Prof. Dr. Jule Specht
Principal Investigator
Research Stream:
Berlin Polarization Monitor
Individuals
Mail:
jule.specht@hu-berlin.de
Website:
https://hu.berlin/specht
Short Vita
I am Professor of Personality Psychology at the Humboldt University of Berlin and Research Fellow at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). My research focuses on personality development and political psychology.
Key publications
Hamdani, L., Demel, R., Hutter, S., & Specht, J. (2026). Who Gets Involved in a Crisis? The Role of the Big Five Personality Traits and Empathy in Benevolent and Activist Engagement. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 19485506251413297. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506251413297
Klinke, D., Jacobsen, J., Dierse, M., Faas, T., Gerstorf, D., Helal, H., Hutter, S., Schieferdecker, D., Schwander, H., von Scheve, C., & Specht, J. (2025). Social media sampling is an effective way to access hard to survey populations and low prevalence groups. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 29(3), 463–482. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2025.2564866
Becker, B., Schwander, H., Shuttleworth, L., Faas, T., Gerstorf, D., specht, jule, & Teney, C. (2025). The Berlin Polarization Monitor: A Panel Study of Partisan and Issue-Based Polarization in Germany (2025–2027) (No. msc7e_v1). SocArXiv. https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/msc7e_v1/
Neumann, R., Pfetsch, B., Hutter, S., Koschut, S., Schieferdecker, D., & Specht, J. (2025). Value orientations and social cohesion in organizational discourses: A civil society perspective. Information, Communication and Society, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2534719
Hutter, S., Schwander, H., Specht, J., von Scheve, C. (2025). Coping with Affective Polarization: A Research Program. Diskussionspapier ZZ 2025-602, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB). https://bibliothek.wzb.eu/pdf/2025/zz25-602.pdf
Demel, R., Masch, L., Schieferdecker, D., Schwander, H., Hutter, S., & Specht, J. (2025). Empathy during crises: Investigating attitudes, tolerance, and ingroup–outgroup dynamics in response to refugee movements. Journal of Personality, 93(6), 1351-1366. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.13012
Kratt, L., Höltmann, G., Hutter, S., & Specht, J. (2024). The Big Five personality traits and social support during the COVID-19 pandemic: The supporters, the supported, and the overlooked. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 34:e2894. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2894
Neumann, R., Pfetsch, B., Hutter, S. et al. The Rhetoric of Solidarity: Nature and Measurement of Social Cohesion in the Self-representation of Civil Society Organizations. Soc Indic Res 169, 863–882 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-023-03163-0
Specht, J. (Ed.) (2017). Personality development across the lifespan. San Diego: Elsevier.
Specht, J., Egloff, B., & Schmukle, S. C. (2011). Stability and change of personality across the life course: The impact of age and major life events on mean-level and rank-order stability of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 862-882. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024950
Press publications
Wer emotional polarisiert ist, hält andere für dumm, herzlos, böse. (ZEIT ONLINE, 2025)
Warum wir nicht mit allen gleich solidarisch sind (Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 2020)
