• Impact
• Selected publications
• CV

David Grüning

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I'm a behavioral scientist with the goal to transform people's online experiences for the better.

I think the key to positively transform people's experiences online is interdisciplinary collaboration.I do my best to bridge different fields, including theoretical ideas from academic research, tech building in startups, value-focused efforts in the NGO space, and regulatory ideas in policy.

Have any ideas? Shoot them my way!

• Home

Building tools: I lead research at different smartphone apps, most notably, one sec and Structured, and at the Social Media platform Sparkable. Given the current situation, I believe in creating alternatives to the large digital environments that already exist, to make digital spaces what they once promised to be: social, safe, and healthy.

Accessibility to practitioners: In my role as Science Board Director at Prosocial Design Network (PDN), I'm mostly concerned with translating research into practically relevant and actionable design online.

Conceptual approaches: In my academic positions, I'm focused on developing frameworks and concepts to effectively change online spaces and progress research through concepts like self-nudging or self-commitment.

Policy involvement: I collaborate with governmental bodies (e.g., in Germany, Denmark, or the UK) for some of my research, with the clear-cut goal to provide policy recommendations for how to change online spaces in a meaningful way.

Educational efforts: As a result of the tool-building and research, I'm lately especially involved in translating these aspects into real and easily accessible educational structures, such as creating online programmes or collaborating with schools on education programmes in-person.

Some AI: Venturing into some AI-topics like ethics of it in programming or using it for chess, scenario-planning, and future thinking.

• Home

Selected publications

I have published my research on Digital Behavioral Sciences in a diversity of journals and conferences such as PNAS, Nature, CHI on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Psychological Inquiry, and AI & Ethics.

Published

Policy reportGrüning D. J., Kamin, J., Saltz, E., Acosta, T., DiFranzo, D., Goldberg, B., Leavitt, A., Menczer, F., Musgrave, T., Wang, Y., & Wojcieszak, M. (2025). Independently testing prosocial interventions: Methods and recommendations from 31 researchers. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/wvfjqPanizza, F., Cammina, T., Gaillard, S., & Grüning, D. J. (2025). Adopt a cultural-historical perspective to adapt misinformation interventions. Journal of Trial and Error. https://doi.org/10.36850/415c-479aGrüning, D. J., Kamin, J., Panizza, F., Katsaros, M., & Lorenz-Spreen, P. (2024). A framework for promoting online prosocial behavior via digital interventions. Nature: Communications Psychology, 2(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-023-00052-7Haliburton, L., Grüning, D. J., Riedel, F., Schmidt, A., & Nađa Terzimehić, N. (2024). A longitudinal in-the-wild investigation of design frictions to prevent smartphone overuse. Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Article 243. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642370Román Almanzár, A. D., Grüning, D. J., Edinger-Schons, L. M. (2024). ‘It wasn’t me’: the impact of social responsibility and social dominance attitudes on AI programmers’ moral imagination (intention to correct bias). AI and Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-024-00516-4Krueger, J. I., Grüning, D. J., Heck, P., Freestone, D. (2024). Inductive Reasoning Model. Psychological Inquiry, 35(1), 11-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2024.2366766Grüning, D. J., Riedel, F., & Lorenz-Spreen, P. (2023). Directing smart phone use through the self-nudge app one sec. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120(8), e2213114120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.221311412Grüning, D. J., & Schubert, T. (2022). Emotional Campaigning in Politics: Being Moved and Anger in Political Ads Motivate to Support Candidate and Party. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 781851. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.781851Grüning, D. J., Panizza, F., & Lorenz-Spreen, P. (2022). The importance of informative interventions in a wicked environment. The American Journal of Psychology135(4): 439–442. https://doi.org/10.5406/19398298.135.4.12Grüning, D. J., & Krueger, J. I. (2022). Vox peritorum: Capitalising on confidence and projection to characterize expertise. Journal of Expertise, 5(1), 1-14. https://www.journalofexpertise.org/articles/volume5issue1/JoE51Gruning_Krueger.html

Under review

Streaks interventionsMimicry of pseudoscience onlineGrüning, D. J., Krawiec, J., Riedel, F., Mehlig, L. (under review). Social cognition can predict behavioral and psychological effects of digital interventions. Computers in Human Behavior Reports. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/4qj5rGrüning, D. J., & Rowland, N. (under review). Brainstorming and Artificial Intelligence. Futures. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/uyedvKattsaros, M., Grüning, D. J., & Lou, S. (under review). Offensive comment filtering impact on online engagement - A large-scale randomized controlled trial on Nextdoor. PNAS Nexus. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/nxuqyRomán Almanzár, A. D., Edinger-Schons, L. M., & Grüning, D. J. (under review). Persuading programmers to detect and mitigate bias in technology design: The role of motivational appeals and the speaker. Computers in Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jbxeq

Prosocial Design Network [...]

Some AI: Venturing into some AI-topics like ethics of it in programming or using it for chess, scenario-planning, and future thinking.

Digital interventions: [...]

Policy suggestions: [...]

Events: Researchmethods event, LLM methods, digital interventions with game developers [...]

Education & communications: Podcasts, asynchronous courses on digital interventions