About

Dr. Özgür Gürerk

Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics, Law and Social Sciences, University of Erfurt

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

In the upcoming Aachen International Summer School at the RWTH Aachen University, I will give a course on Introduction to Lab and VR Experiments.

Publications

DeHoratius, N., Gürerk, Ö., Honhon, D., & Hyndman, K. (2025). Execution Failures in Retail Supply Chains—A Virtual Reality Experiment. Production and Operations Management, 34(6), 1236-1255.
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.
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. 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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