Dr. Kurt Alexander Ackermann

Work at ZHAW

Position

Head Center for Consumer Behavior, Lecturer & Program Director 'CAS Behavioral Insights for Marketing'

Focus

Behavioral Economics, Psychology, Decision Theory, Game Theory

Teaching

BSc, MSc, CAS & MAS

Experience

• Consultant
  FehrAdvice & Partners
  06 / 2015 - 10 / 2016
• Research Associate
  ETH Zurich
  01 / 2010 - 05 / 2015
• Lecturer
  University of Graz
  10 / 2014 - 10 / 2014
• Intern
  Institute for Work Research and Organizational Consulting (iafob)
  06 / 2008 - 10 / 2008

Education and Continuing education

Education

• Dr. sc. ETH / Decision Theory & Behavioral Game Theory
  Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich
  01 / 2010 - 12 / 2014
• MSc UZH / Psychology
  University of Zurich
  01 / 2003 - 12 / 2009

Continuing Education

CAS Higher and Professional Education
ZHAW School of Management and Law
09 / 2018

Network

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1156-3880

Awards

• ACM CHI Honorable Mention Award
  ACM SIGCHI 2020
  04 / 2020
• Best Project Award ZHAW SML
  ZHAW School of Management and Law
  06 / 2019
• ETH medal for outstanding dissertations
  ETH Zurich
  11 / 2015
• Anatol-Rapoport-Preis 2014
  Sektion "Modellbildung und Simulation"​ der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie
  10 / 2014

Projects

• Behavioral Journey Mapping / Project leader / ongoing
• Behavioral Design Thinking Workshop / Project leader / ongoing
• The effect of fear appeals on online privacy protection behavior / Co-project leader / ongoing
• Effect and Perception of Green Patterns in the Energy Sector / Team member / completed
• Behavioral Economics Inhouse-Training / Project leader / completed
• Inhouse-Training "Behavioral Economics & Nudging" / Project leader / completed
• Green Patterns / Team member / completed
• Virtualizing sales staff for online shopping: Transferring the offline shopping experience into the digital world / Project leader / completed
• Usable Privacy: Contextual privacy notices for app users / Deputy project leader / completed
• NeuroArcher – Towards the development of an AI-based application for automated customer-specific communication informed by neuromarketing and personality psychology / Project leader / completed
• User-Centric Privacy Policy: A GDPR-Compliant Policy Which Users Understand / Team member / completed

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

• Ackermann, K. A. et al. (2025) 'Personality ASPECTS : a novel psychographic model and scale integrating traits, values, and motives for psychological targeting', Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 25(1), pp. 212–237. doi: 10.1002/cb.70051.
• Altwicker-Hámori, S. et al. (2024) 'Risk factors for smoking in adolescence : evidence from a cross-sectional survey in Switzerland', BMC Public Health, 24(1), p. 1165. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-18695-4.
• Bernold, E. et al. (2023) 'Accounting for preferences and beliefs in social framing effects', Frontiers in Behavioral Economics, 2(1147492). doi: 10.3389/frbhe.2023.1147492.
• Ebert, N., Ackermann, K. A. and Bearth, A. (2022) 'When information security depends on font size : how the saliency of warnings affects protection behavior', Journal of Risk Research, 26(3), pp. 233–255. doi: 10.1080/13669877.2022.2142952.
• Ackermann, K. A. et al. (2021) 'Willingness to share data : contextual determinants of consumers" decisions to share private data with companies', Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 21(2), pp. 375–386. doi: 10.1002/cb.2012.
• Fleiß, J. et al. (2019) 'Social and environmental preferences : measuring how people make tradeoffs among themselves, others, and collective goods', Central European Journal of Operations Research. doi: 10.1007/s10100-019-00619-y.
• Ackermann, K. A. and Murphy, R. O. (2019) 'Explaining cooperative behavior in public goods games : how preferences and beliefs affect contribution levels', Games, 10(1), pp. 15–48. doi: 10.3390/g10010015.
• Greiff, M., Ackermann, K. and Murphy, R. (2018) 'Playing a game or making a decision? : methodological issues in the measurement of distributional preferences', Games, 9(4), pp. 80–104. doi: 10.3390/g9040080.
• Murphy, R. O. and Ackermann, K. A. (2015) 'Social preferences, positive expectations, and trust based cooperation', Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 67, pp. 45–50. doi: 10.1016/j.jmp.2015.06.001.
• Nax, H. H., Murphy, R. O. and Ackermann, K. A. (2015) 'Interactive preferences', Economics Letters, 135, pp. 133–136. doi: 10.1016/j.econlet.2015.08.008.
• Ackermann, K. A., Fleiss, J. and Murphy, R. (2014) 'Reciprocity as an individual difference', Journal of Conflict Resolution, 60(2), pp. 340–367. doi: 10.1177/0022002714541854.

Books, peer-reviewed

Ackermann, K. A. (2014) Social value orientation : an analysis of measurement, form, predictive power, and malleability of social preferences. Doctoral dissertation. ETH Zürich. doi: 10.3929/ethz-a-010273775.

Book chapters, peer-reviewed

• Ackermann, K. A. and Fleiss, J. (2019) 'Der praktische Einsatz verhaltensökonomischer Massnahmen in der betrieblichen Gesundheitsförderung am Beispiel von Nudging', in Bergner, S., Fleiss, J., and Gutschelhofer, A. (eds) Wandel gestalten : Beiträge der Managementforschung zu Herausforderungen der Unternehmensführung. Graz: Leykam, pp. 265–277.
• Klaas, M., Ackermann, K. A. and Fleiss, J. (2019) 'Big Data im Marketing', in Bergner, S., Fleiss, J., and Gutschelhofer, A. (eds) Wandel gestalten : Beiträge der Managementforschung zu Herausforderungen der Unternehmensführung. Graz: Leykam, pp. 211–227.
• Ackermann, K. A. and Furchheim, P. (2018) 'Emotionen und deren Bedeutung für das Marketing : eine Einführung', in Rüeger, B. et al. (eds) Emotionalisierung im digitalen Marketing : erfolgreiche Methoden für die Marketingpraxis. Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschel, pp. 11–26.

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

• Schaltegger, T. et al. (2024) 'Re-thinking decision-making in cybersecurity : leveraging cognitive heuristics in situations of uncertainty', in Proceedings of the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, pp. 4734–4743. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-30548.
• Ebert, N. et al. (2023) 'QButterfly : lightweight survey extension for online user interaction studies for non-tech-savvy researchers', in CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, p. 161. doi: 10.1145/3544548.3580780.
• Ebert, N., Ackermann, K. A. and Scheppler, B. (2021) 'Bolder is better : raising user awareness through salient and concise privacy notices', in CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, p. 67. doi: 10.1145/3411764.3445516.
• Werle, R. et al. (2021) 'A decision-making tool incorporating multiple benefits of motor systems' retrofits', in Bertoldi, P. (ed.) Energy Efficiency in Motor Systems : Proceedings of the 11th international Conference EEMODS'19. Springer, pp. 215–229. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-69799-0_17.
• Ebert, N., Ackermann, K. A. and Heinrich, P. (2020) 'Does context in privacy communication really matter? : a survey on consumer concerns and preferences', in CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3313831.3376575.

Other publications

• Ackermann, K. A. et al. (2020) Swiss Behavioral Econmics Studie : der Einsatz von Verhaltensökonomie in Schweizer Unternehmen - Fokus Marketing. Winterthur: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-20571.
• Rüeger, B. et al. (2018) 'Willing to share? When it comes to data, who will share what and why?', Research Features, 125, pp. 98–101. Available at: https://cdn2.researchfeatures.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Willing-to-share.-When-it-comes-to-data-who-will-share-what-and-why.pdf.
• Murphy, R. O. and Ackermann, K. A. (2013) 'Social value orientation : theoretical and measurement issues in the study of social preferences', Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18(1), pp. 13–41. doi: 10.1177/1088868313501745.

Oral conference contributions and abstracts

• Wieber, F. et al. (2023) 'Segmentation analyses as an effective tool to improve tobacco prevention and cessation', in European Journal of Public Health. Oxford University Press, pp. ii582–ii583. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckad160.1461.
• Wieber, F. et al. (2023) 'One size doesn`t fit all : segmentation and tailoring in health promotion and prevention, the case of Tobacco Prevention', in Swiss Public Health Conference, Lausanne, Switzerland, 12.-13. September 2023.

Publications before appointment at the ZHAW

• Ackermann, K.A. (2014). Social Value Orientation: An analysis of measurement, form, predictive power, and malleability of social preferences. Doctoral Dissertation, ETH Zurich.
• Ackermann, K.A., Fleiß, J. & Murphy, R.O. (2016). Reciprocity as an individual difference. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 60(2), 340-367.
• Nax, H.H., Murphy, R.O. &, Ackermann, K.A. (2015). Interactive preferences. Economic Letters, 135, 133-136.
• Murphy, R.O. & Ackermann, K.A. (2015). Social preferences, positive expectations, and trust based cooperation. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 67, 45-50.
• Murphy, R.O. & Ackermann, K.A. (2014). Social value orientation: Theoretical and measurement issues in the study of social preferences. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18(1), 13-41.
• Murphy, R.O., Ackermann, K.A. & Handgraaf, M.J.J. (2011). Measuring social value orientation. Judgment and Decision Making, 6(8), 771-781.

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