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From Trump's America to Putin's Russia, from climate change denial to corona denial, so-called post-truth politics are experiencing a global rise. How can we understand and explain this phenomenon? In the attempt to answer this question, this article advances two core claims. First, it suggests that post-truth politics is (despite its name) marked not only by the denial of claims to objective truth, but also by the naturalization of one specific truth claim: namely, the cynical belief that self-interests are behind all public discourse. Second, it locates the social sources of this dogmatic cynicism in the global expansion of neoliberal competition.

Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) are frequently used to prescribe exercise intensity. A central assumption of using RPE scales is that the subjective perception of effort maps onto objective performance in a consistent way. However, the degree and shape of how RPE aligns with objective performance is not fully understood. Here we investigate that degree and shape of alignment, as well as how time (i.e., how often has an effort to be performed) and mental effort (i.e., if one has to invest mental effort as well as physical effort) covary with the alignment. In a randomized within-subjects experiment, we used a grip-to-scale method that asked participants (N= 43) to repeatedly squeeze a handgrip transducer with four to-be-produced RPE target levels relative to their maximum strength (representing 20%, 40%, 60% or 80%). Across all levels, participants applied less force than the equivalent fraction of their maximum voluntary contraction strength, and RPE and the resulting objective force were not linearly aligned. In addition, at constant RPE-levels, participants produced less force over time and this effect was moderated by the to-be-produced RPE-levels. Lastly, anticipating mental effort after the physical effort altered the alignment as a function of the to-be-produced RPE-level and experimental duration. Taken together, our results indicate that perceived effort and objective performance do not straightforwardly map onto one another, and several factors can affect the degree and shape of how RPE and performance align. These findings have implications for scientific and applied contexts were RPE is used to prescribe exercise intensity.

The human brain's ability to quickly detect dangerous stimuli is crucial in selecting appropriate responses to possible threats. Trait anxiety has been suggested to moderate these processes on certain processing stages. To dissociate such different information-processing stages, research using classical conditioning has begun to examine event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to fear-conditioned (CS +) faces. However, the impact of trait anxiety on ERPs to fear-conditioned faces depending on specific task conditions is unknown. In this preregistered study, we measured ERPs to faces paired with aversive loud screams (CS +) or neutral sounds (CS −) in a large sample (N = 80) under three different task conditions. Participants had to discriminate face-irrelevant perceptual information, the gender of the faces, or the CS category. Results showed larger amplitudes in response to aversively conditioned faces for all examined ERPs, whereas interactions with the attended feature occurred for the P1 and the early posterior negativity (EPN). For the P1, larger CS + effects were observed during the perceptual distraction task, while the EPN was increased for CS + faces when deciding about the CS association. Remarkably, we found no significant correlations between ERPs and trait anxiety. Thus, fear-conditioning potentiates all ERP amplitudes, some processing stages being further modulated by the task. However, the finding that these ERP differences were not affected by individual differences in trait anxiety does not support theoretical accounts assuming increased threat processing or reduced threat discrimination depending on trait anxiety.

This study examined whether i) brief videos aiming to optimise outcome expectations would augment the efficacy of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) and ii) whether participants' characteristics would moderate these effects. Sixty-eight healthy subjects randomized to one of three experimental manipulations before undergoing a single PMR session either watched i) a video displaying a neutral expert, ii) a video with a warm expert, or iii) were part of an active control condition. Constrained linear mixed models indicated increased relaxation and decreased stress levels for all participants after the PMR session. The primary outcome was the change of perceived relaxation/stress from pre to post. Participants with high neuroticism and trait anxiety indicated an augmented PMR's efficacy and increased outcome expectations when watching the warm expert video compared to the control group or the less warm expert. Brief videos displaying an expert aiming to optimise outcome expectations regarding a brief stress-reducing psychological intervention may boost or decrease an intervention's efficacy. Effects may depend on the viewer's personality and the (video) expert's communication style. Trial Registration: The study protocol was approved by the local Ethics Committee of the University of Marburg, Germany. This study was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03330431).

For humans, it is vitally important to rapidly detect and process threatening signals regardless of whether stimuli occur at fixation or in the periphery. However, it is unknown whether eccentricity affects early neuronal electrophysiological responses to fear-conditioned stimuli. We examined early event-related potentials (ERPs) of the electroencephalogram (EEG) to fear-conditioned faces to address this question. Participants (N = 80) were presented with faces, either paired with an aversive (CS+) or neutral sound (CS-), at central or peripheral positions. We ensured constant central fixation using online eye-tracking but directed attention to either centrally or peripherally presented faces. Manipulation checks showed successful fear-conditioning (i.e., on average lower ratings in valence and higher ratings in arousal and perceived threat) and successful shifts of visuospatial attention indexed by high task performance and pre-stimulus alpha lateralization of the EEG spectra. We observed a generally increased P1 to fear-conditioned faces regardless of presentation location. An N170 difference between fear-conditioned and neutral stimuli was found but was restricted to the central location and depended on the effectivity of fear-conditioning. A similar effect was observed for the early posterior negativity (EPN). Trait anxiety was not related to differential ERP responses to CS+ versus CS- faces for any ERP component. These findings suggest that the P1 indexes early responses to centrally and peripherally presented fear-conditioned faces. Subsequent stages are modulated by the spatial location of the stimuli. This suggests different stages of neural processing of fear-conditioned faces depending on their spatial location. Finally, our results question the hypothesis that trait anxiety in healthy participants is related to altered visual processing of fear-conditioned faces.

Faces with emotional information–by virtue of their expression or their history of affective learning–are prioritized during neuronal processing as compared to neutral faces. Classical conditioning studies have shown that aversively conditioned (CS+) faces potentiate different face processing stages as evidenced by increased early and late event-related potential (ERPs) components. However, it is unknown whether and how ERP modulations depend on certain attentional conditions. To examine this question, this preregistered study investigated ERPs to faces paired with aversive screams or neutral sounds under three tasks with increasing attention to CS + relevant features of the face: Participants (N = 40) had to discriminate either the orientation of superimposed lines, perceived gender, or the CS association. We found potentiation of the N170, the Early Posterior Negativity (EPN), and, most remarkably, the Late Positive Potential (LPP) to CS + faces regardless of task condition. This finding suggests that, in contrast to other types of emotional information and learning, classical conditioning boosts early and late processing stages, even if no explicit attention to the face information or the CS association is required.

Our brains rapidly respond to human faces and can differentiate between many identities, retrieving rich semantic emotional-knowledge information. Studies provide a mixed picture of how such information affects event-related potentials (ERPs). We systematically examined the effect of feature-based attention on ERP modulations to briefly presented faces of individuals associated with a crime. The tasks required participants ( N = 40 adults) to discriminate the orientation of lines overlaid onto the face, the age of the face, or emotional information associated with the face. Negative faces amplified the N170 ERP component during all tasks, whereas the early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP) components were increased only when the emotional information was attended to. These findings suggest that during early configural analyses (N170), evaluative information potentiates face processing regardless of feature-based attention. During intermediate, only partially resource-dependent, processing stages (EPN) and late stages of elaborate stimulus processing (LPP), attention to the acquired emotional information is necessary for amplified processing of negatively evaluated faces.

Dyadic interactions are associated with the exchange of personality-related messages, which can be congruent or incongruent with one’s self-view. In the current preregistered study ( N = 52), we investigated event-related potentials (ERPs) toward real social evaluations in order to uncover the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of congruent and incongruent evaluative feedback. Participants interacted first, and then during an electroencephalogram (EEG) session, they received evaluations from their interaction partner that were either congruent or incongruent with their own ratings. Findings show potentiated processing of self-related incongruent negative evaluations at early time points (N1) followed by increased processing of both incongruent negative and positive evaluations at midlatency time windows (early posterior negativity) and a prioritized processing of self-related incongruent positive evaluations at late time points (feedback-related P3, late positive potential). These findings reveal that, after real social interactions, evaluative feedback about oneself that violates one’s self-view modulates all processing stages with an early negativity and a late positivity bias.

Faces transmit rich information about a unique personal identity. Recent studies examined how negative evaluative information affects event-related potentials (ERPs), the relevance of individual differences, such as trait anxiety, neuroticism, or agreeableness, for these effects is unclear. In this preregistered study, participants (N = 80) were presented with neutral faces, either associated with highly negative or neutral biographical information. Faces were shown under three different task conditions that varied the attentional focus on face-unrelated features, perceptual face information, or emotional information. Results showed a task-independent increase of the N170 component for faces associated with negative information, while interactions occurred for the Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) and the Late Positive Potential (LPP), showing ERP differences only when paying attention to the evaluative information. Trait anxiety and neuroticism did not influence ERP differences. Low agreeableness increased EPN differences during perceptual distraction. Thus, we observed that low agreeableness leads to early increased processing of potentially hostile faces, although participants were required to attend to a face-unrelated feature. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.3758/s13415-021-00894-w.

Depression is associated with abnormalities in patterns of information processing, particularly in the context of processing of interpersonal information. The present study was designed to investigate the differences in depressive individuals in cortical processing of facial stimuli when neutral faces were presented in a context that involved information about emotional valence as well as self-reference. In 21 depressive patients and 20 healthy controls, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the presentation of neutral facial expressions, which were accompanied by affective context information that was either self- or other-related. Across conditions, depressive patients showed larger mean P100 amplitudes than healthy controls. Furthermore, mean late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes of depressive patients were larger in response to faces in self-related than in other-related context. In addition, irrespective of self-reference, mean LPP responses of depressive patients to faces presented after socially threatening sentences were larger compared with faces presented after neutral sentences. Results regarding self-reference supported results of previous studies indicating larger mean amplitudes in self-related conditions. Findings suggest a general heightened initial responsiveness to emotional cues and a sustained emotion processing of socially threatening information in depressive patients. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.3758/s13415-021-00877-x.

Emotional facial expressions elicit distinct increased early electrophysiological responses. Many studies report even emotional modulations of very early sensory processing at about 80 and 100 ms after stimulus presentation, indexed by the P1. These early effects are often interpreted to index differential responses to biologically relevant expressions. Since specific spatial frequencies differ between fearful and neutral expressions, it has recently been suggested that these early modulations are substantially driven by such low-level visual differences. However, it remains unclear whether similar P1 effects are also observed in experiments in which no recognizable face information is presented at all. This study investigated this question and explored also whether any effects depend on colour information and attentional conditions. Participants (N = 20) performed a continuous perceptual task of low or high difficultly and were presented with task-irrelevant black/white and colour images of fearful and neutral faces, rendered unrecognizable by doing Fourier phase transformation. ERP findings revealed increased P1 amplitudes for fearful scrambles regardless of experimental conditions. Taken together, our findings show early emotional effects in the absence of any facial expression. Specific low-level frequency information seems to increase P1 amplitudes which thus might have implications for the interpretation of very early sensory emotional expression effects.

There is an ongoing debate on how different components of the event-related potential (ERP) to threat-related facial expressions are modulated by attentional conditions and interindividual differences in trait anxiety. In the current study (N = 80), we examined ERPs to centrally presented, task-irrelevant fearful and neutral faces, while participants had to solve a face-unrelated visual task, which differed in difficulty and spatial position. Critically, we used a fixation-controlled experimental design and ensured the spatial attention manipulation by spectral analysis of the EEG. Besides the factors emotion, spatial attention, and perceptual load, we also investigated correlations between trait anxiety and ERPs. While P1 emotion effects were insignificant, the N170 was increased to fearful faces regardless of load and spatial attention conditions. During the EPN time window, a significantly increased negativity for fearful faces was observed only during low load and spatial attention to the face. We found no significant relationship between ERPs and trait anxiety, questioning the hypothesis of a general hypersensitivity toward fearful expressions in anxious individuals. These results show a high resistance of the N170 amplitude increase for fearful faces to spatial attention and task load manipulations. By contrast, the EPN modulation by fearful faces index a resource-dependent stage of the ERP, requiring both spatial attention at the location of faces and low load of the face-irrelevant task.

Higher social relevance has been shown to modulate event-related potentials (ERPs). It is unclear whether such modulations can be observed if one only imagines stimuli to be socially relevant. In a preregistered EEG study (

Paying attention to faces is of special interest for humans as well as for scientific research. The experimental manipulation of facial information offers an ecologically valid approach to investigate emotion, attention and social functioning. Humans are highly specialized in face perception and event-related brain potentials (ERP) provide insights into the temporal dynamics of involved neuronal mechanisms. Here, we summarize ERP research from the last decade, examining the processing of emotional compared to neutral facial expressions along the visual processing stream. A particular focus lies on exploring the impact of attention tasks on early (P1, N170), mid-latency (P2, EPN) and late (P3, LPP) stages of processing. This review systematizes facial emotion effects as a function of different attention tasks: 1) When faces serve as mere distractors, 2) during passive viewing designs, 3) directing attention at faces in general, and 4) paying attention to facial expressions. We find fearful and angry expressions to reliably modulate the N170, EPN, and LPP component, the latter benefiting from attention directed at the emotional facial expression.

Post-truth politics poses a specific problem for critical theories. The problem is that the relativisation of facts – the claim that knowledge is merely a product of power, history, and perspective – is a core aspect of present-day ideological thinking. Critical theories have been unable to respond to this challenge, because their critique has been directed against the opposite claim, namely the naturalisation of facts. While acknowledging this problem, this article argues that post-truth discourse actually combines relativisation and naturalisation. It does not simply relativise truth, but also naturalises the belief in specific ‘facts’ – notably the belief that ‘conspiracies are behind it all’. Once we recognise the twin character of post-truth, we must reject the view of Bruno Latour and others who have made critique responsible for the crisis. Instead, it then becomes apparent that there are deep and disconcerting similarities between post-truth politics and the totalitarian and authoritarian ideologies of the twentieth century. The task of critique is to confront and counter this resurgent ideology, thereby providing direction and orientation in the struggle for emancipation.

The realtime follow-up of neutrino events is a promising approach to search for astrophysical neutrino sources. It has so far provided compelling evidence for a neutrino point source: the flaring gamma-ray blazar TXS 0506+056 observed in coincidence with the high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A detected by IceCube. The detection of very-high-energy gamma rays (VHE, $\mathrm{E} > 100\,\mathrm{GeV}$) from this source helped establish the coincidence and constrained the modeling of the blazar emission at the time of the IceCube event. The four major imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays (IACTs) - FACT, H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS - operate an active follow-up program of target-of-opportunity observations of neutrino alerts sent by IceCube. This program has two main components. One are the observations of known gamma-ray sources around which a cluster of candidate neutrino events has been identified by IceCube (Gamma-ray Follow-Up, GFU). Second one is the follow-up of single high-energy neutrino candidate events of potential astrophysical origin such as IceCube-170922A. GFU has been recently upgraded by IceCube in collaboration with the IACT groups. We present here recent results from the IACT follow-up programs of IceCube neutrino alerts and a description of the upgraded IceCube GFU system., Presented at the 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2021). See arXiv:2107.06966 for all IceCube contributions. See arXiv:2108.05257 for all H.E.S.S. contributions

Until today, there is an ongoing discussion if attention processes interact with the information processing stream already at the level of the C1, the earliest visual electrophysiological response of the cortex. We used two highly powered experiments (each N = 52) and examined the effects of task relevance, spatial attention, and attentional load on individual C1 amplitudes for the upper or lower visual hemifield. Bayesian models revealed evidence for the absence of load effects but substantial modulations by task-relevance and spatial attention. When the C1-eliciting stimulus was a task-irrelevant, interfering distracter, we observed increased C1 amplitudes for spatially unattended stimuli. For spatially attended stimuli, different effects of task-relevance for the two experiments were found. Follow-up exploratory single-trial analyses revealed that subtle but systematic deviations from the eye-gaze position at stimulus onset between conditions substantially influenced the effects of attention and task relevance on C1 amplitudes, especially for the upper visual field. For the subsequent P1 component, attentional modulations were clearly expressed and remained unaffected by these deviations. Collectively, these results suggest that spatial attention, unlike load or task relevance, can exert dissociable top-down modulatory effects at the C1 and P1 levels.

Face processing is biased by emotional and voluntarily directed attention, both of which modulate processing in distributed cortical areas. The amygdala is assumed to contribute to an attentional bias for emotional faces, although its interaction with directed attention awaits further clarification. Here, we studied the interaction of emotion and attention during face processing via scalp EEG potentials of healthy participants and intracranial EEG (iEEG) recordings of the right amygdala in one patient. Three randomized blocks consisting of angry, neutral, and happy facial expressions were presented, and one expression was denoted as the target category in each block. Happy targets were detected fastest and most accurately both in the group study and by the iEEG patient. Occipital scalp potentials revealed emotion differentiation for happy faces in the early posterior negativity (EPN) around 300 ms after stimulus onset regardless of the target condition. A similar response to happy faces occurred in the amygdala only for happy targets. On the scalp, a late positive potential (LPP, around 600 ms) enhancement for targets occurred for all target conditions alike. A simultaneous late signal in the amygdala was largest for emotional targets. No late signal enhancements were found for neutral targets in the amygdala. Cortical modulations, by contrast, showed both attention-independent effects of emotion and emotion-independent effects of attention. These results demonstrate an attention-dependence of amygdala activity during the processing of facial expressions and partly independent cortical mechanisms.

Prioritized processing of fearful compared to neutral faces has been proposed to result from evolutionary adaptation of the contrast sensitivity function (CSF) to the features of emotionally relevant faces and/or vice versa. However, it is unknown whether a stimulus merely has to feature the amplitude spectrum of a fearful face to be prioritized or whether the relevant spatial frequencies have to occur with specific phases and orientations. Prioritized processing is indexed by specific increases of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) of the EEG and occurs throughout different early processing stages, indexed by emotion-related modulations of the P1, N170, and EPN. In this pre-registered study, we manipulated phase and amplitude properties of the Fourier spectra of neutral and fearful faces to test the effect of phase coherence (PC, face vs. scramble) and orientation coherence (OC, original vs. rotational average) and their interactions with differential emotion processing. We found that differential emotion processing was not present at the level of P1 but strongly affected N170 and EPN. In both cases, intact phase coherence was required for enhanced processing of fearful faces. OC did not interact with emotion. While faces produced the typical N170 effect, we observed a reversed effect for scrambles. Additional exploratory independent component analysis (ICA) suggests that this reversal could signal a mismatch between an early "perceptual hypothesis" and feedback of configural information. In line with our expectations, fearful-neutral differences for the N170 and EPN depend on configural information, i.e., recognizable faces.

A large body of research suggests that early event-related potentials (ERPs), such as the P1 and N1, are potentiated by attention and represent stimulus amplification. However, recent accounts suggest that the P1 is associated with inhibiting the irrelevant visual field evidenced by a pronounced ipsilateral P1 during sustained attention to peripherally presented stimuli. The current EEG study further investigated this issue to reveal how lateralized ERP findings are modulated by face and emotional information. Therefore, participants were asked to fixate the center of the screen and pay sustained attention either to the right or left visual field, where angry or neutral faces or their Fourier phase-scrambled versions were presented. We found a bilateral P1 to all stimuli with relatively increased, but delayed, ipsilateral P1 amplitudes to faces but not to scrambles. Explorative independent component analyses dissociated an earlier lateralized larger contralateral P1 from a later bilateral P1. By contrast, the N170 showed a contralateral enhancement to all stimuli, which was most pronounced for neutral faces attended in the left hemifield. Finally, increased contralateral alpha power was found for both attended hemifields but was not significantly related to poststimulus ERPs. These results provide evidence against a general inhibitory role of the P1 but suggest stimulus-specific relative enhancements of the ipsilateral P1 for the irrelevant visual hemifield. The lateralized N170, however, is associated with stimulus amplification as a function of facial features.

Encoding often occurs in social contexts, yet research has hardly addressed their role in verbal memory. In three experiments, we investigated the behavioral and neural effects of encoding context on memory for positive, negative, and neutral adjectives, contrasting a social-feedback group (N=24) with an explicit verbal-learning (N=24) and a levels-of-processing group (N=24). Participants in the social-feedback group were not aware of a recognition session one week later, but their memory was better than the explicit learning or the levels-of-processing groups’. However, they also exhibited the strongest response bias, particularly for positive words. Brain event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed largest early negativities (EPN) and late positivities (LPP) in the social-feedback group. Only in the subsequent slow-wave did the explicit learning group show higher amplitudes than the other two groups, suggesting reliance on strategic rather than automatic processes. Still, context-driven incidental encoding outweighed explicit instructions, specifying a decisive role of social factors in memory.

Several components of the event-related potential (ERP) are amplified by emotional compared to neutral pictures. This study (N = 80) investigated systematically how attention to specific stimulus features influences ERPs to briefly presented (100 ms) negative and neutral pictures. Participants had to discriminate either (i) the orientation of overlaid lines, (ii) if the picture content was animate or inanimate, or (iii) if the emotional content was negative or neutral. ERP results showed interactions between the attention task and emotion processing for the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP). For the EPN, attention to distracting perceptual information reduced emotional differences, while at the level of the LPP, emotion effects were selectively amplified when participants attended to the emotional content. These findings reveal the time-dependent effects of feature-based attention tasks on ERPs to emotional pictures.

In this article, we elaborate two distinct ways of criticizing international practices: social critique and pragmatic critique. Our argument is that these two forms of critique are systematically opposed to each other: They are based on opposing epistemic premises, they are motivated by opposing political concerns, and they pursue opposing visions of social progress. Scholars of International Relations (IR) who want to work with the conceptual tools of practice theory are thus confronted with a consequential choice. Understanding the alternatives can help them to be more self-reflexive in their research practices and intervene more forcefully in contemporary political debates. We illustrate these advantages through a discussion of the scholarly debate on the practices of multilateral diplomacy through which the United Nations Security Council authorized a military intervention in Libya in 2011.

In neuroscientific studies, the naturalness of face presentation differs; a third of published studies makes use of close-up full coloured faces, a third uses close-up grey-scaled faces and another third employs cutout grey-scaled faces. Whether and how these methodological choices affect emotion-sensitive components of the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) is yet unclear. Therefore, this pre-registered study examined ERP modulations to close-up full-coloured and grey-scaled faces as well as cutout fearful and neutral facial expressions, while attention was directed to no-face oddballs. Results revealed no interaction of face naturalness and emotion for any ERP component, but showed, however, large main effects for both factors. Specifically, fearful faces and decreasing face naturalness elicited substantially enlarged N170 and early posterior negativity amplitudes and lower face naturalness also resulted in a larger P1.This pattern reversed for the LPP, showing linear increases in LPP amplitudes with increasing naturalness. We observed no interaction of emotion with face naturalness, which suggests that face naturalness and emotion are decoded in parallel at these early stages. Researchers interested in strong modulations of early components should make use of cutout grey-scaled faces, while those interested in a pronounced late positivity should use close-up coloured faces.

This study introduces the application of infrared (IR) thermography for the determination of melting and solidification temperatures of Sn-Ag-Cu based solder materials commonly used for interconnects in electronic components and devices. The presented setup allows a fast and simultaneous analysis with heating and cooling rates of approx. 0.93 K/s and 0.74 K/s respectively. In order to prove feasibility, measurements were carried out on free standing solder spheres with a diameter of 270 µm which is a typical size for solder interconnects in electronic devices. Four Sn-Ag-Cu alloys (Sn-2.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-3.0Ag-0.25Cu, Sn-3.0Ag-0.7Cu, Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu) with 19 samples per alloy were investigated per experimental run, resulting in a total of 76 samples per measurement. The reproducible extraction of the respective onset temperatures for melting and solidification is demonstrated by the analysis of representative heating and cooling graphs. The onset temperature of melting, which represents the eutectic temperature of these alloys, was measured between 215.1 °C and 218.1 °C. This is less accurate but in good agreement with additionally conducted Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) measurements (217.2 °C to 218.0 °C), as well as the eutectic temperature from the phase diagram (217.2 °C). The solidification temperature of these samples was statistically evaluated by four subsequent experimental runs (generating up to 76 values per alloy). The measured temperature range combined for all four alloys was between 127.2 °C and 196.4 °C. The DSC results (nine values per alloy; three samples; three runs) are comparable but yield a smaller range from 142.2 °C to 185.2 °C. Furthermore, the melting and solidification temperatures of small Sn-Ag FlipChip solder bumps (approx. ∅ 87 µm) were reproducibly analyzed by the IR thermography method and range from 220.3 °C to 220.5 °C and 176.3 °C to 196.7 °C respectively. The presented IR thermography method has proven a valuable alternative, especially for a statistical analysis of undercooling distributions in small samples, such as Sn-Ag-Cu solder joints.