Info
The IAB Special Lecture Series 2023 / 2024 / 2025 / 2026
hosted by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in collaboration with the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU)
CONTENT
The IAB Special Lecture Series invites outstanding international researchers across the Social Sciences to present their current work. Guest lecturers are selected on exellent academic merit and typically have made significant contributions to their respective fields and continue to actively shape internationale research agendas. The IAB Special Lecture Series aims to provide a unique opportunity to the IAB researchers as well as researchers from other research entities to discurss the work and share their expertise with the speaker during the presentation, and to receive feedback on their own research projects during individual talks with the speaker.
CONFERENCE FORMAT
The IAB Special Lecture Series will be held at the IAB, Regensburger Str. 100, 90478 Nuremberg.
ABSTRACTS OF THE SPECIAL LECTURE SERIES 2026
» 30 April 2026, 10:00-11:30 a.m. - Prof. Ralph Hertwig (Max Planck Institute for Human Development)
Titel: Homo ignorans: Deliberate Ignorance and the Limits of Curiosity
Abstract: Aristotle claimed that humans “by nature desire to know.” Hobbes called curiosity “the lust of the mind,” and Maslow described our urge to know as an instinct-like “burning curiosity.” Yet we often choose not to know. We often decline potentially painful medical information. Günter Grass did not want to read his Stasi file. Paul Feyerabend cautioned against trying to know everything about those close to us. Deliberate ignorance is far from rare—especially in consequential decisions.
This talk will ask: When is not knowing reasonable, and when is it reckless? Can individuals or societies ever have a moral obligation to remain ignorant? Who is homo ignorans—what distinguishes seekers from non-seekers of information? Which psychological mechanisms lead us to avert our gaze, and how can these processes be modeled? How prevalent is deliberate ignorance in times of societal transformation, and how does it evolve from childhood through old age?
» 23 July 2026, 10:30-12:00 p.m. - Prof. Ottmar Georg Edenhofer (Technical University of Berlin and Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research)
» 14 January 2026, 2:00-3:30 p.m. - Prof. Dr. h.c. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, PhD (Berlin Social Science Center)
LOCAL ORGANIZERS
- Yuliya Kosyakova
- Theresa Koch
- Martin Friedrich
- Tim Kovalenko
- Jonathan Latner
- André Diegmann
PREVIOUS SPEAKERS AT THE SPECIAL LECTURE SERIES
Prof. Dr. mult. Dr. h.c. Ulrike Malmendier (University of California, Berkeley)
Prof. Don Tomaskovic-Devey (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
Prof. David Autor (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Prof. Lucinda Platt (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Prof. Giovanni Peri (University of California)
Prof. Spanghero Lotta (Getulio Vargas Foundation)
Prof. Filiz Garip (Princeton University)
Prof. Jeffrey Smith (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Prof. Katherine S. Newman (University of California, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Andrea Weber (Central European University)
Prof. Matthew Desmond (Princeton University)
Prof. Claudia Buchmann (Ohio State University)
Prof. Magne Mogstad (University of Chicago)
FURTHER INFORMATION:
For any questions refer to IAB.Special-Lecture@iab.de
