My research focuses on emotions, in particular on how other persons influence our emotions over and above the emotional stimulus itself and how emotions influence our behaviours.  My projects include group-based emotions;  perspective taking and intergroup conflicts particularli in situations of disadvantaged groups, the rise of prejudice and discriminationcross-cultural psychology.

I completed my psychology training at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Before starting my PhD, I worked as an RA at the University of Amsterdam at the faculty of Social Dentristy on compliance in periodontology. My PhD thesis was about illusory correlations (perceiving stronger relationships between groups and their behaviours than actually exist; how stereotypes develop). After my PhD completion, I worked for three years as a researcher at the University of Amsterdam and moved then (2003) to Flinders University.