Prof. em. Dr. Andreas Diekmann

Professor Emeritus at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences

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Research area

Andreas Diekmann is Professor emeritus of ETH Zürich, Seniorprofessor at the University of Leipzig (2018 - ), and a lecturer at the University of Zurich (2021 - )

Research focus:

· Cooperation in social dilemmas and experimental game theory

· Sociology of environment and population

· Methods of empirical social research

Social dilemmas refer to situations in which individual interests and collective welfare are in conflict. A central example is man-made climate change. It is investigated under which conditions individuals "free-ride" or cooperate. In this context game theory provides models for the analysis of social dilemmas. Andreas Diekmann has developed variants of non-linear collective good games ("volunteer's dilemma”) and explored them in experiments. This dilemma model is used today not only in the social sciences, but also in biology and computer science. Current research, supported by a DFG grant (2022 - 2024), is concerned with the question of the emergence of social norms in dilemma situations and with applications in social science environmental research. Particular emphasis is given to the question of the "stickiness" of conventional social norms which are sub-optimal and might reduce social welfare.

Applications of theories of cooperative action are found particularly in social science environmental research. Diekmann has studied environmental awareness, behavior, and environmental burdens in the population using environmental surveys that link household surveys with geocoded register data. The environmental burdens of lower-income groups are just as much a topic as the analysis of the conditions, especially social norms and institutions, that facilitate environmentally friendly behavior.

Another strand is social science methodological research. Diekmann has worked on anonymization techniques in surveys ("randomized response technique"), statistical methods for detecting falsified data, and the further development and application of models for the analysis of time intervals ("parametric functions of hazard rates").

Andreas Diekmann's work is interdisciplinary and follows the program of an analytical-empirical social science.

Current research project: 2022 - 2024 Emergence of social norms, supported by DFG grant (DI 292/6-1)

Google Scholar https://scholar.google.de/citations?hl=de&user=4KJsLW0AAAAJ

Research Gate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andreas-Diekmann-2/research

Andreas Diekmann has been Full Professor for Sociology at the Department for Humanities, Social and Political Sciences at the ETH Zurich April 2003 until July 2016. He is currently a Seniorprofessor at the University of Leipzig.

Andreas Diekmann studied sociology and psychology in Hamburg and Vienna. He is a Senior Professor at the University of Leipzig since 2018. He was Professor of Sociology at ETH Zurich (2003-2016) and Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin (2017-2018). Research interests include social cooperation, experimental game theory, environment and population, and social research methods. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, was a senator of the section "Economics and Empirical Social Sciences" and is speaker of the class Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences since 2022. He is also a Fellow of the European Academy of Sociology and a co-editor and board member of journals and research institutions. Recent publications focus on reducing energy consumption, analyzing environmental pollution with georeferenced data, and research on norms, cooperation, and social dilemmas.

Education

1987 Habilitation (Dr.rer.pol.habil) at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Munich

1979 Doctoral degree (Dr.rer.pol.), Faculty of Economics, University of Hamburg

1977 Statistics and research methods at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (summer semester, ICPSR-program)

1975 - 1984 Postgraduate Studies of Sociology, Social Statistics, Psychology at the University of Hamburg and the University of Vienna

1970 – 1975 Studies in sociology at the University of Hamburg (major), psychology (minor), Degree: Diplom-Soziologe (M.A. equivalent)

Academic Career

Since 2018 – Senior Professor, University of Leipzig

Since 2016 – Lecturer at ETH Zurich (2016 -2021) and University of Zurich (2021-)

2016 – 2020 Head of SNF-Environmental Research Group at the Department of Humanities, ETH Zurich

2017 – 2018 Fellow at Institute of Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg), Berlin

2003 – 2016 Professor of Sociologiy and Environmental Studies, ETH Zurich

1991 – 2003 Professor (chair) for empirical sociology and social statistics and Co-Director of the Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Law and Economics, University of Berne, Switzerland

1989 – 1990 Professor for research methods and statistics at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim

1987 – 1989 Scientific Director at the Center for Survey Studies and Methodology (ZUMA), Mannheim

1984 – 1987 Assistant Professor, University of Munich

1980 – 1984 Assistant Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna

1979 – 1980 Teaching and Research Assistant at the University of Hamburg

1975 – 1976 Research assistant, University of Hamburg

Current Panel Memberships

2022 – Spokesperson of class Humanities, Social, and Behavioural Sciences of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

2023 – Advisory Board “From Prediction to Agile Intervention Research in the Social Sciences” (FAIR), University of Dortmund, 2023 -

2020 – Member of the Board of the Hans-Albert-Institute

2019 – Elected member of the „Konzil“ of the German Society of Sociology („Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie - DGS“),

1018 – Member at the Board of the German Environmental Survey, German Environmental Office, Berlin

2018 – Member of the Board of the Centro Stefano Franscini (CSF), Ascona, ETH Zurich

2018 – Member of Advisory Board SCOOP – Sustainable Cooperation. Graduate School Groningen, NL

2018 – Advisory Board of the US-India Collaborative For Smart Distribution System, Washington State University

2010 – Member of Board and Treasurer of section "Modelling and Simulation" of the German Society of Sociology

2008 – Co-Editor Zeitschrift für Umweltpolitik und Umweltrecht

Awards and Memberships

2017-2018 Fellow Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) zu Berlin
2015 American Sociological Association, Section Rationality and Society Best Paper Award
2015-2016 European Survey Research Association, Best Paper Award “Survey Research Methods”
2012 Heisenberg-Medaille of Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
2001 - Member German National Academy of Science, Leopoldina
2000 - Fellow European Academy of Sociology
Dissertation grant of Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
Member of Scientific Associations: Academy of Sociology, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS), Verein für Socialpolitik (VfS), International Sociological Association (ISA), American Sociological Association (ASA).

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Additional information

Selected journal articles

Diekmann, A., Bruderer Enzler, H., Hartmann, J., Kurz, K., Liebe, U., Preisendörfer, P. 2022, Environmental Inequality in Four European Cities: A Study Combining Household Survey and Geo-Referenced Data, European Sociological Review: 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcac028 (open access)

Diekmann, Andreas, 2022, Emergence of and compliance with new social norms: The example of the COVID crisis in Germany. Rationality and Society: 1-26. DOI: 10.1177/10434631221092749. (open access)

Przepiorka, Wojtek and Andreas Diekmann, 2021. Parochial cooperation and the emergence of signalling norms. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, theme issue on “The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling”, edited by Szabolcs Számadó, Daniel Balliet, Francesca Giardini, Eleanor Power and Karoly Takács. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0294

Liebe, Ulf, Gewinner, Jennifer, Diekmann, Andreas, 2021. Green Energy Defaults Have Massive and Persistent Effects in the Household and Business Sector. Nature Human Behaviour 5: 576–585 doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01070-3.

Wolter, Felix and Andreas Diekmann, 2021. False Positives and the„More-is-Better“ Assumption in Sensitive Question Research: New Evidence on the Crosswise Model and the Item Count Technique“, Public Opinion Quarterly 85: 836-863. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfab043

Bruderer Enzler, Heidi; Diekmann, Andreas, 2019. All Talk and No Action? Environmental Impact and Pro-Environmental Behavior: Correlations to Income and Environmental Concern, Energy Research and Social Science 51: 12-19.

Bruderer Enzler, Heidi; Diekmann, Andreas; Liebe, Ulf. 2019. Environmental Concern and Future Orientation as Determinants of Household Electricity Use. Journal of Environmental Psychology 62: 22-29.

Diekmann, Andreas and Wojtek Przepiorka, 2016. “Take One for the Team!” Individual heterogeneity and the emergence of latent norms in a volunteer’s dilemma. Social Forces 94 (3): 1309-1333. doi: 10.1093/sf/sov107 (online October 2015).

Berger, Joel and Andreas Diekmann, 2015. The Logic of Relative Frustration: Boudon's Competition Model and Experimental Evidence. European Sociological Review 31(6):725-737.

Diekmann, Andreas and Wojtek Przepiorka, 2015. Punitive preferences, monetary incentives and tacit coordination in the punishment of defectors promote cooperation in humans. Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group).

Diekmann, Andreas, Przepiorka, Wojtek, Rauhut, Heiko, 2015. Lifting the Veil of Ignorance: An Experiment on the Contagiousness of Norm Violations. Rationality and Society 27: 309-333.

Diekmann, Andreas, Ben Jann, Wojtek Przepiorka, Stefan Wehrli, 2014. Reputation Formation and the Evolution of Cooperation in Anonymous Online Markets. American Sociological Review 79: 65-85.

Bruderer-Enzler, Heidi, Diekmann, Andreas, Meyer, Reto, 2014. Subjective Discount Rates in the General Population and their Predictive Power for Energy Saving Behavior. Energy Policy 65: 524-540.

Przepiorka, Wojtek and Andreas Diekmann, 2013. Individual Heterogeneity and Costly Punishment: A Volunteer’s Dilemma. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences 280.

Wojtek Przepiorka and Andreas Diekmann, 2013. Temporal Embeddedness and Signals of Trustworthiness: Experimental Tests of a Game Theoretic Model in the United Kingdom, Russia, and Switzerland. European Sociological Review 29: 1010-1023.

Diekmann, Andreas, 2012. Making Use of ‘‘Benford’s Law’’ for the Randomized Response Technique. Sociological Methods and Research 41(2): 325–334.

Diekmann, Andreas, 2011. Are Most Published Research Findings False? Journal of Economics and Statistics 231 (5+6): 628-635.

Diekmann, Andreas and Ben Jann, 2010: Benford’s Law and Fraud Detection. Facts and Legends, German Economic Review 11: 397-401.

Diekmann, Andreas, 2007: Not the First Digit! Using Benford’s Law to Detect Fraudulent Scientific Data, Journal of Applied Statistics 3/34:221-229.

Diekmann, Andreas, 2004: The Power of Reciprocity. Fairness, Reciprocity, and Stakes in Variants of the Dictator Game. Journal of Conflict Resolution 4/48:487-505.

Diekmann, Andreas and Kurt Schmidheiny, 2004: Do Parents of Girls Have a Higher Risk of Divorce? An Eighteen Country Study. Journal of Marriage and Family 66: 651-660.

Diekmann, Andreas and Peter Preisendörfer, 2003: Green and Greenback. The Behavioral Effects of Environmental Attitudes in Low-Cost and High-Cost Situations. Rationality and Society 4/2003, 15: 441-472. London: Sage.

Diekmann, A. and Engelhardt, H., 1999: The Social Inheritance of Divorce: Effects of Parent’s Family Type in Postwar Germany, American Sociological Review, 64, 6/1999: 783-793.

Diekmann, Andreas and Franzen, Axel, 1999: The Wealth of Nations and Environmental Concern, Environment and Behavior 31: 540-549.

Diekmann, Andreas and Preisendörfer, Peter, 1998: Environmental Behavior: Discrepancies between Aspirations and Reality, Rationality & Society, 10: 79-102.

Diekmann, Andreas, 1993: Cooperation in an Asymmetric Volunteer's Dilemma Game. Theory and Experimental Evidence. In: International Journal of Game Theory 22: 75-85.

Diekmann, Andreas, 1992: The Log-logistic Distribution as a Model for Social Diffusion Processes, Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, 51: 285-290.

Diekmann, Andreas, 1989: Diffusion and Survival Models for the Process of Entry into Marriage, Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 14: 31-44.

Diekmann, Andreas, 1985: Volunteer's Dilemma, Journal of Conflict Resolution 29: 605-610.

Diekmann, Andreas and Mitter, Peter, 1983: The Sickle Hypothesis. A Time Dependent Poisson Model with Applications to Deviant Behavior and Occupational Mobility, Journal of Mathematical Sociology 13: 85-101.