My work examines emotion with a particular focus on the communication of emotions via non-verbal expressions. I study vocalisations like laughter, cries and sighs, and also facial expressions of emotions. I am interested in how factors such as preparedness, culture, and learning shape our emotions and the ways that they are communicated. My research makes use of a wide range of empirical approaches, including cross-cultural comparisons and computational methods. I have a particular interest in positive emotions, and in recent years, I have become increasingly interested in understanding emotions in relation to sustainability and pro-environmental behaviour.
You can find out more about the Amsterdam Interdisciplinary Centre for Emotion here.
I did my BSc in Psychology and Cognitive Science at University College London (2002), followed by a PhD in the same department (2006). Then I worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, after which I received an ESRC fellowship, which I took up at Birkbeck College London. In 2008 I moved to the Netherlands to work as a staff researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, where I stayed until 2011. I then moved to the University of Amsterdam, where I held a Veni grant (2011-2016) from the Dutch Science Foundation, followed by an ERC Starting Grant and several grants from the Dutch Science Foundation (2017-2024). In 2023, I was awarded a Vici grant from the Dutch Science Foundation. I am Associate Professor in the Department of Social Psychology at UvA, associate editor of the journal Emotion Review, president of the International Society for Research on Emotion (ISRE), and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). I am active in Scientists for Future NL.
I currently give courses at undergraduate and post-graduate level at the University of Amsterdam, including Introduction to Emotion Science for undergraduate Psychology students, and at the Research Master level, Current Debates in Emotion Science.
I currently give courses at undergraduate and post-graduate level at the University of Amsterdam, including Introduction to Emotion Science for undergraduate Psychology students, and at the Research Master level, Current Debates in Emotion Science. I currently supervise PhD students YongQi Cong, Nila Fadhila, Linli Zhou, Anna Sach, Lidya Yurdum, and Changyu Jing, postdocs Roza Kamilogu, Maien Sachisthal and Elisa Militaru, as well as MSc students from the Social Psychology and Research Master programs.