Rate My Professor Nils Köbis

Prof. Dr. Nils Köbis serves as Professor for Human Understanding of Algorithms and Machines in the Faculty of Computer Science at Universität Duisburg-Essen. He heads the chair at the Research Center for Trustworthy Data Science and Security, having joined the university in 2024. Prior to this appointment, Köbis was a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision-making (CREED) within the Department of Economics at the University of Amsterdam. He obtained his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from VU University Amsterdam. Additionally, he holds an affiliation as a researcher at the Center for Humans and Machines at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Köbis is a co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network and co-hosts the KickBack - Global Anti-Corruption Podcast with Matthew Stephenson and Christopher Starke. He serves as a member of the Examination Committee for Human-Centered Computer Science and Psychology at Universität Duisburg-Essen.

Köbis's research centers on corruption, unethical and ethical behavior, social norms, and the human dimensions of artificial intelligence, including how algorithms and machines influence human decision-making and moral conduct. His work explores the psychological effects of AI, such as delegation to AI increasing dishonest behavior and lie detection algorithms disrupting social dynamics. Key publications include 'Delegation to artificial intelligence can increase dishonest behavior' in Nature (2025, with Z. Rahwan et al.); 'Lie detection algorithms disrupt the social dynamics of accusation behavior' in iScience (2024, with A. von Schenk et al.); 'Conditional bribery: Insights from incentivized experiments across 18 nations' in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023, with A.R. Dorrough et al.); 'Corrupted by Algorithms? How AI-generated and Human-written Advice Shape (Dis)honesty' in The Economic Journal (2023, with M. Leib et al.); 'Social Preferences Toward Humans and Machines: A Systematic Experiment on the Role of Machine Payoffs' in Perspectives on Psychological Science (2023, with A. Schenk and V. Klockmann); 'The promise and perils of using artificial intelligence to fight corruption' in Nature Machine Intelligence (2022); and 'Bad machines corrupt good morals' in Nature Human Behaviour (2021). These contributions have advanced understandings of AI's behavioral impacts and anti-corruption applications through empirical studies and interdisciplinary insights.