Health psychologist Aleksandrina Skvortsova has made clever use of the Pavlov effect to link the ‘cuddle’ hormone oxytocin with the placebo effect. This effect can alter the level of oxytocin in the body, making it possible for people to reduce the amount of medicine they need while still feeling good.…

PhD Defence

What is the role of stress and stress-related hormones in emotion regulation?

Here I propose to study the relationship between autonomic pupil-synchronisation and trust, at the behavioural and neural level, and examine a targeted set of possible contextual moderators.

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Oxidation is a common degradation pathway that affects therapeutic proteins and peptides during production, purification, formulation, transportation, storage and handling of solid and liquid preparations. In the present work we review the scientific literature about structural and biological consequences…

Lecture

The major aim is to unravel the central mechanisms of how peoples’ expectancies affect physical symptoms, immune and endocrine responses, and related health outcomes, through the use of pioneering multidisciplinary methods in experimental studies in healthy and clinical populations.

During the 76th American Psychosomatic Society conference in Louisville, Kentucky from 7-10 march 2018 Aleksandrina Skvortsova was awarded with one of the APS Scholar Awards. Stefanie Meeuwis was honored to present her poster in the APS Citation Poster session

During the 2019 Health, Medical and Neuropsychology Christmas lunch, several staff members and research (student) assistants were awarded.

Everyone benefits when cooperation runs smoothly However, people often act obstructively. Why do they do that? Professor of Social Psychology Carsten de Dreu researches this issue using a wide variety of methods, from brain scans to the role of religion. Inaugural lecture 7 October.

Just imagine: you see someone being treated unfairly. Do you find it more rewarding to help the victim or punish the perpetrator? Research by Leiden psychologist Mirre Stallen indicates that punishing is more rewarding. Publication in JNeurosci.

Researchers at Leiden study group behaviour. One of their findings is that when people make sacrifices for another member of their group, it is probably instinctive. Insights of this kind enable us to better understand and influence the social processes in a neighbourhood or company.