Staff profile

I am a social psychologist whose work focusses on topics related to intergroup relations. I am very interested in what factors and processes shape how we respond to people we feel do not belong to "us".

I joined Durham in October 2020. Before joining Durham, I studied Intercultural Relations and Behaviour at Jacobs University, Germany (BA, 2013), Applied Social Psychology at Sussex University (MSc, 2014), and completed a PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Marburg, Germany (PhD, 2019), and worked as a postdoc at the University of Osnabrück.

My current work focusses on social perception (i.e., how we perceive others, why we perceive them as such, and what consequences these perceptions have). I also study how we can change these perceptions. One factor that I tend to focus on in this context is intergroup contact (i.e., contact between members of different social groups).

I am currently accepting PhD students.

Connect with me via

• homepage
• researchgate
• GoogleScholar

• Diversity and Inclusion
• Prejudice
• Stereotypes
• Discrimination
• Intergroup Contact

• Quantitative Social Psychology

Chapter in book

• Wagner, U., Kotzur, P. F. & Friehs, M.-T. (2021). Anti-immigrant prejudice and discrimination in Europe. In Routledge handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination. Tileaga, C., Augoustinos, M. & Durrheim, K. London: Routledge.

Journal Article

• Travaglino, G. A., Friehs, M.‐T., Kotzur, P. F. & Abrams, D. (2022). Investigating the social embeddedness of criminal groups: Longitudinal associations between masculine honour and legitimizing attitudes towards the Camorra. European Journal of Social Psychology
• Friehs, M.-T., Kotzur, P. F., Ramos, A. & Wagner, U. (2022). Editorial: Group-Focused Enmity – conceptual, longitudinal, and cross-national perspectives based on pre-registered studies. International Journal of Conflict and Violence 16: 1-17.
• Friehs, M.-T., Masselmann, J., Trautner, M., Kotzur, P. F. & Schmidt, P. (2022). Unobserved heterogeneity between individuals in Group-Focused Enmity. International Journal of Conflict and Violence 16: 1-17.
• Kotzur, P. F., Friehs, M.‐T., Schmidt, P., Wagner, U., Pötzschke, S. & Weiß, B. (2022). Attitudes towards refugees: Introducing a short three‐dimensional scale. British Journal of Social Psychology 61(4): 1305-1331.
• Kotzur, P. F., Stricker, J., Fricke, R., McPhetres, J. & Meyer, B. (2022). How does team diversity relate to the willingness to collaborate with asylum seekers? It depends on the diversity dimensions investigated and boundary conditions. PLoS ONE 17(3): e0266166.
• Friehs, M.-T., Kotzur, P. F. Böttcher, J. Zöller, A.-K. C., Lüttmer, T., Wagner, U., Asbrock, F. & van Zalk, M. H. W. (2022). Examining the structural validity of stereotype content scales – a preregistered re-analysis of published data and discussion of possible future directions. International Review of Social Psychology 35(1): 1-18.
• Bick, N., Froehlich, L., Friehs, M.-T., Kotzur, P. F. & Landmann, H. (2022). Social evaluation at a distance – facets of stereotype content about student groups in higher distance education. International Review of Social Psychology 35(1): 12.
• van Zalk, M. H. W., Kotzur, P. F., Schmid, K., Al Ramiah, A. & Hewstone, M. (2021). Adolescent development of interethnic attitudes following a social intervention to increase intergroup contact: The moderating role of affective forecasting. Developmental Psychology 57(6): 1000-1017.
• Kauff, M., Beneda, M., Paolini, S., Bilewicz, M., Kotzur, P. F., O'Donnell, A. W., Stevenson, C., Wagner, U. & Christ, O. (2021). How do we get people into contact? Predictors of intergroup contact and drivers of contact seeking. Journal of Social Issues 77(1): 38-63.
• Kotzur, P. F. & Wagner, U. (2021). The dynamic relationship between contact opportunities, positive and negative intergroup contact, and prejudice: A longitudinal investigation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 120(2): 418-442.
• Wagner, U., Tachtsoglou, S., Kotzur, P. F., Friehs, M.-T. & Kemmesies, U. (2020). Proportion of foreigners negatively predicts the prevalence of xenophobic hate crimes within German districts. Social Psychology Quarterly 83(2): 195-205.
• Kotzur, P. F., Veit, S., Namyslo, A., Holthausen, M.‐A., Wagner, U. & Yemane, R. (2020). ‘Society thinks they are cold and/or incompetent, but I do not’ Stereotype content ratings depend on instructions and the social group's location in the stereotype content space. British Journal of Social Psychology 59(4): 1018-1042.
• Kotzur, P. F., Schäfer, S. J. & Wagner, U. (2019). Meeting a nice asylum seeker: Intergroup contact changes stereotype content perceptions and associated emotional prejudices, and encourages solidarity‐based collective action intentions. British Journal of Social Psychology 58(3): 668-690.
• Kotzur, P. F., Friehs, M.‐T., Asbrock, F. & Zalk, M. H. W. (2019). Stereotype content of refugee subgroups in Germany. European Journal of Social Psychology 49(7): 1344-1358.
• Kotzur, P. F., Tropp, L. R. & Wagner, U. (2018). Welcoming the unwelcome: How contact shapes contexts of reception for new immigrants in Germany and the United States. Journal of Social Issues 74(4): 812-832.
• Kotzur, P. F., Forsbach, N. & Wagner, U. (2017). Choose your words wisely: Stereotypes, emotions, and action tendencies toward fled people as a function of the group label. Social Psychology 48(4): 226-241.
• Kotzur, P. F., Torres, C. V., Kedzior, K. K. & Boehnke, K. (2017). Political consumer behaviour among university students in Brazil and Germany: The role of contextual features and core political values. International Journal of Psychology 52(2): 126-135.