Research areas

Primary research areas

Johannes Lang studies the psychology of political violence and the relationship between psychological science and war.

Current research

War has returned to Europe, but how we understand the psychology of war has changed over the last thirty years. Lang’s current research examines the role of psychology in the wars of the twenty-first century, and how those wars in turn affected psychological science itself.

Projects

Lang leads the project “Wars, pandemics, and the human mind” (2022-2025), funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. The project explores how psychological theories of trauma and resilience have evolved over the last thirty years, and how this has affected the way western societies understand and try to manage the psychological impact of war and catastrophe.

Together with Lars Williams, Lang will co-direct the research project “After War: Moral Injury and the Politics of Trauma” (2025-2028), funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark. This project will explore moral distress and moral injury in the Danish military in the wake of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Lang’s previous project, “The New Psychology of War” (2017-2022), explored the collaboration between psychological science and the United States military during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Drawing on interviews with some of the key researchers and policymakers involved, Lang and his colleagues analyze how the new science of resilience that emerged after 9/11 has challenged basic psychological assumptions about war and trauma—assumptions that have dominated since the Vietnam War. This project was funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.