• Vitae
• Major teaching and research interests
• Activities
• Publications (a selection)
• Papers
• Awards and honors

Lara Kobilke is a resistance researcher. She explores what happens when people feel that their freedom is being restricted and why they respond with resistance. People generally don't like being told what to do, think, or believe. It is precisely this area of tension that drives her research: What triggers the need to refuse, and how does this resistance manifest itself, e.g., through open confrontation, internal rejection, or withdrawal and avoidance?
Her research focuses on the concept of psychological reactance, a state that arises when people perceive manipulation, pressure, or being patronized and develop the need to regain their freedom.
Dr. Kobilke examines these mechanisms primarily in social and global crisis contexts, where conflicts over freedom, responsibility, and control become particularly apparent. She combines psychological, communicative, and sociological perspectives to understand how resistance arises and the role communication plays in it.

Education

• PhD (2022): University of Zurich (UZH), Supervisor: Prof. Thomas Zerback. Dissertation: “Contradiction as a political force? Consequences of contact with opposing opinions for offline and online political participation.”
• Master's degree (M.A., 2017): Communication Studies, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU)
• Double Bachelor's degree (B.A., 2015): Communication Studies, German Studies, and Law, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU)

Academic positions

• 10/2025-04/2026: Visting Professor, Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media 
• Since 04/2024: Postdoctoral Researcher, Computational Communication Research (Prof. Mario Haim), LMU Munich
• 12/2023-10/2025: Postdoc, Political Communication Research (Prof. Carsten Reinemann), LMU Munich
• 01/2023-12/2023: Postdoc, Media Effects Research (Prof. Hans-Bernd Brosius), LMU Munich
• 01/2021-01/2023: Research Assistant (PhD), International & Comparative Media Research (Prof. Frank Esser), University of Zurich
• 02/2018-01/2021: DFG-funded Research Assistant (PhD), Political Communication Research (Prof. Thomas Zerback), University of Zurich

• Psychological reactance and resistance communication: Analysis of resistance and refusal reactions in digital contexts, in particular further development of reactance theory and development of precise measuring instruments for recording these psychological processes.
• Political communication and deliberation: Investigation of opinion-forming processes, political participation, and mobilization in polarized publics, with a focus on the effects of exposure to opposing opinions.
• Health communication and youth engagement: Focus on phenomena such as social media challenges (especially on TikTok) and their significance for identity formation and risk behavior among young people.
• AI-supported communication: Research into the implications of artificial intelligence for everyday conversations, public opinion, and the development of LLM-supported interventions to strengthen democratic exchange.
• Computational communication research: Application and development of new methods, in particular the use of R for analyzing large and complex data sets, as well as the promotion of transparency and reproducibility in research (open science).

Research Projects

• Measurement and Analysis of Reactance (2023-2025): Funded by the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt), this project is dedicated to developing new methods for measuring psychological resistance to communication about complex issues such as climate change.
• Shaping Communication on Climate Change (2024-2025): Funded by the LMU Munich Sustainability Fund, this project investigates how communication strategies can be optimized to promote pro-environmental behavior.
• Data and Usage Analysis of TikTok Content (2023): A project commissioned by the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia that analyzed the spread and perception of social media challenges among children and adolescents that could potentially impair their development.

Teaching and Method Development

Dr. Kobilke's teaching is guided by a mission to equip the next generation of researchers with transparent, reproducible, and accessible methodological tools. Her work as coordinator of the R curriculum at the Institute for Communication Studies at LMU Munich, the development of numerous freely accessible R tutorials, and her co-development of the R package tidycomm are expressions of this commitment to democratizing computer-assisted methods and strengthening a robust open science culture. Her multiple awards for excellence in teaching at LMU Munich and a nomination for the Ars Legendi Prize underline the success of this approach.

Community Engagement

• Spokesperson for the Young Researchers Network for Political Communication (NapoKo): From 2022 to December 2025, she actively shaped the networking and promotion of young researchers in the German Society for Mass Communication (DGPuK) as its spokesperson.
• Peer review activities: She is a regular reviewer for leading international journals such as New Media & Society, Communication Theory, and the International Journal of Public Opinion Research.

A complete list of her publications is available on her personal website lara-kobilke.de and her ORCID profile (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6194-4724).

Journal Articles (Peer-Reviewed)

Mede, N., Kobilke, L., Fawzi, N. & Zerback, T. (2025). The climate change generation: Vocal but overconfident? How young adults who overestimate their climate knowledge use social media and engage with others. Social Media and Society. doi.org/10.1177/20563051251341792  

Kobilke, L. & Markiewitz, A. (2024). Understanding youth participation in social media challenges: A scoping review of definitions, typologies, and theoretical perspectives. Computers in Human Behavior, 5, Article 108265. doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2023.1122439 

Kobilke, L., Kulichkina, L., Baghumyan, A. & Pipal, C. (2023). Blaming it on NATO? Framing the role of NATO in the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on Twitter. Frontiers in Political Science, 5, Article 1122439. doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2023.1122439  

Zerback, T. & Kobilke, L. (2022). The role of affective and cognitive attitude extremity in perceived viewpoint diversity exposure. New Media & Society, 1-18. doi.org/10.1177/14614448221117484 

Kobilke, L. & Markiewitz, A. (2021). The Momo Challenge: Measuring the extent to which YouTube portrays harmful and helpful depictions of a suicide game. SN Social Sciences, 1(4), 1-30. doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00065-1  

Leiner, D. J., Kobilke, L., Rueß, C. & Brosius, H.-B. (2018). Functional domains of social media platforms: Structuring the uses of Facebook to better understand its gratifications. Computers in Human Behavior, 83, 194-203. doi.org/10.1016/j .chb.2018.01.042

Monographs

Kobilke, L. (2023). Widerspruch als politische Kraft? Folgen des Kontakts mit gegenteiligen Meinungen für die politische Offline- und Online-Partizipation [Contradiction as a political force? Consequences of exposure to opposing opinions for offline and online political participation]. Zurich Open Respository, doi.org/10.5167/uzh-252651

Book Chapters

Kobilke, L. (2026). Cross-cutting exposure. In A. Nai, M. Grömping & D. S. Wirz (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Political Communication. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Kobilke, L. (2026). Viewpoint diversity exposure. In A. Nai, M. Grömping & D. S. Wirz (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Political Communication. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Kobilke, L. (2022). All those glamazons we subscribe to. Mapping a network of key influencers spreading the art of drag on YouTube. In N. Brennan & D. Gudelunas (Eds.), Drag in the global digital public sphere. Queer visibility, online discourse (pp. 65-88). Routledge.

2025

Hajek, K. V. & Kobilke, L. (2025, July). Rethinking reactance for political psychology: The new psychological reactance process model. Paper presented at the 48th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP), Prague, Czech Republic.

Hajek, K. V., Kobilke, L. & Krug, M. (2025, June). From facts to feelings: A typology of written reactance to climate communication in social media comments. Paper presented at the 75th Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, Denver, USA. [Top Paper Environmental Communication Division]

Kobilke, L. & Markiewitz, A. (2025, June). The good, the bad, and the neutral. Classifying TikTok challenges to enhance safe engagement for children and adolescents. Paper presented at the 75th Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, Denver, USA.

Krug, M., Kobilke, L. & Hajek, K. V. (2025, June). Collaborative negotiation of reactance in climate activism: How affective evaluation practices of freedom-threatening demands influence freedom restoration strategies in face-to-face interactions. Paper presented at the 75th Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, Denver, USA.

Hajek, K. V. & Kobilke, L. (2025, March). Beyond boomerang – Proposing a new model of psychological reactance for communication sciences. Paper presented at the DGPuK Annual Conference 2025 “Öffentlichkeit(en) und ihre Werte”, Berlin, Germany.

Kobilke, L. & Hajek, K. V. (2025, March). Crisis, conflict, and codebooks: Measuring freedom restrictions and psychological reactance in written discourse. Paper presented at the DGPuK Annual Conference 2025 “Öffentlichkeit(en) und ihre Werte”, Berlin, Germany.

Kobilke, L. & Hajek, K. V. (2025, March). Beyond boomerang. Rethinking reactance in the era of global crises in multimodal public spheres. Panel chaired at the DGPuK Annual Conference 2025 “Öffentlichkeit(en) und ihre Werte”, Berlin, Germany.

Krug, M., Kobilke, L. & Hajek, K. V. (2025, March). Collaborative negotiation of psychological reactance in interpersonal communication on climate change. Paper presented at the DGPuK Annual Conference 2025 „Öffentlichkeit(en) und ihre Werte“, Berlin, Germany.

Kobilke, L. & Hajek, K. V. (2025, February). Von Widerstand zu Teilhabe: Ein Neudenken von Reaktanz in politischen Kampagnen [From pushback to participation: Rethinking reactance in political campaigns]. Paper presented at the Joint Annual Conference of the German Society of Mass Communication’s [DGPuK] Expert Group „Communication and Politics“, the German Political Science Association’s (DVPW) Working Group „Politics and Communication“ and the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research’s (SGKM) Expert Group „Political Communication“, Innsbruck, Austria.

2024

Kobilke, L. & Markiewitz, A. (2024, September). Sing-alongs, dance battles, and self-harm: Exploring the spectrum of social media challenges on TikTok through manual content analysis. Paper presented at the 10th European Communication Conference (ECC), Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Hajek, K. V., Kobilke, L. & Krug, M. (2024, September). A multidimensional measure for psychological state reactance. Paper presented at the 53rd DGPs Congress, Vienna, Austria.

Kobilke, L., Rinn, R., Mühlberger, C., Niesta Kayser, D., Du, H., Sankaran, S. & Jonas, E. (2024, September). Reactance to and compliance with measures during the Covid-19 pandemic as a function of cultural group-membership: An intercultural study. Paper presented at the 53rd DGPs Congress, Vienna, Austria.

Hajek, K. V., Kobilke, L. & Krug, M. (2024, June). Constructing a climate of compliance – Understanding reactance to pro-environmental messages. Paper presented at the 74th Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, Gold Coast, Australia.

Kobilke, L., Hajek, K. V. & Krug, M. (2024, June). “Take back control!“ Measuring psychological reactance as a mobilizing force for collective action. Paper presented at the 74th Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, Gold Coast, Australia.

Kobilke, L., & Markiewitz, A. (2024, June). Understanding youth participation in social media challenges: A systematic review of definitions, typologies, and theoretical perspectives. Paper presented at the 74th Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, Gold Coast, Australia.

Hajek, K. V., Kobilke, L. & Krug, M. (2024, March). Constructing a climate of compliance – Understanding reactance to pro-environmental messages. Paper presented at the 69th Annual Conference of the German Society of Mass Communication (DGPuK), Erfurt, Germany.

Kobilke, L. (2024, February). Exploring identity expression and political mobilization on TikTok through the “Put a Finger Down” challenge. Paper presented at the Joint Annual Conference of the German Society of Mass Communication’s (DGPuK) Expert Group „Communication and Politics“, the German Political Science Association’s (DVPW) Working Group „Politics and Communication“ and the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research’s (SGKM) Expert Group „Political Communication“, Berne, Switzerland.

2023

Kobilke, L., Markiewitz, A. & Rossmann, C. (2023, November 16). I dare you! Use and consequences of viral TikTok challenges for children and adolescents. Paper presented at the European Conference on Health Communication (ECHC), Klagenfurt, Austria.

Kobilke, L., Hajek, K. V. & Krug, M. (2023, September). Development of a multidimensional state reactance scale for communication research. Paper presented at the 24th Conference of the German Society of Mass Communication’s (DGPuK) Expert Group “Methods”, Potsdam, Germany.

Kobilke, L., Kulichkina, A., Baghumyan, A. & Pipal, C. (2023, June). Blaming it on NATO? Framing the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Twitter. Paper presented at the EPSA’s 13th Annual Conference, Glasgow, Great Britain.

Fawzi, N., Zerback, T., Kobilke, L. & Mede, N. (2023, May). Fuel to the flames. False balance and hostile media perceptions as amplifiers of perceived polarization in the climate change debate. Paper presented at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, Toronto, Canada.

Kobilke, L., Fawzi, N., Mede, N. & Zerback, T. (2023, May). Eco-informational media use, media-induced eco-emotions, and climate change activism: What drives the political engagement of the climate change generation? Paper presented at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, Toronto, Canada.

Reiss, M., Kobilke, L. & Stoll, A. (2023, May). Reporting supervised machine learning projects in communication science – A framework for transparent documentation on the example of text classification. Paper presented at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, Toronto, Canada.

2022

Noack, V., Kobilke, L. & Mpadanes, M. (2022, October). Terror or no terror, that is the question. Comparing manual and automated frame analysis of right-wing extremist and Islamist terror attacks in German news media. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the German Society of Mass Communication’s (DGPuK) Expert Group “Methods”, Munich, Germany.

Reiss, M., Kobilke, L. & Stoll, A. (2022, October). Reporting supervised text analysis for communication science. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the German Society of Mass Communication’s (DGPuK) Expert Group “Methods”, Munich, Germany.

Kobilke, L. & Zerback, T. (2022, September 30). The relationship between alternative media use and expressive, protest-based, and traditional political participation: A latent growth modeling approach. Paper presented at the Joint Annual Conference of the German Society of Mass Communication’s (DGPuK) Expert Groups „Journalism/Journalism Research“ and “Communication and Politics”, the German Political Science Association’s (DVPW) Working Group „Politics and Communication“ and the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research’s (SGKM) Expert Group „Political Communication“, Trier, Germany.

Kobilke, L. & Zerback, T. (2022, May). Cross-cutting exposure online, offline, and in traditional media. Exploring the consequences for political participation. Paper presented at the 72nd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Paris, France.

Zerback, T. & Kobilke, L. (2022, May). The role of affective and cognitive attitude extremity in viewpoint diversity exposure. Paper presented at the 72nd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Paris, France.

2020

Kobilke, L. (2020, November). Acting upon disagreement? The effects of cross-cutting exposure on political participation in offline, online, and traditional media communication environments. Paper presented at the Digital Society Initiative, Digital Democracy Workshop, Zurich, Switzerland.

Kobilke, L. (2020, May). Inclusive, but exclusive? Assessing the dominance of RuPaul’s Drag Race for drag representation in social media. Paper presented at the 72nd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Sunshine Coast, Australia. [Top Student Paper Award of the ICA LGBTQ+ Interest Group]

Kobilke, L. & Zerback, T. (2020, March 10). Populist participation? A closer look at the relationship between populist attitudes and political participation in Germany. Paper presented at the 65th Annual Conference of the German Society of Mass Communication, Munich, Germany.

Kobilke, L. & Markiewitz, A. (2020, February). Momo is a 'NoNo' – How media depictions of the suicide game 'Momo Challenge' affect their viewers on YouTube. Paper presented at the European Conference on Health Communication (ECHC), Zurich, Switzerland.

Kobilke, L. & Zerback, T. (2020, February). In der Echokammer? Politische Einstellungen, interpersonale Kommunikation und Mediennutzung als Prädiktoren erlebter Meinungsvielfalt [Living inside echo chambers? Political attitudes, interpersonal communication and media use as predictors of perceived opinion diversity]. Paper presented at the Joint Annual Conference of the German Society of Mass Communication’s (DGPuK) Expert Group “Communication and Politics”, the German Political Science Association’s (DVPW) Working Group „Politics and Communication“ and the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research’s (SGKM) Expert Group „Political Communication“, Mainz, Germany.

2019

Markiewitz, A. & Kobilke, L. (2019, July). The Momo Challenge: A mixed-method approach on how suicidal games on YouTube may cause harm to adolescents. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Madrid, Spain.

Kobilke, L. (2019, May). Towards a model of lexical diffusion in social media networks: A case study of the dissemination of the term “lying press” in Germany. Paper presented at the 69th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Washington, DC, USA.

2018

Kobilke, L. (2018, November). Der Kontakt mit gegenteiligen Meinungen in Sozialen Medien: Effekte auf die politische (Online-)Partizipation [Cross-cutting exposure in social media: Effects on political (online) participation]. Paper presented at the 18th NapoKo Colloquium, Mainz, Germany.

2017

Leiner, D. J., Kobilke, L., Rueß, C. & Brosius, H.-B. (2017, May). Patterns behind social media usage: Comprehending Facebook as a set of features to separate its functional domains. Paper presented at the 67th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), San Diego, CA, USA.

2015

Kobilke, L. & Baugut, P. (2015, July). Mediatization of politics from a psychological point of view. Exploring media effects on scandalized politicians in a qualitative analysis of two German cases. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Montreal, Canada.

• ICA Top Student Paper Award of the Environmental Communication Division: 2025
• ICA Top Student Paper Award of the LGBTQ+ Interest Group: 2020
• Faculty Award (performance bonus) at the LMU Munich: 3000€, 202.
• Best Thesis Award: 50€, LMU Munich, 2017
• Top Student Award: 3,000€, LMU Munich, 2015
• Nominated for: Ars Legendi Prize for Excellence in University Teaching 2025: 30.000€, 2025
• Teaching Award: Data Journalism (Applied Communication). 1st prize at the Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich (2022/23)
• Teaching Award: Balancing fun and risk: An analytical approach to categorizing viral TikTok challenges. 1st prize at the Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich (2023/24)
• Teaching Award: Balancing fun and risk: An analytical approach to categorizing viral TikTok challenges. 1st prize at the Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich (2023/24)
• Teaching Award: AI, Discourse, and Electoral Decisions: Can We Use LLMs to Improve Democratic Decision-Making? 1st prize at the Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich (2024/25)