| Faculty of Education, Faculty of Philosophy, Seminar für Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, Personalia

Congratulations: Philipp Sprengholz successfully completes PhD

On May 11, 2022, Philipp Sprengholz successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Of sticks and carrots: Effects of coercive and rewarding measures for increasing vaccination uptake" (supervised by Prof. Cornelia Betsch) at the Faculty of Education.

Philipp Sprengholz studied psychology in Hagen and Jena and received his Master of Science in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena in 2018.

In his dissertation project, he examined ways to increase the vaccination rate against COVID-19 in the context of the SARS-CoV2 pandemic, focusing in particular on compulsory vaccination and financial incentives. He examines boundary conditions and psychological consequences - such as the question of what behavioral consequences political framework conditions have.

Philipp Sprengholz has been part of Cornelia Betsch's team (Professorship for Health Communication) for three years and researches and teaches as a research assistant at the Seminar for Media and Communication Studies at the University of Erfurt. He has been part of the COSMO study team since the first survey.

We warmly congratulate him on passing his doctorate and the outstanding scientific achievement!

Philipp Sprengholz and Cornelia Betsch
Philipp Sprengholz and Cornelia Betsch
Lena Lehrer, Philipp Sprengholz, Cornelia Betsch, Sarah Eitze, Collins Adeyanju
Lena Lehrer, Philipp Sprengholz, Cornelia Betsch, Sarah Eitze, Collins Adeyanju

Philipp Sprengholz' doctorate consists of the following seven scientific publications, which are summarized and discussed in a cover paper.

  1. Sprengholz, P., & Betsch, C. (2020). Herd immunity communication counters detrimental effects of selective vaccination mandates: Experimental evidence. EClinicalMedicine, 22, 100352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100352
  2. Sprengholz, P., Felgendreff, L., Böhm, R., & Betsch, C. (2021). Vaccination policy reactance: Predictors, consequences, and countermeasures. Journal of Health Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053211044535
  3. Sprengholz, P., Betsch, C., & Böhm, R. (2021). Reactance revisited: Consequences of mandatory and scarce vaccination in the case of COVID-19. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 13(4), 986-995. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12285
  4. Sprengholz, P. & Betsch, C. (2021): Zero-sum or worse? Considering detrimental effects of selective mandates on voluntary childhood vaccinations. The Journal of Pediatrics, Volume 240, 318-319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.08.018
  5. Hajek, A., De Bock, F., Sprengholz, P., Kretzler, B., & König, H.-H. (2021): Attitudes towards the economic costs associated with measures against the spread of COVID-19: Population perceptions from repeated cross-sectional data of the nationally representative COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO). PLoS ONE 16(11): e0259451. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259451
  6. Sprengholz, P., Eitze, S., Felgendreff, L., Korn, L., & Betsch, C. (2021). Money is not everything: experimental evidence that payments do not increase willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Journal of Medical Ethics, 47(8): 547-548. 10.1136/medethics-2020-107122
  7. Sprengholz, P., Henkel, L,, & Betsch, C. (2021, June 4). Payments and freedoms: Effects of monetary and legal incentives on COVID-19 vaccination intentions in Germany. doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/hfm43
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