Greater Groningen Area
I am interested in why individuals do or do not engage in sustainable action. I investigate personal and group factors, in particular (mis)perceptions of values, and how these guide individuals' behaviours. Moreover, I examine which system changes are needed to better enable people to act on their values, and to stimulate society-wide sustainable action.
Researching personal and group factors that drive sustainable change. Particularly interested in (mis)perceptions about values and norms, and how these affect climate (in)action. Coordinating the course Consumer and Economic Psychology (third year Bachelor), Master's thesis and internship coordinator of the Environmental Psychology programme, thesis supervisor, and supervisor of various PhD projects.
Researching personal and group factors that drive sustainable change, particularly focusing on the role of values and norms in the energy domain (ERA-Net Smart Energy System) and in the promotion of pro-environmental behaviors and policy support. Coordinating the course Consumer and Economic Psychology (third year Bachelor), supervising Bachelor's and Master's theses, as (co)supervising multiple PhD students.
Conducting research on how personal and group values affect environmental behaviors. For instance, current projects focus on the interplay between values and the political climate (e.g., U.S. and Dutch elections), the European energy transition (e.g., energy security, energy matching, smart cities) and energy behaviors. Co-supervising PhDs: - Steph Johnson-Zawadzki - University of Groningen - Nieke Lemmen - University of Groningen - Liu Lu - University of Groningen - Wang Xiao - University of Groningen & Fudan University (Shanghai, China) Teaching and coordinating courses on intergroup relations, environmental psychology, and societal issues in the bachelor and (research) master programs, supervision of bachelor and master theses.
My Ph.D. project concerns the influence of threatening global situations (e.g., global economic downturn, radicalization, global terrorism) on local intergroup relations (e.g., within the Netherlands). Specifically, we study how people perceive threats from far away groups (e.g., Muslim Brotherhood within the Egyptian uprisings, Greece within the EU economic crisis), and how these perceptions of "intergroup threats" impact more local relations with local minority groups (e.g., immigrants within the Netherlands). We connect our research to current situations, such as the Arab uprisings, the expansion of the European Union, global terrorist threats, and the global economic downturn.
During my study time, I was involved as a teaching assistant in courses about statistics, research methods, writing, and presentation skills at Groningen University.
Provide support to DG ENER's activities on assessing and understanding how much value European society attaches to security of energy supplies. This understanding will be obtained by conducting specialized consumer surveys and will contribute to the implementation of the Energy Union Roadmap initiatives.
In this project I am responsible for the development and validation of the EnergySense questionnaire. Energysense is an independent initiative on energy, at population-level. Energysense aims to provide researchers with energy information from 10.000 households in the Netherlands. More information on: https://energysense.nu/en/
Teaching courses on cultural psychology, research skills and psychology, and theses supervisor.