Robert Tobias currently holds the position as senior research assistant at the chair of Social Psychology of the University of Zurich. He received his MSc in Psychology in 2000 and his PhD in Psychology in 2006, both from the University of Zurich (Switzerland). He also holds a MSc in Civil Engineering from ETH Zurich (Switzerland, 1989). His core research interests are the determinants of individual behaviors and techniques to change such behaviors. He is specialized in theory- and evidence-based modelling of real-world behavior change campaigns using statistical and computer simulation methods. The focus of his research is the quantification of effects of behavior change techniques and of the psychological processes mediating their effects. During his employment at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag, Switzerland, 2002-2015), he supported and analyzed many real-world behavior change campaigns, mostly in the Global South. Furthermore, he investigated behavior determinants with survey-based research in Switzerland. Based on his postdoctoral studies at the Arizona State University (ASU, USA, 2008–2009), he extended his research to topics such as processes of decision making and communication, particularly, problem solving and cooperation in groups as well as psychological processes related to risk-perception and trust.
