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Master Thesis

Below you will find an overview of the most important elements for writing your master thesis, such as the supervision process, general structure requirements and citation format.

Requirements for Writing a Master Thesis

  • Completed „Fundamentals of Scientific Writing“ course or similar course. Students could write the master thesis in parallel to the course, but a consecutive sequence is recommended. It is not possible to write a master thesis before enrolling in this course!

  • Prior knowledge of/strong interest in psychology, behavioral economics, or data analytics is a prerequisite for writing a master thesis at the Institute for Cognition and Behavior.

  • Within the Institute of Cognition and Behavior, it is possible to work on pre-specified research questions, but students are also very welcome to present their own ideas for their thesis. Below you can find the current list of researchers that are available for thesis supervision. If you are interested in any of the research areas, please feel free to contact the respective researcher via email stating (1) your approximate starting time, (2) general or specific area of interest, and (3) a short description of your background in the research area of the institute. 

  • Typically, a master thesis will be prepared within 6 months with around 55 working days or 500 working hours expected to go into it. There is no set number of expected pages as this usually depends on the topic. Usually, you discuss your work between 2-4 times with your supervisor (more if the complexity of the research question or method calls for it).

Possible Supervisors
As the supervision depends on available resources, we suggest getting in touch as early as possible with your potential supervisor.
NameAreas of InterestMethods
Susann FiedlerJudgment & Decision Making, Motivation, Discrimination, Cooperation, Trust, Bounded Ethicality, Counterproductive Workplace Behavior, Social and Economic Cognition, Information Search and Processing, Polarisation, Group interactions, Smart Institutional Design, Wellbeing, Autonomy, Decision BiasesMethods: Meta-Analysis, Lab, Online and Field Experiments, Eye-Tracking Experiments
Hooman HabibniaInequality, Inequality perception, Motivated beliefs and cognition, Discrimination, Group interaction, Behavioral interventionsLab and online experiments, Literature review
Anna ShcherbiakDishonesty, Corruption, Social Norms, Cooperation, Fairness, Altruism, Gossip, Prosocial Behavior, Evidence-Based PolicyLab, Online, and Lab-in-the-Field Experiments, Literature Review, Surveys, Mixed Methods, Network Analysis, Difference-in-Difference, Regression Discontinuity 
Dejan TaticCyberpsychology, Human-Computer Interaction, Gullibility, Credulity, Misinformation, Misplaced TrustExperimental Research, Systematic literature Review
Possible Thesis Topic Suggestions
Submission and Evaluation
General WU-Wide Information and Guidelines and Forms
Plagiarism
Evaluation Form
Citation Rules German
Citation Rules English
You have to submit your thesis electronically via:
https://learn.wu.ac.at/

After the plagiarism test your supervisor has 4 weeks to enter your grade into the system.