The idea that socially anxious people avoid eye contact because they are not interested in other people needs to be changed. They take their information from other physical sources, such as people's hands. This is the finding of Leiden psychologist Mariska Kret whose research has been published in…

Are there any differences in gaze behavior between high and low socially anxious individuals? What factors influence the relation between social anxiety and gaze behavior?

Empathic or anxious mistakes? A neurocognitive investigation of the development of social performance monitoring in youth growing up in stressful versus non-stressful environments

Can positive peer feedback break the cycle of negative self-relevant cognitive processes and reduce self-reported anxiety in early adolescents?

The Developmental and Educational Psychology unit nominated Jiemiao Chen's paper

Our team consists of the following members.

From basic science to real-world interventions

Can a virtual character’s friendly non-verbal responses stimulate eye-contact in individuals with varying levels of social anxiety?

Why does social anxiety increase in adolescence and how does it grow out of control in some adolescents?

What is the relation between the experience and the act of exclusion?

What are the developmental pathways to social anxiety (disorder), the causal processes and maintaining factors? How do these factors interact in the development of social anxiety disorder? How can this knowledge be used to design and implement effective preventive intervention programs for youth?

Loneliness and social isolation have become a significant problem in contemporary Japan. The financial burden associated with an ageing population has severely constrained the ability of local authorities to address the problem. As a result, policymakers have sought cost‐effective methods of tackling…

Negative perceptions of ambiguous social cues, social performance and physical arousal in socially anxious youth

Parents may pass anxiety onto their offspring by exposing them to anxious behaviors in novel situations. Just as the parents’ anxious signals lead to anxiety, parents’ confident signals can ward off anxiety in the offspring. This project is seeking a new way to break anxiety transmission in the family…

The consequences of social tendencies for the legislation and institutions in the fields of social security, the labor market policy and pension reform are examined in this multdisciplinary research program..

Meet the people behind the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) programme.

The Social Citizenship and Migration group is formed by a diverse group of researchers from different faculties (Governance and Global Affairs, Law, Humanities, and Social Science) within Leiden University.

After receiving positive feedback from peers, socially anxious young people feel as confident about themselves as their non-anxious counterparts. 'These young people are then able to handle new social situations more confidently,’ says Leiden psychologist Anne Miers. Her research is published in the…

The heritage of Indigenous Peoples has long been researched and commented upon from the outside. This book adopts an innovative approach by engaging with the heritage of Indigenous Peoples from the ‘inside’.

The Cell Observatory is run by several people some of which have multiple roles. To identify whom to contact for what issue please refer to the list below

... examines how different motives stemming from people’s interdependencies and social identities influence decision making in social contexts.

This thesis, conducted in the framework of ERC Starting grant project BABYLON (PI: Caroline Waerzeggers), presents an investigation into Babylonian society, focusing on the city of Borsippa during Neo-Babylonian and early Persian rule (c. 620-484 BCE).

The MultiGreen project is a collaboration with NWO and CAS. The partners from the Dutch NWO side are the University of Leiden and University Wageningen. The partner from the Chinese CAS is the Institute of Urban Environment and the Institute of Geographic Sciences.

The language learning resource centre unites all language teaching professionals working at Leiden University: teachers and researchers at the LUCL, ATC, LUCAS, LIAS, and ICLON. You can find a list of them, ordered by language and/or role, in the menu on the left.

LIAS is comprised of three research schools with expertise in different areas:

Overview of the Leiden Asia staff per area or country.

This dissertation takes an important step in understanding the phenomenon of non-take-up of social support and what it means for contemporary social policies.

This is the team of the Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic.

The research team

Why do some children confront social challenges with confidence, whereas others experience difficulties? What is the role of child temperament and child emotional dispositions? What is the role of parenting? This project aims to shed light on the mechanisms explaining shyness and confidence in response…

The Brain and Education lab is a research group in the Institute of Education and Child Studies at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Our group is embedded in the Educational Sciences research program and the Leiden Institute of Brain and Cognition.

A neurobiological perspective on individual differences in social competence

The studies outlined in this volume explore how connectedness continues to change Africa and how Africa continues to shape the social life of connections.

Many children experience trauma and if they are unable to deal with it properly, it can have a huge personal and societal effect. Building resilience in vulnerable children and young people should therefore have the highest priority. This is the message of Anne-Laura van Harmelen, Professor of Brain,…

Humans are fundamentally a social species, rather than individualists.

Do you have to be able to say everything on Twitter and Facebook? Is Instagram morally obliged to remove photos from attacks? Should we allow the terrorist group to recruit new members on the internet?

Graduate School of Humanities on Social Media

Keeping in touch with others will benefit your studies and work.

There are several ways to stay up to date via social media.

Meet the people of our team.

Indigenous Peoples possess rich worldviews and unique knowledge that form part of our global heritage. Oppressing these peoples and violating their natural environment is leading to the destruction of this knowledge. Leiden researchers aim to counter this through collaborating with Indigenous Peoples…

The [A]Social Creatures Lab is an interdisciplinary research lab that focuses on understanding social interaction with and between artificial creatures. Researchers and students from the Media Technology group collaborate in it.

The [A]Social Creatures Lab is an interdisciplinary research lab that focuses on understanding social interaction with and between artificial creatures. Researchers and students from the Media Technology group collaborate in it.

These people at Leiden University are active in the area of artificial intelligence.

The [a]social creatures lab focusses on understanding social interaction with and between artificial creatures.

The [a]social creatures lab focusses on understanding social interaction with and between artificial creatures.

Social Citizenship & Migration (SCM) is one of the two pillars within the Leiden University programme Citizenship and Global Transformations. The latter is one of the eight interdisciplinary programmes launched by Leiden University in 2020. The Social Citizenship & Migration pillar is led by the Faculties…

Serious forms of anxiety concerning other people’s opinions can hinder teenagers at school in social interactions or carrying out tasks. Psychologist Anne Miers is looking for ways to reduce this so-called ‘social anxiety’.

The Heritage and rights of indigenous peoples focuses on the living heritage of indigenous peoples and its safeguarding, connecting the past and the present in local communities.

This interdisciplinary research project explores several adaptive machine learning methods which can give insight into the interaction between human and machine. The ultimate goal is open and natural communication between humans and AI that should result in mutual trust, cooperation and coordination…