Magazine staff

Joop van der Pligt

Joop van der Pligt is a full professor of Social Psychology. His research focuses on risk perception and the acceptability of risks. Both health-related risks, as well as large scale societal risks recieved considerable attention in his research. Together with Frenk van Harreveld he studied causes and consequences of attitudinal ambivalence. His research also addresses risk communication and its impact on both the acceptability of risk and behavioral change.

Charikleia Lampraki

Charikleia is Editor for Developmental Psychology (Adulthood & Aging) and Head of Blog at the English version of In-Mind. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Geneva, specializing in lifespan developmental psychology, and specifically in (older) adulthood. She is also the scientific officer of the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Life Course Research LIVES. Her work focuses on the psychological processes that underlie resilience, adaptation, and identity development in the context of major life transitions, including bereavement, family reconfiguration, and aging-related sensory decline. She is particularly interested in loneliness, social connectedness, and their cognitive and emotional consequences, with a growing emphasis on the role of digital environments and identity tensions. Her research is methodologically grounded in longitudinal modeling, multilevel analysis, and large-scale secondary data, particularly from international datasets such as SHARE.

Brian Meier

Mary Ortega

Mary C. Ortega is a Ph.D. candidate in Media & Communication at Texas Tech University. Her research examines digital culture, public discourse on social platforms, media representation, and radical feminism. She has presented work on Latina identity, fatphobia in film, and platform governance. As a former journalist and communications professional, she also teaches public relations and media writing.  

Lieke Braadbaart

Dr. Lieke Braadbaart obtained her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, investigating the neural correlates of complex manual and facial imitation using fMRI, and how these correlates might differ in young people with autism. Previous to this she had finished a BA in Liberal Arts & Sciences at Maastricht University, focusing on Social Science, after which she completed an MSc in Social Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Aberdeen, whereby her research on the imitation mechanisms at work during simultaneous EEG-fMRI resulted in her first two first-author publications.

Chiara Pecini

Chiara Pecini is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Education Sciences at the University of Genoa. Her main research interests concern gender-based violence and the sexual objectification of women in interpersonal relationships.

Julia Rohrer

Julia is a PhD student at the International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course in Berlin, investigating the determinants of well-being across the life course. She received her Master's degree in Psychology from the University of Leipzig in 2016. She is currently an associate editor for In-Mind and manages the research participation section. You can follow her on twitter @dingding_peng.

Brittney Holcomb

I am a 4th year student in the Idaho State University Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program. I fall under a cognitive-behavioral, with emphasis on behavioral, theoretical orientation in both my clinical and research interests. However, I consider my clinical theoretical orientation to be a bit more integrated. My research interests center around impulsive behavioral choice patterns and conditions that influence these patterns. My dissertation explores sexual arousal as a potential influence on the extent of impulsivity in decision making patterns of college men. This summer I will begin my internship at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, in which I will work with adult male incarcerated offenders. I expect to primarily conduct assessments with these individuals, which is consistent with my professional goals. 

Jay Van Bavel

Jay Van Bavel is an Associate Professor of Psychology & Neural Science at New York University, an affiliate at the Stern School of Business in Management and Organizations, and Director of the Social Perception and Evaluation Lab. He completed his PhD at the University of Toronto and a postdoctoral fellowship at The Ohio State University before joining the faculty at NYU in 2010. From neurons to social networks, Jay’s research examines how collective concerns—group identities, moral values, and political beliefs—shape the mind and brain. This research has received several awards, including the Young Investigator Award for distinguished contributions in social neuroscience from the Society for Social Neuroscience, the Young Scholars Award for outstanding achievements in social and personality psychology from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science. You can follow Jay on Twitter @jayvanbavel

Hansika Kapoor

Dr. Hansika Kapoor is Research Author at the Department of Psychology, Monk Prayogshala. Having completed her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, she has completed her PhD from IIT, Bombay in the area of creativity. Her research interests lie in cognitive science, social psychology, and gender studies.