Winfried Rief

Short info

My research focuses on the role of expectations as predictors of treatment outcome in the field of psychology and medicine. This does not only include research on placebo and nocebo mechanisms, but also the investigation of expectations as a major mechanism of mental disorders and their modification. We use experimental methods to modify clinically relevant expectations, and we also address cognitive immunization processes that prevent people from changing expectations. Further, I am interested in the role of physical symptoms (e.g., pain), their classification, development, maintenance and change.

Open Science

Eckert, A. L., Pawlowski, J., Rief, W., Endres, D., & Kirchner, L. (2023).
Simulating Active Inference of Interpersonal Context Within and Across Mental Disorders.
PsyArXiv Preprints

Kirchner, L., Eckert, A., Berg, M., Endres, D., Straube, B., & Rief, W. (2022).
Better safe than sorry? - An active inference approach to biased inference on social contexts in depression.
PsyArXiv Preprints

Kirchner, L., Kloft, M., Berg, M., & Rief, W. (2022).
Measuring Dysfunctional Interpersonal Beliefs: Validation of the Interpersonal Cognitive Distortions Scale among a German-speaking Sample.
PsyArXiv Preprints

Kirchner, L., Rief, W., Müller, L., Buchwald, H., Fuhrmann, K., & Berg, M. (2023).
Processing Unexpected Social Feedback in Depression: Differences in Feedback Acceptance and Immunizing Cognition.
PsyArXiv Preprints

Kirchner, L., Rief, W., Müller, L., Buchwald, H., Fuhrmann, K., & Berg, M. (2023).
Processing Unexpected Social Feedback in Depression: Differences in Feedback Acceptance and Immunizing Cognition.
PsyArXiv Preprints

Articles

Bittermann, A., Petrule, C., Ritter, V., Haberkamp, A., Hofmann, S. G., & Rief, W. (2025).
Research on translational psychological treatment: A comprehensive bibliometric analysis.
Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice.

Hilbert, K., Böhnlein, J., Meinke, C., Chavanne, A., Langhammer, T., Stumpe, L., Winter, N., Kircher, T., Rief, W., Straube, B., Roesmann, K., Leehr, E.J., Dannlowski, U., & Lueken, U., (2024).
Lack of evidence for predictive utility from resting state fMRI data for individual exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy outcomes: A machine learning study in two large multi-site samples in anxiety disorders.
NeuroImage, 295, 120639.

Kirchner, L., Eckert, A. L., Berg, M., Endres, D., Straube, B., & Rief, W. (2024).
An active inference approach to interpersonal differences in depression.
New Ideas in Psychology, 74, 101092.

Kirchner, L., Kloft, M., Arias Martín, B., Berg, M., Anjedanimoghadamaraghi, P., Schäfer, L., & Rief, W. (2023).
Measuring dysfunctional interpersonal beliefs: validation of the Interpersonal Cognitive Distortions Scale among a heterogeneous German-speaking sample.
BMC psychiatry, 23(1), 702.

Kirchner, L., Kube, T., Berg, M., Eckert, A. L., Straube, B., Endres, D., & Rief, W. (2024).
Social expectations in depression.
Nature Reviews Psychology, 1-15.

Kirchner, L., Kube, T., D'Astolfo, L., Strahler, J., Herbstreit, R., & Rief, W. (2023).
How to modify expectations of social rejection? An experimental study using a false-feedback paradigm.
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 81, 101859.

Kirchner, L., Rief, W., Müller, L., Buchwald, H., Fuhrmann, K., & Berg, M. (2024).
Depressive symptoms and the processing of unexpected social feedback: Differences in surprise levels, feedback acceptance, and “immunizing” cognition.
Plos one, 19(8), e0307035.

Matsingos, A., Wilhelm, M., Noor, L., Yildiz, C., Rief, W., Hofmann, S. G., ... & Kircher, T. (2024).
Hype or hope? High placebo response in major depression treatment with ketamine and esketamine: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Frontiers in psychiatry, 15, 1346697.

Petrule, C., Bittermann, A., Ritter, V., Rief, W., Haberkamp, A., Berg, M., ... & Steil, R. (2026).
Waiting for translation: A review of translational research in psychological treatment.
Clinical Psychology Review, 102708.

Rief, W., Asmundson, G. J., Bryant, R. A., Clark, D. M., Ehlers, A., Holmes, E. A., ... & Hofmann, S. G. (2024).
The future of psychological treatments: The Marburg Declaration.
Clinical Psychology Review, 110, 102417.

Straube, B., Kuehne, H., van Dam, L., Frey, K., van Kemenade, B.M., Kircher, T., & Ried, L. (2022).
Speech-gesture mismatch detection in individuals with high vs. low schizotypal traits.
International Consortium on Schizotypy Research, ICSR 2022.

Westhoff, M., Berg, M., Reif, A., Rief, W., & Hofmann, S. G. (2024).
Major problems in clinical psychological science and how to address them. Introducing a multimodal dynamical network approach.
Cognitive Therapy and Research, 48(5), 791-807.