My research

I am a social psychologist by training and currently work as a behaviour scientist at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, more specifically the Competence Centre on Behavioural Insights, which is part of the EU Policy Lab. Our goal is to support EU policy-making by providing evidence on human behaviour. We conduct research in various policy areas. In this capacity, I have worked on misinformation, crisis preparedness and response, vaccine hesitancy and acceptance, nutritional labelling, and food waste, among other topics.

IAS fellowship

At the IAS, I will explore how citizens deal with the uncertainty that crisis events create, and how a potentially increased presence of misinformation affects beliefs and opinions.

The risk landscape in the EU is changing. New threats have emerged such as Covid19 and the war in Ukraine. Additionally, accelerating climate change leads to an increase in extreme weather events and natural disasters such as droughts, wildfires, floods, and landslides. In February 2023, the Commission adopted five goals to “act as a strategic compass” in raising disaster and crisis resilience (2023/C56/01). One of these goals is to increase the population’s risk awareness and preparedness.

During the Covid19 crisis, we have seen an influx of misinformation, a so-called “infodemic” making it difficult for people to find reliable guidance when they need it (WHO). Disinformation is a threat to European democracies and in June 2022, the EC has established a strengthened Code of Practice. A transparency centre was launched in February 2023, providing insights and data on online disinformation. My research question connects these two relevant working areas: counteracting disinformation and raising society's disaster resilience.