Understanding how people form judgments and make decisions

The Cognition & Decision research group investigates how people acquire and interpret information, form judgments, and make decisions in consumer and market contexts. We seek to understand the cognitive and behavioral mechanisms underlying these decisions and how they depend on the information available and the environments in which choices are made.

Our research connects questions in judgment and decision making, behavioral economics, and consumer research. We examine when decision strategies support effective choices, when they lead to systematic biases, and how changes in information and choice environments affect behavior.

We use online and laboratory experiments to test theoretical predictions and identify the causal mechanisms underlying judgment and decision making.

By linking fundamental questions about human decision making to challenges in markets and society, we aim to advance scientific understanding and inform the design of effective interventions.

We investigate how cognitive processes shape consumer decisions, focusing on the interplay between:

• individual decision processes and information conditions
  • Heuristics and biases in judgment and decision making
  • Decision making under incomplete or asymmetric information
• social and regulatory environments
  • The role of social norms and preferences in consumer decisions
  • The effects of regulation on information, incentives, and choice environments

Our recent research focuses on three interconnected themes:

• Consumer Decisions and Sustainable Transformation: How consumers respond to sustainability information and incentives, and how decision environments can support sustainable consumption.
• Consumer Decisions and Digital Innovation: How digital technologies reshape information, choice environments, and consumer decision making.
• Consumer Decisions and Macroeconomic Dynamics: How consumers form economic expectations and make spending and saving decisions, and how these decisions interact with broader economic developments.

• Brand, B. M., Grunert, K. G., Dintner, L. K., & Stoltenberg, B. (2026). Mapping the sustainability labels jungle in the food context: an analysis of multi-dimensional multi-level labels. British Food Journal, 128 (13), 505-582. doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-09-2025-124
• Brand, B. M. (2025). Bridging the intention–behavior gap through digitalized information? Two laboratory experiments in the textile industry. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 84, 104179.
• Freisinger, E., Schneider, S. & Unfried, M. (2024). The AI Augmented Crowd: How Human Crowdvoters Adopt AI (or not). Journal of Product Innovation Management, 41(4): 865–889. doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12708
• Brand, B. M., & Reith, R. (2022). Cultural differences in the perception of credible online reviews: The influence of presentation format. Decision Support Systems, 154, 113710.
• Zürn, M. K., Gerten, J., & Topolinski, S. (2021). Maybe Favors: How to get More Good Deeds Done. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
• Erle, T. M., & Zürn, M. K. (2020). Illusory trust: Kanizsa shapes incidentally increase trust and willingness to invest. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 33(5), 671-682.
• Dieckmann, A., Grimm, V., Unfried, M., Utikal, V., & Valmasoni, L. (2016). On trust in honesty and volunteering among Europeans: Cross-country evidence on perceptions and behavior. European Economic Review, 90, 225-253. doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2016.01.011