Joop van der Pligt

Professional profile

I graduated from the University of Utrecht where I obtained degrees in Psychology and Philosophy in 1977. From there I moved to London University where I received my PhD in 1981. After that I joined the Free University of Amsterdam, followed by a return to the UK where I joined the Psychology Department of Exeter University. In the early 1980’s I returned to the Free University as an associate professor and ran the social science section of the Institute of Environmental Studies. In 1985 I moved to the University of Amsterdam as Professor of Experimental Social Psychology. Initially I was director of the Social Psychology Program; later I served as dean of the Psychology Department. From 1999 I served six years as a director of the Psychology Research Institute of the University of Amsterdam. In 2006 I returned to  the Social Psychology Department.

My research focuses on attitudes and decision-making. My current work on attitudes (and that of colleagues and students with whom I collaborate) focuses on the role of affect in attitude formation and change, ambivalence, and on how people deal with counter-attitudinal information. My research on decision making deals with the role of (anticipated) emotions in decision-making, perceived risk and the acceptability of risk, and the consequences of uncertainty and (lack of) control on judgment and decision-making.

In addition to empirical work on basic processes in attitudes and decision-making my research also addresses more applied issues such as the perceived risks of technological developments, dietary behavior, compliance, intergroup relations, fundamentalism and terrorism, and risk and insurance.

I served as a consultant for a variety of national science foundations and was a panelist on committees on issues such as global change, gambling behavior, sustainable development, terrorism, driving behavior, food safety, and high security prisons.

Sample Publications

• Rutjens, B. T., van der Pligt, J., & van Harreveld, F. (2009). Things will get better: The anxiety-buffering qualities of progressive hope. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 535-543.
• van Harreveld, F., Rutjens, B.T., Rotteveel, M., Nordgren, L.F., & van der Pligt, J. (2009). Ambivalence and decional conflict as a cause of psychological discomfort: Feeling tense before jumping off the fence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 167-173.
• van Harreveld, F., van der Pligt, J.,& de Liver, Y. (2009). The agony of ambivalence and ways to solve it: Introducing the MAID model. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13, 45-61.
  
• de Liver, Y. N., van der Pligt, J., & Wigboldus, D. H. J. (2007). Positive and negative associationsunderlying ambivalent attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,43, 319-326.
• de Liver, Y. N., van der Pligt, J., & Wigboldus, D. H. J. (2005). Unpacking attitudes towards genetically modified food. Appetite, 45, 242-249.
  
• van der Pligt, J. (2002). Cognition and affect in risk perception and risky decision-making. In C. von Hofsten & L. Bäckman (Eds.) Psychology at the turn of the millennium, Social, developmental, and clinical perspectives, Vol. 2, pp. 247-270. Hove, England: Psychology Press.
• van der Pligt, J., de Vries, N.K., Manstead, A.S.R., & van Harreveld, F. (2000). The importance of being selective: Weighing the role of attribute importance in attitudinal judgment. In M.P. Zanna (Ed.) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 32, 135-200.
• Zeelenberg, M., van Dijk, W.W., Manstead, A.S.R., & van der Pligt, J. (2000). On bad decisions and disconfirmed expectancies: The psychology of regret and disappointment. Cognition and Emotion, 14, 521-541.