Pascal Burgmer
Biographic Data
| ID | 757833 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Pascal Burgmer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Pascal |
| FAMILY NAME | Burgmer |
| SIGNATURE | BURGMER P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Kent |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3664-0539 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
When do two wrongs make a right? Schadenfreude and the legitimization of illegal attacks against corrupt national institutions
This research investigated the role of schadenfreude-feelings of joy at a target's misfortunes-in people's legitimization of illegal attacks against corrupt institutions with formal authority. Five experiments (Experiment 1 conducted in 2018, the others in 2024-2025; Experiments 2-5 preregistered) in the United Kingdom and Italy ( N total = 1,676) employed realistic scenarios involving cyberattacks and violent intimidation from criminal groups. A…
The nature of mind scale (Noms): Validation of an eight-dimensional scale assessing beliefs about the relationship between mind and matter
We developed and validated the Nature of Mind Scale (NOMS), a 24-item measure assessing lay beliefs about eight distinct philosophical positions on the mind-body relationship. Given the limitations of existing measures and the theoretical diversity of mind-body positions, our goal was to develop a comprehensive yet practical scale that could capture the full range of philosophical stances without reducing them to overly simplified dimensions. Acr…
When Confidence in Institutions Backfires: Power‐Distance Orientation Moderates the Relationship Between Institutional Trust and Civic Honesty Across Eight Countries
Confidence in institutions is a key predictor of civic honesty, yet evidence shows that this relationship varies across contexts and individuals. This study examined whether power‐distance orientation (PDO)—the extent to which individuals accept hierarchical power relations—moderates this association. High‐PDO individuals tend to view institutional authorities as entitled to privilege, inclined to engage in patronage relationships and potentially…
The Geopolitics of Civic Honesty: The Role of Interpersonal and Political Trust Amid Varying Degrees of Mafia Influence and State Resilience
Civic honesty—the moral standards that define citizens’ commitment to the public good—serves a fundamental role in societal functioning. Prior research has emphasized the role of vertical trust (trust in institutions) and horizontal trust (trust in fellow citizens) in predicting the endorsement of such standards among citizens. However, this research has mainly focused on the political conditions typical of the Global North while neglecting envir…
Alternative Systems: The Interplay Between Criminal Groups’ Influence and Political Trust on Civic Honesty in the Global Context
Individuals’ endorsement of standards of civic honesty is necessary for democracies to flourish. A critical driver of civic honesty is the relationship of trust between individuals and institutions. Research has yet to systematically assess the contextual factors that may moderate this relationship. In this study, we examined the societal influence of organized criminal groups. Criminal groups operate as alternative systems of authority that erod…
The psychology of criminal authority: Introducing the Legitimacy of Secret Power Scale
The state’s monopoly on sovereignty can be challenged by criminal systems capable of gaining legitimacy within communities. Understanding the psychological basis of such legitimacy requires broadening traditional conceptualizations of authority to consider how it operates without legal backing and outside formal channels. This research introduces the Legitimacy of Secret Power (L-SP) Scale, a tool measuring individuals’ appraisal of illegal group…
Understanding Others in Moments of Crisis” A Special Issue of Social Psychology
Taking the moral high ground: Deontological and absolutist moral dilemma judgments convey self-righteousness
Commentary on Over (2021): Well-Taken Points About Dehumanization, but Exaggeration of Challenges
Moralizing mental states: The role of trait self-control and control perceptions
Trust in everyday life
Although trust plays a pivotal role in many aspects of life, very little is known about the manifestation of trust and distrust in everyday life. In this work, we integrated several prior approaches to trust and investigated the prevalence and key determinants of trust (vs. distrust) in people's natural environments, using preregistered experience-sampling methodology. Across more than 4,500 social interactions from a heterogeneous sample of 427 …
Other-serving double standards: People show moral hypercrisy in close relationships
Extending research on self-serving double moral standards (hypocrisy), we examine the reverse pattern of other-serving hypercrisy toward close relationship partners. In three studies ( N = 1,019), for various imagined transgressions, people made more lenient moral judgments for their close friends (Studies 1 & 2) and romantic partners (Study 3) compared to themselves. This hypercrisy effect emerged both for transgressions toward third parties (St…
Lay beliefs in moral expertise
Compared to expertise in other domains, moral expertise remains a controversial topic. The current research employs a folk-psychological approach to explore which characteristics laypeople consider to be essential for moral expertise. Study 1 indicates that laypeople associate moral experts with a virtuous character and other-oriented behavior. Formal qualifications, such as education and training, are seen as less important for moral experts, co…
Surprise me! On the impact of unexpected benefits on other-praising gratitude expressions
Gratitude reinforces social bonds. This relationship-regulating function depends on whether and how it is expressed. People can express gratitude in different ways: Beneficiaries may emphasise how they profited from a benefit (self-benefiting) or focus on the benefactor's actions and characteristics related to it (other-praising). What underlies these expressive styles remains unclear. Based on findings that other-praising gratitude expressions h…
I don’t feel ya: How narcissism shapes empathy
Those who tend towards a self-absorbed personality are less likely to “feel others.” Indeed, subclinical narcissism has been linked to decreased empathy: Individuals high in narcissism seem to neglect what other people are thinking and feeling and are less likely to emotionally share others’ mental states. Three studies (N = 1,008) extend the literature on narcissism and empathy in some important ways. We suggest that the empathy deficit among na…
Abstract Thinking Increases Support for Affirmative Action
Power increases the self‐serving bias in the attribution of collective successes and failures
Three studies test the effect of power on the self‐serving bias in attributing collective outcomes. The first two studies measure (Experiment 1) and manipulate (Experiment 2) power and then measure the internal (vs. external) attribution of past successes and failures. Consistently, those who feel powerful show a stronger self‐serving tendency to selectively attribute successes internally and failures externally than those who feel powerless. Exp…
A free will needs a free mind: Belief in substance dualism and reductive physicalism differentially predict belief in free will and determinism
Mind-Body Dualism and Health Revisited: How Belief in Dualism Shapes Health Behavior
Does a sound mind require a sound body? Whether or not lay people subscribe to this notion depends on their belief in mind-body dualism and critically shapes their health-related behaviors. Six studies (N = 1,710) revisit the relation between dualism and health. We replicate the negative correlation between belief in dualism and health behavior (Study 1) and extend it to behavior in the field (Study 2). Studies 3a and 3b investigate how belief in…
Bullseye: How Power Improves Motor Performance
Power makes people think, feel, and behave in ways that help them to maintain and increase power. Thus far, the mechanisms underlying power’s beneficial effects on goal pursuit have been investigated predominantly on a cognitive level. The present research tested whether power influences goal pursuit in an even more fundamental way, namely by improving actual behavior on motor-based tasks. Furthermore, we suggest that this effect is produced by c…
Perspective taking and automatic intergroup evaluation change: Testing an associative self-anchoring account
The current research adopted a multipronged mediational approach to test an associative self-anchoring account of automatic intergroup evaluation change following perspective taking. We contend that actively contemplating outgroup members' perspectives strengthens associative links between that outgroup and the self, enabling a transfer of positive automatic self-evaluations to the group. A first set of experiments, using both measurement-of-medi…
Perspective taking and automatic intergroup evaluation change: Testing an associative self-anchoring account
The current research adopted a multipronged mediational approach to test an associative self-anchoring account of automatic intergroup evaluation change following perspective taking. We contend that actively contemplating outgroup members' perspectives strengthens associative links between that outgroup and the self, enabling a transfer of positive automatic self-evaluations to the group. A first set of experiments, using both measurement-of-medi…
Trust in everyday life
Although trust plays a pivotal role in many aspects of life, very little is known about the manifestation of trust and distrust in everyday life. In this work, we integrated several prior approaches to trust and investigated the prevalence and key determinants of trust (vs. distrust) in people's natural environments, using preregistered experience-sampling methodology. Across more than 4,500 social interactions from a heterogeneous sample of 427 …
Other-serving double standards: People show moral hypercrisy in close relationships
Extending research on self-serving double moral standards (hypocrisy), we examine the reverse pattern of other-serving hypercrisy toward close relationship partners. In three studies ( N = 1,019), for various imagined transgressions, people made more lenient moral judgments for their close friends (Studies 1 & 2) and romantic partners (Study 3) compared to themselves. This hypercrisy effect emerged both for transgressions toward third parties (St…
Mind-Body Dualism and Health Revisited: How Belief in Dualism Shapes Health Behavior
Does a sound mind require a sound body? Whether or not lay people subscribe to this notion depends on their belief in mind-body dualism and critically shapes their health-related behaviors. Six studies (N = 1,710) revisit the relation between dualism and health. We replicate the negative correlation between belief in dualism and health behavior (Study 1) and extend it to behavior in the field (Study 2). Studies 3a and 3b investigate how belief in…
The Geopolitics of Civic Honesty: The Role of Interpersonal and Political Trust Amid Varying Degrees of Mafia Influence and State Resilience
Civic honesty—the moral standards that define citizens’ commitment to the public good—serves a fundamental role in societal functioning. Prior research has emphasized the role of vertical trust (trust in institutions) and horizontal trust (trust in fellow citizens) in predicting the endorsement of such standards among citizens. However, this research has mainly focused on the political conditions typical of the Global North while neglecting envir…
Abstract Thinking Increases Support for Affirmative Action
The psychology of criminal authority: Introducing the Legitimacy of Secret Power Scale
The state’s monopoly on sovereignty can be challenged by criminal systems capable of gaining legitimacy within communities. Understanding the psychological basis of such legitimacy requires broadening traditional conceptualizations of authority to consider how it operates without legal backing and outside formal channels. This research introduces the Legitimacy of Secret Power (L-SP) Scale, a tool measuring individuals’ appraisal of illegal group…
Taking the moral high ground: Deontological and absolutist moral dilemma judgments convey self-righteousness
Power increases the self‐serving bias in the attribution of collective successes and failures
Three studies test the effect of power on the self‐serving bias in attributing collective outcomes. The first two studies measure (Experiment 1) and manipulate (Experiment 2) power and then measure the internal (vs. external) attribution of past successes and failures. Consistently, those who feel powerful show a stronger self‐serving tendency to selectively attribute successes internally and failures externally than those who feel powerless. Exp…
Bullseye: How Power Improves Motor Performance
Power makes people think, feel, and behave in ways that help them to maintain and increase power. Thus far, the mechanisms underlying power’s beneficial effects on goal pursuit have been investigated predominantly on a cognitive level. The present research tested whether power influences goal pursuit in an even more fundamental way, namely by improving actual behavior on motor-based tasks. Furthermore, we suggest that this effect is produced by c…
Perspective taking and automatic intergroup evaluation change: Testing an associative self-anchoring account
The current research adopted a multipronged mediational approach to test an associative self-anchoring account of automatic intergroup evaluation change following perspective taking. We contend that actively contemplating outgroup members' perspectives strengthens associative links between that outgroup and the self, enabling a transfer of positive automatic self-evaluations to the group. A first set of experiments, using both measurement-of-medi…
A free will needs a free mind: Belief in substance dualism and reductive physicalism differentially predict belief in free will and determinism
Mind-Body Dualism and Health Revisited: How Belief in Dualism Shapes Health Behavior
Does a sound mind require a sound body? Whether or not lay people subscribe to this notion depends on their belief in mind-body dualism and critically shapes their health-related behaviors. Six studies (N = 1,710) revisit the relation between dualism and health. We replicate the negative correlation between belief in dualism and health behavior (Study 1) and extend it to behavior in the field (Study 2). Studies 3a and 3b investigate how belief in…
I don’t feel ya: How narcissism shapes empathy
Those who tend towards a self-absorbed personality are less likely to “feel others.” Indeed, subclinical narcissism has been linked to decreased empathy: Individuals high in narcissism seem to neglect what other people are thinking and feeling and are less likely to emotionally share others’ mental states. Three studies (N = 1,008) extend the literature on narcissism and empathy in some important ways. We suggest that the empathy deficit among na…
Abstract Thinking Increases Support for Affirmative Action
Power increases the self‐serving bias in the attribution of collective successes and failures
Three studies test the effect of power on the self‐serving bias in attributing collective outcomes. The first two studies measure (Experiment 1) and manipulate (Experiment 2) power and then measure the internal (vs. external) attribution of past successes and failures. Consistently, those who feel powerful show a stronger self‐serving tendency to selectively attribute successes internally and failures externally than those who feel powerless. Exp…
Lay beliefs in moral expertise
Compared to expertise in other domains, moral expertise remains a controversial topic. The current research employs a folk-psychological approach to explore which characteristics laypeople consider to be essential for moral expertise. Study 1 indicates that laypeople associate moral experts with a virtuous character and other-oriented behavior. Formal qualifications, such as education and training, are seen as less important for moral experts, co…
Surprise me! On the impact of unexpected benefits on other-praising gratitude expressions
Gratitude reinforces social bonds. This relationship-regulating function depends on whether and how it is expressed. People can express gratitude in different ways: Beneficiaries may emphasise how they profited from a benefit (self-benefiting) or focus on the benefactor's actions and characteristics related to it (other-praising). What underlies these expressive styles remains unclear. Based on findings that other-praising gratitude expressions h…
Commentary on Over (2021): Well-Taken Points About Dehumanization, but Exaggeration of Challenges
Moralizing mental states: The role of trait self-control and control perceptions
Trust in everyday life
Although trust plays a pivotal role in many aspects of life, very little is known about the manifestation of trust and distrust in everyday life. In this work, we integrated several prior approaches to trust and investigated the prevalence and key determinants of trust (vs. distrust) in people's natural environments, using preregistered experience-sampling methodology. Across more than 4,500 social interactions from a heterogeneous sample of 427 …
Other-serving double standards: People show moral hypercrisy in close relationships
Extending research on self-serving double moral standards (hypocrisy), we examine the reverse pattern of other-serving hypercrisy toward close relationship partners. In three studies ( N = 1,019), for various imagined transgressions, people made more lenient moral judgments for their close friends (Studies 1 & 2) and romantic partners (Study 3) compared to themselves. This hypercrisy effect emerged both for transgressions toward third parties (St…
Understanding Others in Moments of Crisis” A Special Issue of Social Psychology
Taking the moral high ground: Deontological and absolutist moral dilemma judgments convey self-righteousness
Alternative Systems: The Interplay Between Criminal Groups’ Influence and Political Trust on Civic Honesty in the Global Context
Individuals’ endorsement of standards of civic honesty is necessary for democracies to flourish. A critical driver of civic honesty is the relationship of trust between individuals and institutions. Research has yet to systematically assess the contextual factors that may moderate this relationship. In this study, we examined the societal influence of organized criminal groups. Criminal groups operate as alternative systems of authority that erod…
The psychology of criminal authority: Introducing the Legitimacy of Secret Power Scale
The state’s monopoly on sovereignty can be challenged by criminal systems capable of gaining legitimacy within communities. Understanding the psychological basis of such legitimacy requires broadening traditional conceptualizations of authority to consider how it operates without legal backing and outside formal channels. This research introduces the Legitimacy of Secret Power (L-SP) Scale, a tool measuring individuals’ appraisal of illegal group…
When Confidence in Institutions Backfires: Power‐Distance Orientation Moderates the Relationship Between Institutional Trust and Civic Honesty Across Eight Countries
Confidence in institutions is a key predictor of civic honesty, yet evidence shows that this relationship varies across contexts and individuals. This study examined whether power‐distance orientation (PDO)—the extent to which individuals accept hierarchical power relations—moderates this association. High‐PDO individuals tend to view institutional authorities as entitled to privilege, inclined to engage in patronage relationships and potentially…
The Geopolitics of Civic Honesty: The Role of Interpersonal and Political Trust Amid Varying Degrees of Mafia Influence and State Resilience
Civic honesty—the moral standards that define citizens’ commitment to the public good—serves a fundamental role in societal functioning. Prior research has emphasized the role of vertical trust (trust in institutions) and horizontal trust (trust in fellow citizens) in predicting the endorsement of such standards among citizens. However, this research has mainly focused on the political conditions typical of the Global North while neglecting envir…
When do two wrongs make a right? Schadenfreude and the legitimization of illegal attacks against corrupt national institutions
This research investigated the role of schadenfreude-feelings of joy at a target's misfortunes-in people's legitimization of illegal attacks against corrupt institutions with formal authority. Five experiments (Experiment 1 conducted in 2018, the others in 2024-2025; Experiments 2-5 preregistered) in the United Kingdom and Italy ( N total = 1,676) employed realistic scenarios involving cyberattacks and violent intimidation from criminal groups. A…
The nature of mind scale (Noms): Validation of an eight-dimensional scale assessing beliefs about the relationship between mind and matter
We developed and validated the Nature of Mind Scale (NOMS), a 24-item measure assessing lay beliefs about eight distinct philosophical positions on the mind-body relationship. Given the limitations of existing measures and the theoretical diversity of mind-body positions, our goal was to develop a comprehensive yet practical scale that could capture the full range of philosophical stances without reducing them to overly simplified dimensions. Acr…
Psychology (17 works) · Social Psychology (16 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (11 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (10 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (5 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (4 works) · Cognitive psychology (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works)