Draft:Kai Krautter

Kai Krautter is a researcher in organizational behavior, a science communicator, a podcaster and, an online content creator. He is a doctoral student in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School (HBS), where he researches the challenges of sustaining passion for work as well as the topic of flextraversion.^[1] He has co-authored peer-reviewed articles in Organization Science , Administrative Science Quarterly , Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and Social Psychological and Personality Science .^[1]

Krautter and Luise Hönig launched the German-language psychology podcast Positiv Korreliert in 2021.^{[2] [3]} He also hosts the German-language psychology YouTube channel Überdenken.^[4] Krautter publishes material about research, academic life and transatlantic topics on LinkedIn. As of 9 July 2026^[update] , his public profile displayed more than 34,000 followers.^[5]

Krautter obtained his Bachelor of Science in psychology from Saarland University in 2021. From 2021 to 2022, he was a visiting research fellow at Harvard University. He joined the Harvard Business School doctoral program in 2023 and, as part of it, completed a Harvard Master of Arts in psychology in 2025.^[6] A 2023 article published by Saarland University described him as a former psychology student at the university and as a doctoral student at HBS.^[7]

From 2019 to 2023, Krautter recieved the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes scholarship, including the ERP scholarship program.^[7]

Krautter's research focuses on benefits and challenges of passion for work.^[1]

In two daily-diary studies covering 30 and 10 consecutive working days (N = 798), Bredehorst, Krautter and co-authors found support for a model in which higher daily passion, unless adequately self-regulated, was associated with greater investment of time and energy in work, lower psychological detachment after work, and greater emotional exhaustion on the following day. Employees who felt more in charge of their passion engaged in self-regulation and reported greater psychological detachment and fewer of these detrimental consequences.^[8]

In research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Krautter, Anabel Büchner and Jon M. Jachimowicz reported that extraverts expressed passion more frequently and through a more diverse range of behaviours. In their studies, those differences were associated with observers perceiving extraverts as more passionate and with greater interpersonal rewards.^[9]

Krautter also co-authored research in Social Psychological and Personality Science on passion and performance overconfidence. A daily-diary field study of 829 employees and an experiment involving 396 participants found evidence that passion was associated with performance overconfidence, defined by the authors as inflated views of one's own performance.^[10]

A 2025 Administrative Science Quarterly article developed a theory of differentiated passion contagion. In an experience-sampling study of 829 employees in 155 teams, passion caught from teammates was associated with better self-reported performance, lower emotional exhaustion and stronger social connection. The authors also found that high-passion teams could create pressure to increase one's own passion, with effort-related costs; a preregistered experiment involving 1,063 participants provided causal evidence for the proposed mechanism.^[11]

In 2026, Krautter received the Audience Choice Award and an honourable mention by the judges of Harvard's Three Minute Thesis competition. According to the recap, his presentation drew on a survey of more than 700 nurses at a local hospital and reported a point at which high passion was associated with lower work performance.^[12]

His podcast Positiv Korreliert explains psychological research and research methods for a general audience. Its subjects have included statistics, open science, burnout and mental health; there are more than 50 episodes online as of 2024.^[2] In 2024, Krautter was also named a finalist for the Engagement Prize of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes for his podcast work.^[2]

Since summer 2026, Krautter and a fellow psychology researcher launched the German-language YouTube channel Überdenken (German for about thinking/overthinking).^[13]

Krautter joined the organizing team of the German American Conference at Harvard in 2022, leading their communications team. He laiter became co-chair in 2023, head of US outreach in 2024, and chief of staff in 2025.^[14] In 2026, he worked on the conference's essay competition.^[6]

• Bredehorst, Joy; Krautter, Kai; Meuris, Jirs; Jachimowicz, Jon M. (2024). "The Challenge of Maintaining Passion for Work over Time: A Daily Perspective on Passion and Emotional Exhaustion". Organization Science. 35 (1): 364–386. doi:10.1287/orsc.2023.1673.

• Bailey, Erica R.; Krautter, Kai; Wu, Wen; Galinsky, Adam D.; Jachimowicz, Jon M. (2024). "A Potential Pitfall of Passion: Passion Is Associated With Performance Overconfidence". Social Psychological and Personality Science. 15 (7): 769–779. doi:10.1177/19485506241252461.

• Krautter, Kai; Büchner, Anabel; Jachimowicz, Jon M. (2025). "Extraverts Reap Greater Social Rewards From Passion Because They Express Passion More Frequently and More Diversely". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 51 (7): 1159–1172. doi:10.1177/01461672231211843.

• Frank, Emma L.; Krautter, Kai; Wu, Wen; Jachimowicz, Jon M. (2025). "Riding the Passion Wave or Fighting to Stay Afloat? A Theory of Differentiated Passion Contagion". Administrative Science Quarterly. 70 (2): 444–495. doi:10.1177/00018392251316299.

• Harvard Business School profile
• Official website
• LinkedIn profile
• Überdenken on YouTube

Category:Living people Category:Harvard Business School people Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Saarland University alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people)