Research with horizoom

The primary argument for including large numbers of known-to-be innocent fillers in lineups is that guessing-based selections are dispersed among a large number of lineup members, leading to low innocent-suspect identification rates. However, a recent study using the two-high threshold eyewitness identification model has demonstrated advantages of smaller lineups at the level of the processes underlying the observable responses. Participants were more likely to detect the presence of the culprit and less likely to select lineup members based on guessing in smaller than in larger lineups. Nonetheless, at the level of observable responses, the rate of innocent-suspect identifications was higher in smaller compared to larger lineups due to the decreased dispersion of guessing-based selections among the lineup members. To address this issue, we combined smaller lineups with lineup instructions insinuating that the culprit was unlikely to be in the lineup. The goal was to achieve a particularly low rate of guessing-based selections. These lineups were compared to larger lineups with neutral instructions. In two experiments, culprit-presence detection occurred with a higher probability in smaller compared to larger lineups. Furthermore, instructions insinuating that the culprit was unlikely to be in the lineup reduced guessing-based selection compared to neutral instructions. At the level of observable responses, the innocent-suspect identification rate did not differ between smaller lineups with low-culprit-probability instructions and larger lineups with neutral instructions. The rate of culprit identifications was higher in smaller lineups with low-culprit-probability instructions than in larger lineups with neutral instructions.

Every maneuver of a vehicle redistributes risks between road users. While human drivers do this intuitively, autonomous vehicles allow and require deliberative algorithmic risk management. But how should traffic risks be distributed among road users? In a global experimental study in eight countries with different cultural backgrounds and almost 11,000 participants, we compared risk distribution preferences. It turns out that risk preferences in road traffic are strikingly similar between the cultural zones. The vast majority of participants in all countries deviates from a guiding principle of minimizing accident probabilities in favor of weighing up the probability and severity of accidents. At the national level, the consideration of accident probability and severity hardly differs between countries. The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles detected in deterministic crash scenarios disappears in risk assessments of everyday traffic situations in all countries. In no country do cyclists receive a risk bonus that goes beyond their higher vulnerability. In sum, our results suggest that a global consensus on the risk ethics of autonomous driving is easier to establish than on the ethics of crashing.

Data is essential to better understand tourists and visitor flows as well as to better inform and guide tourists and manage visitor flows. In the age of data protection and overtourism, destination management organizations and national tourism organizations are challenged to find ways for consensual visitor tracking via mobile apps. Based on social exchange theory, it can be assumed that people are willing to provide personal location data when being compensated fairly. In this study, we find and explore a selection of potential mobile app features, ranging from utilitarian (personalized content, higher value of services, monetary rewards) to hedonic (gamified features) and social benefits. Based on the Kano model and a representative sample of 2038 panelists, we classify app features according to their ability to make people use a mobile app and thus allow for location-based tracking. Results show that gamification seems appealing to a subset of younger generations, while utility features are more broadly accepted and wanted. Social elements of travel mobile apps seem less attractive and relevant to most people. To convince a representative group of tourists to use a mobile app with tracking capabilities, we conclude that the focus should primarily be on actual utility of the app while gamified features should be implemented with care.

Around 72 percent of employees in Germany are familiar with so-called leisure sickness (* ) , meaning the feeling of getting ill or feeling exhausted on days off or while on holiday. One in five (19.3 per cent) experience this at least always or frequently on days off or on holiday. This is the result of a recent representative study by IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU) named “Leisure Sickness: Feeling exhausted instead of well rested”. The main symptoms always or frequently experienced by respondents were tiredness or exhaustion (36.1 per cent), sleep problems (27.6 per cent), irritability (18.9 per cent), headaches (16.7 per cent) and cold symptoms (14.2 per cent).

Although over 95 per cent of participants in the IU study consider it important to take time for relaxation and leisure, four in ten (40.1 per cent) of respondents fully or somewhat agree with the statement that their private life does not offer enough relaxation to meet the demands of their job. Younger employees up to the age of 25 are particularly likely to agree with this statement completely or somewhat (50.5 per cent), meaning that they are less likely to find relaxation in their free time than older employees.

According to study expert Stefanie André, Professor of Health Management at IU International University of Applied Sciences and an expert on health in the workplace, leisure sickness can arise as a result of stress in the work context (see also leisure sickness definition below) and can have several causes. According to the IU study, employees are particularly affected by the following: high work pressure (33.7 per cent), a lack of support from superiors and colleagues (30.0 per cent) as well as an unclear distribution of tasks (23.4 per cent) and unclear tasks (20.8 per cent). Other stress factors are long working hours (17.3 per cent) and an unfavourable work-life balance (21.9 per cent).

In 2025, people in Germany primarily use news programmes on television, online news portals and the radio to stay informed about current social and political events. Social media, such as Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube, are also important and frequently used sources of information for many people. More than half of the respondents always or regularly fact-check the latest news.

Talking of trust: the majority of respondents trust traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers) as a source. Personal networks, such as friends or family, are considered nearly as credible. In contrast, less than a third of people in Germany trust social media as a source. More on this in Focus: Social Media.

However, it’s not just social media that has a trust problem: 70.6% of respondents tend to agree or completely agree that their trust in the media has declined in recent years. This is partly due to the increased spread of fake news and deepfakes. “Although disinformation spreads primarily via social media, comments and messenger services, fake news and deepfakes are fuelling distrust in the media as a whole. This is because many people are unsettled or overwhelmed by the multitude of platforms, information and opinions,” says Prof. Dr Nele Hansen, Professor of Media Management at IU International University of Applied Sciences, analysing the findings.

Disinformation in the form of fake news and deepfakes poses even further dangers to society: 89.9% consider fake news to be a serious threat to our democracy and freedom. According to the respondents, social network platforms and politicians in particular have a responsibility to combat these dangers, e.g. by labelling potential fake news and deepfakes or through a legal obligation to label AI-generated content.

Maximum working hours, flexible working hours and the 12-hour day: these are the terms that the current debate on the 48-hour week revolves around. As part of a reform of the Working Hours Act, the German federal government plans to make working hours more flexible, as set out in the coalition agreement. In future, a maximum weekly working time will apply instead of a maximum daily working time. Working days of up to 12 hours could then be offset by a correspondingly shorter number of working hours on other days.

IU’s representative study gives employees in Germany a chance to have their say. The findings: many respondents are concerned about the negative effects of the 48-hour work week, such as less free time and a higher workload. On the other hand, the majority believe that a 4-day week would have a positive impact on their quality of life, satisfaction and productivity. These results are consistent with the essence of the 4-day model: a deliberately streamlined and efficiently organised way of working.

Prof. Dr Malte Martensen, Professor of General Business Administration specialising in Human Resource Management and Organisation at IU International University of Applied Sciences, summarises the discussion surrounding working models: “The key question is not whether we work more or less, but how we can make work future-proof.”

Confidence in lineup responses is important in research and practice. Here we introduce the lineup confidence model, an extension of the well-validated two-high threshold eyewitness identification model. The two-high threshold eyewitness identification model serves to measure four cognitive processes underlying lineup responses: culprit-presence detection, culprit-absence detection, biased suspect selection and guessing-based selection. The lineup confidence model additionally incorporates the measurement of confidence. To validate the lineup confidence model, we conducted an experiment with a large sample size (N = 1565) using post-response feedback as a manipulation of confidence. Confidence followed a predictable and psychologically plausible pattern: responses based on detection were more likely to result in high confidence than responses based on guessing, and responses based on biased suspect selection were also more likely to result in high confidence than responses based on guessing. Importantly, post-response feedback selectively influenced confidence while leaving the parameters for culprit-presence detection, culprit-absence detection, biased suspect selection and guessing-based selection unaffected. Confidence can thus be measured with the model without compromising the measurement of the other processes specified by the model. This successful validation indicates that the lineup confidence model may be useful for examining how lineup characteristics and external factors influence confidence as a function of the processes underlying lineup responses.

The ongoing digitalization has made online surveys a central instrument in market and social research. At the same time, visual and interactive design elements are gaining importance in order to adapt survey situations to changing media usage habits. In this context, synthetically generated avatars are increasingly discussed as a potentially motivating alternative to traditional text-based survey formats. While corresponding effects have already been examined in research with adult samples, empirical evidence regarding the suitability of avatar-based survey formats in child research remains largely lacking.

Although crimes involving multiple culprits are widespread, there is still a lack of understanding of how the police should construct lineups for multiple suspects in these cases. In most of the few guidelines that exist it is recommended to present multiple lineups separately in succession, with each lineup including one suspect. This replicates, for each suspect in a multiple-culprit case, the procedure used for a single suspect in a single-culprit case. However, this recommendation could be reconsidered if it turned out that, if multiple culprits are present in the lineups, the face of one culprit serves as a contextual facial cue that enhances the eyewitness’s ability to detect another culprit within the same display—an effect that could only occur if all lineups are presented together in a combined lineup-presentation format, allowing them to be visible concurrently. Two experiments using a staged-crime video with four culprits were conducted to test whether presenting simultaneous lineups combined as opposed to separately affects culprit-presence detection. In Experiment 1, it was tested whether culprit-presence detection differs between combined and separate lineup-presentation formats. No significant difference was found, indicating comparable performance between the two lineup-presentation formats. In Experiment 2, we compared a condition in which three culprit-present lineups were combined—allowing for multiple potential contextual facial cues—with conditions involving separate lineups and combined lineups with only one culprit-present lineup, where contextual facial cueing was theoretically not possible. Culprit-presence detection did not differ between the combined format with three culprit-present lineups and the other conditions. Given the absence of clear benefits of the combined-lineup-presentation format, a cautious, pragmatic conclusion is to continue presenting each suspect in a separate lineup, consistent with most current recommendations.

This paper examines how market context and supply-side market actors are associated with popular support for market-restrictive housing regulation in Germany. Using a quota-based vignette survey, we compare rental and sales contexts and private owners and real estate companies as supply-side actors. Preferences for market-restrictive housing regulation aimed at protecting the demand side of the market are stronger in rental than in sales contexts and stronger when the actor is framed as a real estate company rather than a private owner.Perceived power asymmetry and supply skepticism show related but more differentiated patterns, whereas zero-sum thinking is widespread but comparatively insensitive to the experimental frames. By focusing on Germany as a rental-oriented, regulation-heavy housing market, the study extends the predominantly U.S.-focused literature on housing-related folk-economic reasoning and clarifies which associations are especially salient under recurring rental dependence. From a business-economics perspective, the findings show how public moral-economic reasoning may matter indirectly for firms by strengthening political demand for market restrictions in a highly salient sector.