Stefan Stieger

Biographic Data

ID177939
NAMEStefan Stieger
GIVEN NAMESStefan
FAMILY NAMEStieger
SIGNATURESTIEGER S
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Vienna
ORCID0000-0002-7784-6624
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS44
TOTAL CITATIONS104
WORKS AS AUTHOR44
WORKS AS EDITOR0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2009
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX4

  • Spatial Cognition in the Field

    Open AccessStefan Stieger, Selina Volsa et al.ARTICLEJournal of Intelligence2026

    Spatial cognition refers to the mental processing, perception, and interpretation of spatial information. It is often operationalized through self-assessments like sense of direction and mental rotation ability or field-based real-world tasks like pointing to a specific building and wayfinding; however, the former and latter entail unclear ecological validity and high participant burdens, respectively. Since the advent of smartphones, this repert…

  • Validation of a short-form, state version of the Body Appreciation Scale‐2 (SBAS-2SF) for use in experience sampling method (ESM) studies

    Open AccessDavid Willinger, Stefan Stieger et al.ARTICLEBody Image2026

    Body appreciation is an important facet of the positive body image construct and can be measured as either trait or state variants. Trait measures of body appreciation evidence good psychometric properties, but less work has focused on state measures, particularly for use in experience sample method (ESM) studies. Here, we assessed the psychometric properties of a short (3-item) form, state version of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (SBAS-2SF) for …

  • The Association Between Excessively Watching Videos in Endless Loop on Social Media and Subjective Time Perception

    Open AccessAngelique Siebenhandl, Selina Volsa et al.ARTICLECyberpsychology Behavior and…2026

    Videos in endless loop (VEL) are a popular form of entertainment on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, with an estimated 1.5 billion users on TikTok alone in 2025. Despite their popularity, concerns have emerged regarding their impact on users’ perception of time. This study ( N = 151) investigated the relationship between watching VEL and time perception, valence, and arousal. A novel digital time-guessing task was developed an…

  • The tug-of-war between engagement and dysregulation

    Open AccessDavid Willinger, Sabine Wunderl et al.ARTICLEComputers in Human Behavior2026

    Research on video games faces a paradox. Many epidemiological studies have documented developmental harms; however, experimental research often highlights cognitive benefits. We theorize that this discrepancy stems from a common tendency to conflate high behavioral engagement (time spent) and dysregulation. Utilizing structural equation modelling, we simultaneously examined the independent associations of both Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD, dysre…

  • Macro-level determinants of nature connectedness

    Open AccessMiles Richardson, Michael L Lengieza et al.ARTICLEAMBIO2026References: 61

    Nature connectedness is increasingly recognised as a causal issue in environmental crises and a powerful strategy for transformative change. However, little is known about how it varies across countries and the macro-level factors that influence the human–nature relationship at a societal level. Using a large dataset ( N = 56 968) from a diverse set of 61 countries, this study explored how both objective country-level indicators of the socio-ecol…

  • Investigating object orientation effects across 18 languages

    Open AccessSau-Chin Chen, Erin M Buchanan et al.ARTICLECurrent Psychology2025

    Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of objects mentioned in sentences. Mental representation is often measured with the sentence-picture verification task, wherein participants first read a sentence that implies the object property (i.e., shape and orientation). Participants then respond to an image of an object by indicating whether it was an object from the sentenc…

  • Accordance and conflict between religious and scientific precautions against Covid-19 in 27 societies

    Theodore Samore, Daniel M T Fessler et al.ARTICLEReligion Brain & Behavior2025

    Meaning-making systems underlie perceptions of the efficacy of threat-mitigating behaviors. Religion and science both offer threat mitigation, yet these meaning-making systems are often considered incompatible. Do such epistemological conflicts swamp the desire to employ diverse precautions against threats? Or do individuals—particularly individuals who are highly reactive to threats—hedge their bets by using multiple threat-mitigating practices …

  • Measuring the semantic priming effect across many languages

    Open AccessErin M Buchanan, Kelly Cuccolo et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2025References: 90

  • Examining terror management theory in Ukraine

    Open AccessStefan Stieger, David Lewetz et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Psychiatry2023

    This real-world investigation supports TMT's fundamental assumptions about death awareness and its psychological implications. However, even amidst the presence of real, life-threatening situations, the buffering effects of habituation were surprisingly minimal. This suggests that further exploration of TMT's buffering factors in real-world scenarios is warranted

  • Associations between social media use and cognitive abilities

    Open AccessStefan Stieger, Sabine WunderlARTICLEComputers in Human Behavior2022

    In adolescence, smartphone use in general and social media use in particular has often been associated with negative effects, such as higher anxiety levels and body dissatisfaction. Other outcomes – such as fundamental cognitive abilities and skills (e.g., intelligence, information processing, spatial perception) – have rarely been the focus of research. Here, we analysed data from a large sample of adolescents (12–16 years; N > 12,000) who perfo…

  • A Tale of Peaks and Valleys

    Open AccessStefan Stieger, Friedrich M Götz et al.ARTICLESocial Psychological and…2022

    Mountains—mythic and majestic—have fueled widespread speculation about their effects on character. Emerging empirical evidence has begun to show that physical topography is indeed associated with personality traits, especially heightened openness. Here, we extend this work to the domain of personal values, linking novel large-scale individual values data ( n = 32,666) to objective indicators of altitude and mountainousness derived from satellite …

  • Author Correction

    Open AccessKe Wang, Amit Goldenberg et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2022

  • Situational factors shape moral judgements in the trolley dilemma in Eastern, Southern and Western countries in a culturally diverse sample

    Open AccessBence Bago, Márton Kovács et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2022Cited by: 3References: 51

  • Emotional Well-Being Under Conditions of Lockdown

    Open AccessStefan Stieger, David Lewetz et al.ARTICLEJournal of Happiness Studies2021

    The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and attendant lockdown measures present serious threats to emotional well-being worldwide. Here, we examined the extent to which being outdoors (vs. indoors), the experience of loneliness, and screen-time are associated with emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic using an experiencing sampling method. In April 2020, Austrian adults ( N = 286, age M = 31.0 years) completed a 21-day experience sampling…

  • A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the Covid-19 pandemic

    Open AccessKe Wang, Amit Goldenberg et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2021Cited by: 4References: 117

  • To which world regions does the valence-dominance model of social perception apply

    Open AccessBartlett C Jones, Lisa Debruine et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2021Cited by: 4References: 48

    Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof an…

  • The Sensor-Based Physical Analogue Scale as a Novel Approach for Assessing Frequent and Fleeting Events

    Open AccessStefan Stieger, Irina Schmid et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Psychiatry2020

    New technologies (e.g., smartphones) have made it easier to conduct Experience Sampling Method (ESM) studies and thereby collect longitudinal data in situ . However, limiting interruption burden (i.e., the strain of being pulled out of everyday life) remains a challenge, especially when assessments are frequent and/or must be made immediately after an event, such as when capturing the severity of clinical symptoms in everyday life. Here, we descr…

  • Physical topography is associated with human personality

    Open AccessFriedrich M Götz, Stefan Stieger et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2020Cited by: 4References: 85

  • Introducing Item Pool Visualization

    Open AccessMichael Dantlgraber, Stefan Stieger et al.ARTICLEMethodological Innovations2019References: 9

    In this article, we introduce Item Pool Visualization. It is an illustration system that locates items and item pools (scales) from multiple psychological instruments regarding their commonality and distinguishability along several dimensions of nested radar charts. The application of Item Pool Visualization creates illustrations that represent different item pools by different circles that do not overlap. Item Pool Visualization illustrates a co…

  • Well-being, Smartphone Sensors, and Data from Open-access Databases

    Open AccessStefan Stieger, Ulf-Dietrich ReipsARTICLECAM2019References: 30

    We investigated fluctuations of well-being by using a smartphone-based mobile experience sampling method (real-time and multiple time point measurements in the field using smartphones). Moreover, temperature, longitude, latitude, altitude, wind speed, rainfall, and further environment-based indicators were included as predictors either from smartphone sensors or from open-access Internet databases. Overall, a total of 213 participants reported on…

  • The Psychological Science Accelerator

    Open AccessHannah Moshontz, L Campbell et al.ARTICLEAdvances in Methods and Practices…2018

    Concerns about the veracity of psychological research have been growing. Many findings in psychological science are based on studies with insufficient statistical power and nonrepresentative samples, or may otherwise be limited to specific, ungeneralizable settings or populations. Crowdsourced research, a type of large-scale collaboration in which one or more research projects are conducted across multiple lab sites, offers a pragmatic solution t…

  • An examination of the factorial and convergent validity of four measures of conspiracist ideation, with recommendations for researchers

    Open AccessViren Swami, David Barron et al.ARTICLEPLoS ONE2017

    A number scales have been developed to measure conspiracist ideation, but little attention has been paid to the factorial validity of these scales. We reassessed the psychometric properties of four widely-used scales, namely the Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory (BCTI), the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ), the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS), and the One-Item Conspiracy Measure (OICM). Eight-hundred-and-three U.S. adults …

  • Who Believes in the Giant Skeleton Myth? An Examination of Individual Difference Correlates

    Open AccessViren Swami, Ulrich S Tran et al.ARTICLESAGE Open2016

    This study examined individual difference correlates of belief in a narrative about the discovery of giant skeletal remains that contravenes mainstream scientific explanations. A total of 364 participants from Central Europe completed a survey that asked them to rate their agreement with a short excerpt describing the giant skeleton myth. Participants also completed measures of the Big Five personality factors, New Age orientation, anti-scientifi…

  • Parent-child proximity and personality

    Open AccessStefan Stieger, David LewetzARTICLEBMC Psychology2016

    This study not only adds to research on psychological motivations to move, it endorses value theory as being a useful lens through which to analyze migration behavior

  • A Cross-Cultural Investigation of Suicidal Disclosures and Attitudes in Austrian and Turkish University Students

    Mehmet Eskin, Anne H E Schild et al.ARTICLEDeath Studies2015Cited by: 2References: 2

    The prevalence of suicidal behavior and the nature of attitudes toward suicide differ in Austria and Turkey. To see if there were differences in disclosure, 351 Turkish and 310 Austrian students answered questions about disclosing suicidal thoughts. More Austrian than Turkish students reported suicidal ideation and believed that suicidal people disclose their plans, but suicidal disclosures were equally common in the two groups. Compared to Austr…