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I am a comparative psychologist specializing in social cognition. Currently I work as an Assistant Professor at the Animal Behaviour and Cognition Group of Utrecht University (NL). My research mainly focuses on the proximate mechanisms underlying animal social relations, with special interest in emotions and (their role in) cooperative and prosocial behaviours. For that I use both observational and experimental approaches. Moreover, to put my studies in an evolutionary perspective, I employ a broad comparative approach, focusing on a variety of primate and bird species.

About me

News

Ethology, Volume 126, Issue 2, Special Issue:

Studying the Evolution of Cooperation and Prosociality in Birds

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New Paper in iScience

Jan 12th 

2024

Using a set of non-invasive measures, together with Debottam Bhattacharjee, Lena Pflüger, Natasha de Groot and several others we showed: Behavioral, physiological, and genetic drivers of coping in a non-human primate

New Project

Jan 2024

I'm very pleased to announce that we are starting a new project on the social lives and cooperative abilities of Rüppell's vultures, with Eva van Dijk as PhD candidate / PI on this project

New Paper in iScience

April 20th 2023

Using a group-service paradigm, my post doc Debottam Bhattacharjee, showed that the highly despotic Japanese macaque can be prosocial too!!

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