Stefan studied psychology at the University of Vienna and subsequently did his doctorate on the influence of emotions on decision making under risk and its neuronal basis under the supervision of Prof. Hauke Heekeren at the CCNB at Freie Universität Berlin. Since April 2018, he is postdoctoral researcher in the cognitive psychology lab of Prof. Lars Schwabe at the University of Hamburg and studies the influence of stress on social decision-making, social cognition and its underlying neural mechanisms.

His talk is titled: Altruism under stress: cortisol alters >> charitable giving and neural activity in the mentalizing network