Final Theses
We are supervising bpth Master's and Bachelor's theses. Please consider the requirements below before submitting a supervision request. Meeting the requirements does not guarantee acceptance. A decision will only be made after a positive assessment of the submitted documents and usually a a personal meeting.
Requirements for writing a thesis at out chair
The general requirement for both master's and bachelor's theses at the Chair of Behavioral Research Methods is an interest in our research topics or closely related topics (e.g., cognitive psychology and decision-making behavior) or in behavioral research methods.
Master
- Successful completion (grade 2.3 or better) in one of the following Master's modules: "Empirical research methods in management and economics" oder "Consumer Behavior Research Methods"
- Successful participation in at least one additional module offered by the chair
- Further requirements may be necessary for working on an open topic of the chair.
Bachelor
- Successful completion (grade 2.3 or better) of a Bachelor's module with a focus on research methods/statistics
- Further requirements may be necessary for working on an open topic of the chair (if possible).
Open topic
- Select one topic from the list of open topics below.
- On a maximum of 1 page, explain your motivation and fit for the relevant topic.
- Send an email to the listed supervisor with the following attachments:
- Motivation
- CV (without picture)
- Current transcript
Bachelor's students should be aware that the open topics listed below are generally intended for master's theses and, unless explicitly stated otherwise, cannot be applied for.
Your own topic
- Check that your proposed topic is relevant to the research topics of the chair (see also the list of previously supervised theses).
- In a brief exposé (max. 3 pages), outline your proposed topic, its relevance, and how you plan to approach the project.
- Select one potential supervisor (taking into account the different research interests) and write an email with the following attachments:
- Short exposé
- CV (without picture)
- Current transcript
Thesis colloquium
In addition to individual supervision by your supervisor, we also offer students the opportunity to participate in our thesis colloquium. During the lecture periods, every two weeks two students present their thesis project to our chair. This gives students the opportunity to receive feedback from the chair as well as peer feedback and questions from other students. Students who join at an early stage of their project also have the opportunity to learn from other projects and adopt best practices. More information and the current dates can be found here.
Loss aversion is one of the most prominent concepts in the study of risky decision making, describing the widely observed phenomenon that people tend to assign more subjective value to losses than to equally sized gains. Recent research has demonstrated that loss aversion may however have boundary conditons. For example, the absolute magnitude of outcome values seems to affect the degree of loss aversion, leading to debates if established formalizations of prospect theory models should be adapted. The focus of this thesis project is to implement a series of functional forms of loss aversion's magnitude dependence to systematically compare their model fit in a Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach.
Requirements: Experience in data analysis using R. Of advantage: Previous experience with computational modeling
Supervisor: Nuno Busch (nuno.busch@tum.de)
Recommended Literature:
- Mukherjee, S., Khan, O., & Srinivasan, N. (2025). The role of magnitude in loss aversion. Decision. https://doi.org/10.1037/dec0000256
- Harinck, F., Van Dijk, E., Van Beest, I., & Mersmann, P. (2007). When Gains Loom Larger Than Losses: Reversed Loss Aversion for Small Amounts of Money. Psychological Science, 18(12), 1099–1105. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.02031.x
- Ariely, D., Huber, J., & Wertenbroch, K. (2005). When Do Losses Loom Larger than Gains? Journal of Marketing Research, 42(2), 134–138. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.42.2.134.62283
- Mukherjee, S., Sahay, A., Pammi, V. S. C., & Srinivasan, N. (2017). Is loss-aversion magnitude-dependent? Measuring prospective affective judgments regarding gains and losses. Judgment and Decision Making, 12(1), 81–89. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1930297500005258
- Novemsky, N., & Kahneman, D. (2005). The Boundaries of Loss Aversion. Journal of Marketing Research, 42(2), 119–128. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.42.2.119.62292
- Zeif, D., & Yechiam, E. (2022). Loss aversion (simply) does not materialize for smaller losses. Judgment and Decision Making, 17(5), 1015–1042. https://doi.org/10.1017/S193029750000930X
- Hof, L. & Busch, N. (2025). Bayesian Cognitive Modeling Tutorial. Github. https://github.com/linushof/TutorialsForTeaching/blob/main/BayesianCognitiveModeling/bayesian_cognitive_modeling.md
| Complete | Own Proposal | Supervisor | Title | Student | Study Program |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nuno | Validating webcam-based eyetracking in online studies of risky choice | A. B. Azimi | MMT | ||
| Nuno | The Role of Outcome Magnitudes for Inducing Loss Aversion | S. Yıldız | MMT | ||
| x | Nuno | Loss Aversion in Cumulative Prospect Theory: A Bayesian Comparison of Description, Sampling, and Feedback Conditions | R. Eberle | MCS | |
| Nuno | Feedback-Driven Dynamics of Loss Aversion: A Comparison of Described and Experienced Outcomes | E. Schauer | MMT | ||
| Sebastian | Effects of self-confidence on choice confidence in risky choice | Merve Önal | MMT | ||
| Sebastian | Confidence and Risk: A literature review on gambling on performance in perceptual and knowledge taks | Mikhail Shchelkunov | MMT | ||
| X | X | Sebastian | Einfluss auf Kaufentscheidungen: menschliche versus virtuelle Influencer (Bachelor Thesis) | Stefanie Winkelmeier | BBWL |
| Sebastian | Modeling Changes of Mind in Perceptual Decision-Making: An Extension of the dynWEV Framework with Empirical Validation | Aylin Bayram | MMT | ||
| Sebastian | Investigating Choice History Effects in Perceptual Confidence Judgments | Şeyma Çakır | MMT | ||
| X | Sebastian | Using neural networks for Bayesian inference in the cognitive modelling of confidence judgments | Ardelan Ciplak | MMT | |
| Sebastian | Modelling the effect of independent discriminability evidence on confidence judgments (Bachelor Thesis) | Lisa Dieneiger | BMT | ||
| X | Sebastian | Computational modelling of the magnitude sensitivity effect on confidence in food choices | Lea Hohenstein | MCS | |
| X | Thorsten | Media literacy by design: How visual prompts increase the ability to detect distorted news coverage | Ann-Christin Gah | ||
| X | Thorsten | Unveiling the curtain of dynamic decision making: A mouse cursor analysis of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task | Christoph Pirker | ||
| X | Thorsten | Loss aversion in risky choice for younger and older adults | Nur Melis Ballıkaya | ||
| X | Thorsten | Metric knowledge in real life: Is it one-dimensional? | Cansu Ünlü | ||
| X | Thorsten | Era-based fine-tuning in AI: Assessing gender bias shifts across time | Bilal Imamoglu | ||
| X | Thorsten | Risk in bits: Understanding cryptocurrency investors’ risk behavior through a prospect theory lens | Lucas Pirker | ||
| X | Thorsten | Understanding user responses to XAI: A comparative analysis of explanation methods for spurious model detection | Ezgi Beceren | ||
| X | Thorsten | Improving intuitive estimates of carbon emissions with a seeding procedure | Anna Dreier |
Study Programs:
MMT: Master in Management and Technology
MCS: Master in Consumer Science
BMT: Bachelor in Management and Technology
BBWL: Bachelor in Technologie- und Managementorientierte Betriebswirtschaftslehre
Upon agreeing on the research question that the theses should answer as well as a detailed research plan, supervisors register the final thesis via Koinon. Students will be automatically notified via e-mail by the system and are asked to confirm the registration. After the registration, students must submit their work within 3 or 6 months.
Students submit their final theses (PDF document) as uploads via Koinon. After students submitted their thesis in the portal, supervisors will be automatically notified via e-mail by the system and can access the thesis via the portal.