Ursula Hess

Prof. Dr. Ursula Hess is a Professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin in the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology within the Faculty of Life Sciences. She holds leadership roles as Director of Studies and Teaching and serves in the Executive Directorate of the Institute of Psychology. Her research focuses on emotional expression recognition, nonverbal communication, and the social and cultural influences on emotional perception and mimicry. She explores how contextual factors, such as social class, attire, and cultural norms, shape emotion decoding accuracy and interpersonal interactions. Her work also examines the role of emotional mimicry in social dynamics, including its modulation by stigma, virtual environments, and aging.

Research interests include the interplay between emotion displays and social contexts, the impact of facial and bodily cues on first impressions, and the effects of mental health stigmatization on emotional processing. Key contributions address how socio-cultural frameworks and technological advancements (e.g., VR) influence emotional perception and communication. Hess’s studies often bridge psychology with interdisciplinary methodologies, incorporating behavioral observations, physiological measurements, and computational tools to understand human interaction mechanisms.