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Dr. Stefan Rose

Contact

Email: stefan.rose@wiso.uni-koeln.de
Building: 6.09, building 101, 6th floor (Wiso Highrise)

Profile

Stefan is a post-doctoral researcher at the Chair of Business Analytics (Prof. Markus Weinmann). Trained as a psychologist, he studied at Maastricht University, worked as a market researcher in the private sector, and earned his PhD (Dr. rer. pol.) from RWTH Aachen University's Chair of Marketing, where his doctoral research was honored with the Borchers Badge. He subsequently held a research professorship in the marketing department at Bern University of Applied Sciences.

His research takes an experimental, transdisciplinary approach to human-AI interaction, grounded in the "computers are social actors" paradigm. He studies the factors that shape users' perceived social presence of AI systems and their trust in these technologies, spanning both human-like and system-related dimensions.

A central focus is how people form relationships with AI artifacts such as conversational agents, and how these relationships affect behavior. He is particularly interested in the adverse effects of AI use, including parasocial relationships with empathetic applications like social companions and emotion-aware chatbots. His longer-term aim is to develop an integrative theory of human-AI relationship development, with implications for designers, policymakers, and the protection of vulnerable users.

In his teaching, Stefan favors experiential learning that pairs theory with hands-on exercises, discussion of original research, and group projects. He received the Credit Suisse Foundation Best Teaching Award in 2023.

Publications

  • Raff, S., Rose, S., & Huynh, T. (2024). Perceived creepiness in response to smart home assistants: A multi-method study. International Journal of Information Management, 74, 102720.
  • Hopp, C., Wentzel, D., & Rose, S. (2023). Chief executive officers' appearance predicts company performance, or does it? A replication study and extension focusing on CEO successions. The Leadership Quarterly, 34(4), 101437.
  • Tereschenko, O., Raff, S., Rose, S., & Wentzel, D. (2022, December). Are You Trying to Be Funny? The Impact of Affiliative Humor of Smart Home Technologies on Human-Like Trust. In ICIS.
  • Rose, S., Wentzel, D., Hopp, C., & Kaminski, J. (2021). Launching for success: The effects of psychological distance and mental simulation on funding decisions and crowdfunding performance. Journal of Business Venturing, 36(6), 106021.

For more publications, please visit his Google Scholar