Prof. Barbara Krahé

Position: Professor Emerita of Psychology | Former Chair of Social Psychology

Unit: Social Psychology

Degree: Dr. phil. (1981, University of Bonn) | Habilitation (1987, University of Koblenz-Landau)

Further information:  Biography | Publications | Grants | Links

Barbara Krahé is Professor Emerita of Social Psychology at the University of Potsdam, Germany and was head of the Social Psychology lab in the Department of Psychology from 1993 until 2021. Her research interests lie in the field of Applied Social Psychology, in particular aggression research (sexual aggression, media violence and aggression) and social information processing in legal contexts (rape myths and victim blaming in judgments about sexual assault). She is Associate Editor of Aggressive Behavior, and a member of the editorial board of several academic journals. She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and the Association for Psychological Science, a Life Fellow of the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA), and a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the Humanities. She was President of  ISRA from 2018 to 2020 and  Past-President until July 2022. For her achievements in the field of social psychology, in particular aggression research, she received the German Psychology Prize 2015.

News

December 10, 2024: A new comprehensive open-access-resource with a contribution by Barbara Krahé and colleagues: D.A. Christakis & L. Hale (Eds.) (2025). Handbook of children and screens. Springer.

November 23, 2024: The blogpost "Pornography’s role in shaping risky sexual norms in young adults" summarizes the article by Krahé, Tomaszewska and Schuster, "The role of pornography in shaping young adults’ sexual scripts and sexual behavior: A longitudinal study with university students." Psychology of Popular Media.

November 20, 2024: The International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA) has installed a new Mid-Career Award named after Barbara Krahé.

October 6, 2024: The article “A theory-based intervention to reduce risk and vulnerability factors of sexual aggression perpetration and victimization in German university students” (Schuster, Tomaszewska, & Krahé,  The Journal of Sex Research , 2023) received  the 2024 Hugo. G. Beigel Award awarded by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS).

September 26, 2024: Barbara Krahé was elected as a member of the Disciplinary Committee of the German Psychological Association.

August 2, 2024: 2. Barbara Krahé was awarded a Life Fellowship for "distinguished lifetime contributions to research on aggression" by the  International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA)  at the 25th World Meeting in Munich.

July 29, 2023: The talk "Blaming the Victim: How Rape Myths and Stereotypes Shape Responses to Sexual Assault" presented as part of the ISRA Speaker Series is now available online.

July 4, 2023: Barbara Krahé was appointed to the newly-founded ethics committee of the European Association of Social Psychology (EASP).

October 17, 2022: This year's Speaker Series of the International Society for Research on Aggression offers five online talks, beginning November 9, 2022.. All talks start at 7p.m. German time, attendence is free, but registration is required.  On March 8, 2023, Professor Barbara Krahé will talk about "Blaming the Victim: How Rape Myths and Stereotypes Shape Responses to Sexual Assault." 

April 5, 2022: Barbara Krahé was appointed as a member of the European Sexual Medicine Network (ESMN).

January 31, 2022: Barbara Krahé was appointed Associate Editor of the journal Aggressive Behavior.

November 13, 2021: The comprehensive summary of research on the impact of violent media on aggressive behavior by Plante et al. (2020), Game On! Sensible Answers about Video Games and Media Violence, is available here for download.

June 21, 2021: Barbara Krahé was invited to join the Editorial Board of the Journal of Sex Research.

April 22, 2021: Expert Statement on the topic of police violence by the International Society for Research on Aggression is now available: Addressing the Inappropriate Use of Force by Police in the United States and Beyond.

January 25, 2021: New advice for parents on the effects of violent media with a contribution by Barbara Krahé on www.childrenandscreens.com:  Blood, Sweat, and Fears: Understanding the Psychological Effects of Graphic and Violent Media on Children and Teens

November 11, 2020: Aggression in Times of Covid-19: The Social Costs of the Pandemic.

October 15, 2020: The third edition of the textbook The Social Psychology of Aggression is published.

June 17, 2020: Special Statement of the  International Society for Research on Aggression: Police Aggression and Its Disproportionate Impact on Minority Populations.

December 3, 2019: Barbara Krahé was re-elected as a member of the review board in Psychology of the German Research Foundation. The term of office is four years (2020-2023).

April 15, 2019: A demo version of the Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale (SAV-S; Krahé & Berger, 2013) is now available online.

November 12, 2018: Publication of a new Briefing Paper on Sexual Assault and Harassment by the International Society for Traumatic Stress (authored by a team of international experts, including Barbara Krahé).

July 13, 2018: Barbara Krahé began her two-year term as President of the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA).

April 11, 2018: Barbara Krahé was awarded a new research grant by the German Research Foundation on Preventing Sexual Aggression among College Students: An Online Intervention Study.  Duration: June 1, 2018 - May 31, 2021.

January 1, 2018: Barbara Krahé was appointed Consulting Editor of the journal Psychology of Violence.

October 20, 2015: Barbara Krahé was awarded the German Psychology Prize 2015 for her social psychological analyses of aggression and violence.

August 6, 2013: Myths about rape myths? Let the evidence speak.  Comment on Reece (2013; "Rape myths: Is elite opinion right and popular opinion wrong?").
 

Select Publications

Krahé, B. (2021).The social psychology of aggression (3rd ed). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

Möller, I., & Krahé, B. (2013). Mediengewalt als pädagogische Herausforderung: Ein Programm zur Förderung der Medienkompetenz im Jugendalter. Göttingen: Hogrefe. http://www.hogrefe.de/programm/mediengewalt-als-paedagogische-herausforderung.html

Report of the Media Violence Commission of the International Society for Research on Aggression (Chair: Barbara Krahé): Statement written by a group of internationally active researchers to summarize current knowledge about the link between media violence use and aggression, explain the psychological processes by which violent media may increase the risk of aggressive behavior, and offer practical advice on how parents and policy makers can deal with the issue.