Today felt like a first day at school! My coffee mug on a brand new desk. Feeling nostalgic for having said goodbye to friends and colleagues at Leiden University, but very excited about the new opportunities and adventures that this new post will bring.
Exciting new collaboration
This summer I had the pleasure of welcoming Efraín García-Sánchez to our lab. He is a PhD student at the University of Granada, supervised by Profs. Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón and Guillermo Willis. Efraín has an interest in understanding the legitimization of economic inequality and researches how people map their perceptions of the ideal level of inequality in society to their perceptions of the existing level of inequality (naturalistic fallacy). During his research stay, Efraín and I analyzed and interpreted studies that he had conducted earlier this year and outlined several research papers. In addition, we worked on a large-scale multi-level analysis including publicly available data from over forty countries to replicate previous research findings from the Spanish context. I was impressed by how quickly he acquired this new technique and was able to put it to use. Efraín's research is novel and exciting and I couldn't have wished for a more fun and productive collaboration! Looking forward to continuing our work together
See this paper for earlier work on this topic: Willis, G. B., Rodríguez-Bailón, R., López-Rodríguez, L., & García-Sánchez, E. (2015). Legitimacy moderates the relationship between perceived and ideal inequalities. Social Justice Research, 28, 493-508.
ISPP 2016 - Warsaw
The International Society of Political Psychology held their annual conference in Warsaw this year, what a great pick! Thoroughly enjoyed spending time in this city and catching up with colleagues and friends.
Getting to know each other in Utrecht
On June 22, those affiliated with the lab groups of Naomi Ellemers and Belle Derks met to get to know each other and their research. A wonderful way to get acquainted with the people I will be working with from September 1st on.
The Martinus J. Langeveld building at Utrecht University
An Introduction to R
I took my first steps in the world of R thanks to the 3-day KLI workshop “An Introduction to R” and the competent lecturing of Willem Sleegers and Dalya Semur.
Another successful PhD defense!
Today, Marlon Mooijman successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled "On the determinants and consequences of punishment goals: The role of power, distrust, and rule compliance" at Leiden University. My intelligent and critical questioning as opponent on his committee didn't throw him off one bit!
Summary
This dissertation focuses on the determinants and consequences of leaders’ punishment goals. I investigate how and why leaders rely on certain punishment goals, and how and why leaders’ reliance on such punishment goals affects punishment effectiveness. Specifically, in this dissertation I demonstrate that—with increasing power over others—leaders rely more on punishment goals that are actually suboptimal in promoting rule compliance. I demonstrate that power fosters a distrustful mindset towards people, which increases reliance on deterrence—but not just deserts as a punishment goal. Using deterrence—as opposed to just deserts—as a justification for punishments, in turn, decreases people’s willingness to comply with rules because they feel distrusted by the leader. Finally, leaders' reliance on suboptimal punishment goals can be explained by their motivation to maintain power over others. Although power may thus increase leaders’ reliance on punishments to deter rule-breaking behavior, paradoxically, this may at times decrease the effectiveness of the punishment.
Doing Gender in the Netherlands
I attended the annual research day of The Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies (NOG), which was themed ‘Doing Gender in The Netherlands: TRANS* approaches, methods & concepts.’ The conference showcased the work of junior and senior researchers of Dutch universities on the topics of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and diversity. All in all, a very inspiring day with a really interesting mix of scholars, artists and activists.
Aspasia Travel Grant
I was awarded a competitive Aspasia Travel Grant by Leiden University to initiate and enhance collaborative research projects abroad!
This subsidy is a by-product of the Aspasia Grant from the The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), which is aimed at furthering the careers of young female scientists.
With the help of this travel grant, I will be visiting the lab of Prof. Dr. Betsy Paluck at Princeton University later this year.
Knowledge Platform Integration & Society: Done with Discrimination?
Combatting discrimination is high on the agenda in the Netherlands. To this end, Knowledge Platform Integration & Society (KIS) investigated whether the use of social media campaigns can reduce discrimination. This resulted in a literature review, to which I provided an expert contribution, entitled (translated) “Done with discrimination? Research into the effectiveness of social media campaigns against discrimination”.
The full literature review by Felten, Taouanza, and Keuzenkamp can be found here (in Dutch): “Klaar met Discriminatie?”.
Image Credit: https://www.kis.nl/publicatie/klaar-met-discriminatie
The Morality of Inequality - A multidisciplinary, international workshop
From 9-13 May 2016, my colleagues Naomi Ellemers, Belle Derks, Daan Scheepers, Félice van Nunspeet and Frank Hindriks organized a multidisciplinary, international workshop on the Morality of Inequality. Bringing together perspectives from psychology, philosophy, economics, law, epidemiology and sociology, we spent a full week at the Lorentz center in Leiden to develop a detailed outline of a book in which societal problems relating to inequality are approached from a moral perspective. A week of discussion and integration setting the stage for lasting collaboration.
The workshop participants: Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett, Belle Derks, Maddy Power, Félice van Nunspeet, Naomi Ellemers, Irene van Staveren, Neelke Doorn, Jojanneke van der Toorn, Joseph Heath, Piet Groot, Gwen van Eijk, Servaas Storm, Pauline Kleingeld, Fran Hindriks, Sabine Roeser, Daan Scheepers (not in picture).
Fruitful discussions
And a boat trip on the Kaag
