, L., Eitze, S., Felgendreff, L. Sprengholz, P., Salvi, C., Butler, R (2020). Ten considerations for effectively managing the COVID-19 transition. Nat Hum Behavdoi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0906-x  

Betsch, C. (2020). Behavioural science data can help mitigate the COVID-19 crisis. Nature Human Behaviourhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0866-1.

Betsch, C., Wieler, L.H., Habersaat, K. and the COSMO group (2020). Rapid, flexible, cost-effective monitoring tool for behavioural insights related to COVID-19 across countries. The Lancet, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30729-7 .

Betsch, C., Bach Habersaat, K., Deshevoi, S., Heinemeier, D., Briko, N., Kostenko, N., Kocik, J., Böhm, R., Zettler, I., Wiysonge, C. S., Dubé, È., Gagneur, A., Botelho-Nevers, E., Gagneux-Brunon, A., & Sivelä, J. (2020). Sample study protocol for adapting and translating the 5C scale to assess the psychological antecedents of vaccination. BMJ Open, 10(3), e034869. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034869

Omer, S. B., Betsch, C., & Leask, J. (2019). Mandate vaccination with care. Nature, 571(7766), 469–472. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02232-0

Schmid, P., & Betsch, C. (2019). Effective strategies for rebutting science denialism in public discussions. Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0632-4

Betsch, C., Böhm, R., Schmid, P., Korn, L., Steinmeyer, L., Heinemeier, D., Eitze, S. & Küpke, N.K. (2019). Impfverhalten psychologisch erklären, messen und verändern. Bundesgesundheitsblatt, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00103-019-02900-6

Betsch, C., Schmid, P., Heinemeier, D., Korn, L., Holtmann, C., & Böhm, R. (2018). Beyond confidence: Development of a measure assessing the 5C psychological antecedents of vaccination. PLOS ONE13(12), e0208601. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208601 Open Data Open Materials

Betsch, C. & Böhm, R. (2018). Explaining herd immunity makes moral values regarding harm and fairness relevant for vaccination decisions. Nature Human Behaviour.

Wiysonge, C.S., Cooper, S., Sambala , E.Z. & Betsch, C. (2018). Vaccine hesitancy - a potential threat to the achievements of vaccination programmes in Africa. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 14(10):2355-2357.

Betsch, C. (2017). Advocating for vaccination in a climate of science denial. Nature Microbiology, 2, 17106.

Betsch, C., Böhm, R., Korn, L., & Holtmann, C. (2017). On the benefits of explaining herd immunity in vaccine advocacy. Nature Human Behaviour, doi:10.1038/s41562-017-0056.

Korn, L., Betsch, C., Böhm, R., & Meier, N. (2017). Communicating high vaccine rates of refugees: How the best intentions can lead to harm. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 17, 364–365.

Böhm, R., Betsch, C. & Korn, L. (2016). Selfish-Rational Non-Vaccination: Experimental Evidence from an Interactive Vaccination Game. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 131, 183-195.

Betsch, C. & Böhm, R. (2016). Detrimental Effects of Introducing Partial Compulsory Vaccination: Experimental Evidence. European Journal of Public Health, 26(3):378-81. 

Betsch, C., Korn, L., Holtmann, C. (2015). Don’t try to convert the anti-vaccinators, instead target the fence-sitters. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, PNAS, 112(49): E6725–E6726.