Research
Research
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My research explores how people morally perceive, evaluate, and react to markets, incentives, and market-oriented political ideas. I combine perspectives from economic and financial ethics, behavioral economics, and the history of economic thought mostly using empirical and experimental methods to study how humans judge market behavior, responsibility, fairness, and regulation.
Selected Publications
Moral luck in investment contexts: We consciously find unprofitable investments less moral
R Max, M Uhl in PloS one 18 (1), e0278677
This paper investigates moral luck and outcome bias in financial decision-making, showing how people judge identical actions differently depending on whether the outcome is profitable or not.
Keywords: moral luck, outcome bias, investment ethics, behavioral ethics, experiments
The downside of moralizing financial markets: Anti-Semitic stereotypes in German MTurkers
R Max, M Uhl in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance 31, 100512
This paper examines how moralized narratives about financial markets can contribute to harmful stereotypes and social hostility.
Keywords: financial markets, stereotypes, moralization, behavioral ethics, experiments
Ongoing Projects
Moral Intuitions and Market Society: Testing a Hayekian Hypothesis
This project provides experimental evidence for a core Hayekian claim: people often evaluate market interactions using moral intuitions designed for small-group life. I study how minimal interpersonal cues shift moral judgments about identical market behavior.
Keywords: Hayek, moral psychology, framing, regulation, market morality, experiments
The Vivalibertarianism Movement and its Foundations
I trace the evolution of libertarian ideas from classical liberal foundations to their contemporary, online-driven expressions—where meme culture, tech narratives, and anti-institutional rhetoric merge into a new ideological style.
Keywords: libertarianism, Milei, Musk, Thiel, classical liberalism, digital politics
Freedom Rhetoric and Power: When Anti-Authoritarian Language Becomes Political Control
This project develops a framework for understanding moral tensions in market societies, especially when small-group moral intuitions collide with large-scale institutions and impersonal coordination.
Keywords: freedom rhetoric, authority, intellectual history, liberalism, political theory
Media Coverage
Tagesspiegel Background — “Nachhaltige Geldanlagen: Wirtschaftlicher Erfolg ist auch moralisch" [GERMAN]
In this Tagesspiegel Background piece, journalist Jan Schulte interviews Raphael Max about sustainable finance and ethical investing. Max explains his research on when investment decisions are perceived as moral and why ethical questions often get overlooked in the broader sustainable-finance debate.
Focus: ethical perception of investments, sustainable finance
La Repubblica (Affari & Finanza) — “Negli investimenti dei tedeschi pregiudizi antisemiti” [ITALIAN]
The Italian newspaper la Repubblica reports on the study by Raphael Max and co-author Matthias Uhl showing that old stereotypes still influence financial judgments: Germans in experimental settings rate otherwise identical investment suggestions differently based on the perceived cultural background of the proposer’s name.
Focus: stereotypes in investment perceptions, antisemitic biases
Die Welt — “Wenn jüdisch klingende Namen unbewusste Vorurteile wecken” [GERMAN]
Die Welt highlights research showing how unconscious prejudice—triggered by names that sound Jewish—can influence moral judgments about financial actions, contributing to broader discussions on bias and economics in the public sphere.
Focus: stereotypes in investment perceptions, antisemitic biases
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung — “Wenn Noah und Michael das Gleiche tun…” [GERMAN]
The FASZ took up the discussion around unconscious biases in financial judgments, illustrating public debate about how identical actions can be judged very differently depending on personal cues such as names or cultural signals.
Focus: stereotypes in investment perceptions, antisemitic biases
If you are interested in all my research, please visit my Google Scholar profile
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