Books & papers

New · May 2026

Einmal, zweimal, keinmal

Wie wir Erfahrungen machen · Once, Twice, Never: How We Make Experiences

New experiences bring us to the threshold of another life — but do we take the next step? First times open doors or close them. In repetition we compare, savor, judge, and revise; we build standards, though fixation on the repeated can become avoidance of the new. And imagined experiences, the unlived lives that insist on their claim, are the secret lodestars of our navigation. Drawing on psychology, philosophy, and new findings from the lab itself, the book proposes a new view of humans as beings of experience — and of what distinguishes us from intelligent machines.

Suhrkamp Verlag · 2026 · ISBN 978-3-518-58839-0

• 2026Breithaupt, F. “What does it mean to have an experience? Two kinds of narrative world models.” Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 384: 20250009.
• 2026Davis, M. H., Konrath, S., Breithaupt, F., et al. “Mapping the Empathy Universe: Toward a Common Lexicon of Empathy-Related Constructs.” Perspectives on Psychological Science.
• 2026Huang, J., Zhang, Q., Xie, X., Breithaupt, F., & Busemeyer, J. “A Quantum Model for Serial Reproduction.” Cognition.

2022 / 2025

The Narrative Brain

Das narrative Gehirn · The Stories Our Neurons Tell

A redefinition of humans as narrative beings, built on the lab's massive retelling experiments. When stories are passed from person to person, it is emotions — embarrassment, happiness, surprise — that survive, not facts or causal chains. Narrative thinking, the book argues, enables empathy with other living beings and makes life more intense: it should be encouraged for that reason alone.

Suhrkamp Verlag 2022 · Yale University Press 2025

Science Book of the Year · Austria 2023

• 2025Otenen, E., Cao, R., Martins, R., & Breithaupt, F. “Potentially therapeutic effects of telling and retelling meaningful life stories.” Proc. Annual Cognitive Science Society.
• 2025Konrath, S., Martingano, A. J., Davis, M., & Breithaupt, F. “Empathy trends in American youth between 1979 and 2018: an update.” Social Psychological and Personality Science 16(3), 252–265.
• 2024Breithaupt, F., Otenen, E., Wright, D., Kruschke, J., Li, Y., & Tan, Y. “Humans create more novelty than ChatGPT when asked to retell a story.” Scientific Reports 14, 875.
• 2024Li, Y., Breithaupt, F., Siew, C., Hills, T., Chen, Y., & Hertwig, R. “The Competition for Life among Words: How Cognitive Preferences Shape Language Evolution.” PNAS 121(1), e2220898120.
• 2024Woodward, C., Hiskes, B., & Breithaupt, F. “Spontaneous side-taking drives memory, empathy, and author attribution in conflict narratives.” Discover Psychology 4(52).
• 2024Breithaupt, F. “Von der Schwierigkeit auf andere zu hören: Rezeptivität als Praxis in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre.” Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft, Sonderheft 24, 437–450.
• 2023He, J., Breithaupt, F., Kübler, S., & Hills, T. “Quantifying the retention of emotions across story retellings.” Scientific Reports 13, 2448.
• 2023Breithaupt, F., Hicks, M., Hiskes, B., & Lagrange, V. “High-stakes decisions do not require narrative conviction but narrative flexibility.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 46, e85.
• 2022Breithaupt, F., Li, B., & Kruschke, J. K. “Serial reproduction of narratives preserves emotional appraisals.” Cognition and Emotion.
• 2022Hiskes, B., Hicks, M., Evola, S., Kincaid, C., & Breithaupt, F. “Multiversionality: Considering multiple possibilities in the processing of narratives.” Review of Philosophy and Psychology.
• 2022Breithaupt, F. “Der moralische Code der Narration bei Gottfried Keller,” in Kellers Erzählen, De Gruyter, 131–46.
• 2022Breithaupt, F. “Wer nicht handeln kann, muss fühlen,” Psychologie Heute 10/2022, 58–67.
• 2021Bollen, J., Ten Thij, M., Breithaupt, F., et al. “Historical language records reveal a surge of cognitive distortions in recent decades.” PNAS 118(30).
• 2021Bollen, J., Ten Thij, M., Breithaupt, F., et al. “Reply to Schmidt et al.: A robust surge of cognitive distortions in historical language.” PNAS 118(45).
• 2021Triantafyllopoulos, M., Schnabel, M., Li, B., & Breithaupt, F. “The Effect of Fiction vs Nonfiction in the Digital Era: Text Comprehension not Influenced by Genre Expectations.” Discourse Processes, 886–902.
• 2021Breithaupt, F. “Das Corona-Narrativ der Zukunft,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Germanistenverbands, 116–136.

2017 / 2019

The Dark Sides of Empathy

Die dunklen Seiten der Empathie

Many consider empathy the basis of moral action — but the capacity to feel with others is also a prerequisite for deliberate humiliation and cruelty. People often commit atrocities not from a failure of empathy but as a consequence of over-identification. From Stockholm syndrome to politics, the book tempers the naïve view of empathy as a cure-all for our social ailments.

Suhrkamp Verlag 2017 · Cornell University Press 2019

Official Bestseller List · 2017

• 2019Lagrange, V., Hiskes, B., Woodward, C., Li, B., & Breithaupt, F. “Choosing and enjoying violence in narratives.” PLoS ONE 14(12), e0226503.
• 2019Breithaupt, F. “What is an Event for Goethe?” Goethe Yearbook 23, 41–49.
• 2019Breithaupt, F. “Staunen als Belohnung der Neugier,” in Poetiken des Staunens, Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
• 2018Breithaupt, F., Li, B., Liddell, T., Brower, E., & Whaley, S. “Fact vs. Affect in the Telephone Game.” Frontiers in Psychology 9, 2210.
• 2018Breithaupt, F. “Empathy and Aesthetics.” Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft 63/1, 45–60.
• 2018Breithaupt, F. “The Bad Things we Do with Empathy.” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 43.2, 166–174.

Full publication list on Google Scholar →