Adrian Bangerter

Adrian Bangerter is a Professor at the University of Neuchâtel's Faculty of Science, where he has held a permanent position since 2003. Affiliated with the Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, his research bridges experimental psychology, linguistics, and organizational behavior to examine human interaction dynamics in professional and social contexts.

His academic foundation includes a PhD in Psychology from the University of Berne (1998) and a Licence in General Psychology from the University of Lausanne (1993). Postdoctoral training at Stanford University under Herbert H. Clark and early research on social memory systems established his interdisciplinary approach.

Bangerter's research program centers on five interconnected domains: coordination mechanisms in collaborative work, conspiracy theory belief systems, social dynamics in job interviews, multimodal communication (verbal/nonverbal), and comparative studies of joint action in humans and great apes. His methodology integrates controlled experiments, naturalistic observation, and computational analysis to reveal how individuals coordinate cognition, language, and behavior during social interactions.

Recent publications demonstrate three converging trends: increasing use of AI and machine learning to analyze interview narratives; expansion into cross-species comparisons of joint action; and sophisticated linguistic analysis of conspiracy discourse. His work consistently examines how contextual factors shape communication strategies across institutional settings.

As principal investigator, Bangerter leads a major Swiss National Science Foundation project (2021-2026) on storytelling in algorithm-powered interviews (CHF 700,342) examining how digital interfaces affect narrative construction. He also serves as Co-PI for the NCCR Evolving Language initiative, investigating language evolution through comparative studies of human and ape communication. These grants support his lab's experimental work on real-time interaction coordination.

Within the Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, Bangerter contributes to research teams studying communication in high-stakes professional contexts, including medical settings and personnel selection. His collaborative projects with primatologists at Zurich Zoo and technology developers reflect his commitment to transdisciplinary approaches for understanding fundamental interaction processes.