Dr D. Becker (Daniela)

Daniela Becker studies the (e.g. affective) experience, resolution, and consequences of conflicts in the area of self-control, motivation, and decision making. She could, for example, show that the experience of conflict during self-control decisions is associated with lower choice confidence and more negative post-choice emotions. In another project she tests whether and how those effects are related to memory processes. Having studied self-control for several years, she at some point wondered whether we had become too focused on the benefits of long-term goal pursuit. Her recent line of work indeed shows that being able to successfully pursue hedonic goals (e.g., experiencing pleasure) has benefits, too. She currently examines whether typical problems of low self-control (e.g., addiction, overconsumption) are also problems of low hedonic capacity.

Daniela Becker studied psychology at Cardiff University (BSc, 2009) and at the University of Amsterdam (MSc Research, 2011). She completed her PhD (also at the University of Amsterdam; 2017) on the nature and consequences of self-control conflicts in the eating domain. Before she joined the BSI in spring 2020 she was a postdoc at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien in Tübingen (Germany). In her work she strives towards open science.