About

Dr. Özgür Gürerk

Senior Research Associate

at the Seminar of Corporate Development and Business Ethics, University of Cologne

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Research

In my research, I focus on how to enhance and sustain cooperation in social dilemmas, for example in the context of climate change. I also study cooperation in the context of work teams and leadership.

I investigate the potential of virtual reality (VR) technology as an experimental tool. Unlike conventional labs, immersive virtual environments enable researchers to conduct experiments in naturalistic, context-rich settings, that participants perceive as real.

Teaching

At the University of Cologne, I give a lecture on Ethics, Economic Analysis and Public Policy, as well as a seminar on Ethics Experiments in Virtual Reality.

Publications

Gürerk, Ö., Bohné T., & Alvarez Alonso, G. (2025). Productivity and Learning Effects of Augmented Reality Head-Mounted Displays. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 18, 100638.
Gürerk, Ö., Braun, L., & Irlenbusch, B. (2025). Experimental Economics in Immersive Virtual Environments. Elgar Encyclopedia of Behavioural and Experimental Economics, (eds. Hoffmann, R., Neelim, A., & Chuah, S.), Chapter 56, 187-190.
Gürdal, M.Y., Gürerk, Ö., Kaçamak, Y. & Kart, E. (2024). How to Increase and Sustain Cooperation in Public Goods Games: Conditional Commitments via a Mediator. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 228, December 2024, 106789.
Leder, J., Chapkovski, P., Schütz A., Lauer, T., & Gürerk, Ö. (2024). Background Uncertainty Does Not Increase Risk Aversion in Decision Making. Scientific Reports, 14, Article number: 25899.
DeHoratius, N., Gürerk, Ö., Honhon, D., & Hyndman, K. (2024). Execution Failures in Retail Supply Chains - A Virtual Reality Experiment. Production and Operations Management.
Bohné, T., Heine, I., Gürerk, Ö., Rieger, C., Kemmer, L., Cao, L.Y. (2021). Perception Engineering Learning with Virtual Reality, IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 14 (4).
Gürdal, M. Y. Gürerk, Ö., & Yahşi, M. (2021). Culture and Prevalence of Sanctioning Institutions, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 92.
Böhm, R.; Gürerk, Ö.; Lauer, T. (2020). Nudging Climate Change Mitigation: A Laboratory Experiment with Inter-Generational Public Goods. Games, 11, 42.
Gürerk, Ö., Bönsch, A., Kittsteiner, T, & Staffeldt, A. (2019). Virtual Humans as Co-Workers: A Novel Methodology to Study Peer Effects. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 78, 17-29.
Gürerk, Ö., Irlenbusch, B., & Rockenbach, B. (2018). Endogenously Emerging Gender Diversity in an Experimental Team Work Setting. Games, 9, 98.
Gürerk, Ö., Lauer, T., & Scheuermann, M. (2018). Leadership with Individual Rewards and Punishments. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 74, 57-69.
Bönsch, A., Wendt, J., Overath, H., Gürerk, Ö., Harbring, C., Grund, C., Kittsteiner, T., & Kuhlen, T. (2017) Peers at work: Economic real-effort experiments in the presence of virtual co-workers. Virtual Reality (VR), IEEE, 301-302.
Böhm, R., Rusch, H., & Gürerk, Ö. (2016). What makes people go to war? Defensive intentions motivate retaliatory and preemptive intergroup aggression. Evolution and Human Behavior, 37, 29–34.
Gürerk, Ö., Irlenbusch, B., & Rockenbach, B. (2014). On Cooperation in Open Communities. Journal of Public Economics, 120, 220-230.
Gürerk, Ö. (2013). Social learning increases the acceptance and the efficiency of punishment institutions in social dilemmas. Journal of Economic Psychology, 34, 229-239.
Gürerk, Ö., & Selten, R. (2012). The Effect of Payoff Tables on Experimental Oligopoly Behavior. Experimental Economics, 15, 499-509.
Gürerk, Ö., Irlenbusch, B., & Rockenbach, B. (2009). Motivating Teammates: The Leader’s Choice of Positive and Negative Incentives. Journal of Economic Psychology, 30, 591-607.
Gürerk, Ö., Irlenbusch, B., & Rockenbach, B. (2006). The Competitive Advantage of Sanctioning Institutions. Science, 312, 108-111.

Working Papers

Gürerk, Ö., & Kasulke, A. (2018/25). Does Virtual Reality Increase Charitable Giving? An Experimental Study. Under Review. Available at SSRN: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3072002.
Kunter, M, & Gürerk, Ö. (2018). The Helpfulness of External Reference Prices and How They Affect Customers’ Pay-What-You-Want Payments for Services. Paper available upon request.
Gürerk, Ö., Lauer, T., & Scheuermann, M. (2019). Leader Legitimacy and Team Performance. Paper available upon request.
Gürerk, Ö, Bönsch, A., Harbring, C., Grund, C., Kittsteiner, T., & Staffeldt, A. (2016). Experimental Economics in Virtual Reality. Available at Munich Personal RePEc Archive: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/71409/

Work in Progress

Handshakes and Trust in Virtual Reality, with Lucas Braun and Bernd Irlenbusch
How Leaders Reduce Cheating in Self-Reports & Increase Team Performance, with Thomas Lauer and Mark Pigors
Does the color of skin affect behavior in a trust game? An experiment in virtual reality, with Lucas Braun and Christine Harbring

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