Staff profile

Welcome

Research interests summary

I am a social and developmental psychologist interested in uncovering and testing effective strategies for promoting prosocial behaviours and reducing prejudice and discrimination. My research employs experimental, cross-sectional, and longitudinal methods and lab-based and field-based studies to further develop our understanding of prosociality and prejudice. My approach is to understand not just the processes at work but also the practical steps for intervention. In particular I am interested in employing research to help advance the effectiveness of public and civil sector endeavours.

Short biography

• 2018-present: Assistant Professor in quantitative social psychology, Durham University
• 2016-2018: Lecturer in psychology, University of Lincoln
• 2012-2016: ESRC-funded PhD in moral emotions and prosocial behaviour, University Kent, supervised by Professor Dominic Abrams
• 2011-2012: MSc in Social and Applied Psychology, University of Kent
• 2007-2010: BSc Psychology, University of Kent

• Arts engagement
• Behaviour change
• Good relations
• Intergroup contact
• Moral emotion
• Prejudice
• Pro-environmental behaviour
• Prosocial behaviour
• Social identity and intergroup and intragroup dynamics
• Social identity of health (particularly chronic illness)

• 2020: Early Career Award, Social Psychology Section, British Psychological Society:

Chapter in book

• Van de Vyver, J., & Abrams, D. (2017). Promoting third-party prosocial behaviour: The potential of moral emotions. In E. Van Leeuwen, & H. Zagefka (Eds.), Intergroup helping. Springer Verlag
• Abrams, D., Powell, C., Palmer, S., & Van de Vyver, J. (2017). Toward a contextualized social developmental account of children?s group dynamics: The developmental model of subjective group dynamics. In A. Rutland, D. Nesdale, & C. Spears Brown (Eds.), The Wiley Handbook of Group Processes in Children and Adolescents (124-143). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118773123.ch6
• Van de Vyver, J., Travaglino, G., Vasiljevic, M., & Abrams, D. (2015). The group and cultural context of restorative justice: A social psychological perspective. In T. Gavrielides (Ed.), The psychology of restorative justice. Ashgate Publishing

Journal Article

• Watson, R., Morgan, T., Kendal, R., Van de Vyver, J., & Kendal, J. (2024). Investigating the effects of social information on spite in an online game. Evolutionary Human Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2024.18
• Majolo, B., Maréchal, L., Igali, F., & Van de Vyver, J. (2023). Cooperation and group similarity in children and young adults in the UK. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 5, Article e29. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.25
• Weick, M., Couturier, L., Vasiljevic, M., Ross, P., Cory, C., Crisp, R., …Van de Vyver, J. (2022). Building bonds: A pre-registered secondary data analysis examining linear and curvilinear relations between socio-economic status and communal attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 102, Article 104353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104353
• Imada, H., Rullo, M., Hopthrow, T., Van de Vyver, J., & Zagefka, H. (2022). Gossip about in-group and out-group norm deviations. Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology, 6(1-3), 113-133. https://doi.org/10.1080/23743603.2022.2090327
• Van de Vyver, J., Leite, A. C., & Alwan, N. A. (2021). Navigating the social identity of long covid. BMJ, 375, Article n2933. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n2933
• Watson, R., Morgan, T. J., Kendal, R. L., Van de Vyver, J., & Kendal, J. (2021). Social learning strategies and cooperative behaviour: Evidence of payoff bias, but not prestige or conformity, in a social dilemma game. Games, 12(4), Article 89. https://doi.org/10.3390/g12040089
• Park, R., Van de Vyver, J., & Bretherton, R. (2020). The Humble Leader: Understanding Perceptions and Implications of Humility in Leadership. European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, 4, Article 14
• Mahmood, L., Abrams, D., Meleady, R., Hopthrow, T., Lalot, F., Swift, H., & Van de Vyver, J. (2019). Intentions, efficacy, and norms: The impact of different self-regulatory cues on reducing engine idling at long wait stops. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 66, Article 101368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.101368
• Van de Vyver, J., Abrams, D., Spinner, L., Pelletier, J., Ali, S., & Kapantai, I. (2019). Participatory arts interventions promote interpersonal and intergroup prosocial intentions in middle childhood. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 65, Article 101069. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2019.101069
• Player, A., Abrams, D., Van de Vyver, J., Meleady, R., Leite, A., Randsley de Moura, G., & Hopthrow, T. (2018). “We aren’t idlers”: Using subjective group dynamics to promote prosocial driver behavior at long‐wait stops. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 48(11), 643-648. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12554
• Van de Vyver, J., & Abrams, D. (2018). The arts as a catalyst for human prosociality and cooperation. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9(6), 664-674. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617720275
• Van de Vyver, J., Abrams, D., Hopthrow, T., Purewal, K., Randsley de Moura, G., & Meleady, R. (2018). Motivating the selfish to stop idling: Self-interest cues can improve environmentally relevant driver behaviour. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 54, 79-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2018.01.015
• Van de Vyver, J., Leite, A., Abrams, D., & Palmer, S. (2018). Brexit or bremain? A person and social analysis of voting decisions in the EU referendum. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 28(2), 65-79. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2341
• Meleady, R., Abrams, D., Van de Vyver, J., Hopthrow, T., Mahmood, L., Player, A., …Leite, A. (2017). Surveillance or self-surveillance? Behavioral cues can increase the rate of drivers' pro-environmental behavior at a long wait stop. Environment and Behavior, 49(10), 1156-1172. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916517691324
• Abrams, D., Van de Vyver, J., Houston, D., & Vasiljevic, M. (2017). Does terror defeat contact? Intergroup contact and prejudice toward Muslims before and after the London bombings. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 23(3), 260-268. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000167
• Van de Vyver, J., & John, P. (2017). A field experiment: Testing the potential of norms for achieving behavior change in English parishes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 47(6), 347-352. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12443
• Abrams, D., Palmer, S., Van de Vyver, J., Hayes, D., Delaney, K., Guarella, S., & Purewal, K. (2017). Adolescents' judgments of doubly deviant peers: Implications of intergroup and intragroup dynamics for disloyal and overweight group members. Social Development, 26(2), 310-328. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12187
• Van de Vyver, J., & Abrams, D. (2016). Is moral elevation an approach-oriented emotion?. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(2), 178-185. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1163410
• Van de Vyver, J., Houston, D., Abrams, D., & Vasiljevic, M. (2016). Boosting belligerence: How the July 7, 2005, London bombings affected Liberals' moral foundations and prejudice. Psychological Science, 27(2), 169-177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615615584
• Abrams, D., Van de Vyver, J., Pelletier, J., & Cameron, L. (2015). Children's prosocial behavioural intentions towards outgroup members. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 33(3), 277-294. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12085
• Van de Vyver, J., & Abrams, D. (2015). Testing the prosocial effectiveness of the prototypical moral emotions: Elevation increases benevolent behaviors and outrage increases justice behaviors. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 58, 23-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2014.12.005
• Abrams, D., Houston, D., Van de Vyver, J., & Vasiljevic, M. (2015). Equality hypocrisy, inconsistency, and prejudice: The unequal application of the universal human right to equality. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 21(1), 28-46. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000084
• Abrams, D., Palmer, S., Rutland, A., Cameron, L., & Van de Vyver, J. (2014). Evaluations of and reasoning about normative and deviant ingroup and outgroup members: development of the black sheep effect. Developmental Psychology, 50(1), 258-270. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032461

Other (Print)

• Van de Vyver, J., & Crisp, R. (2019). Crossing Divides: The friends who are good for your brain

Report

• Van de Vyver, J., & Leite, A. (2019). Story-telling and Prejudice: A practical indirect intervention for reducing prejudice against Asylum Seekers and Refugees among adults in the UK. [No known commissioning body]
• Van de Vyver, J., & Abrams, D. (2017). Community connectedness through the arts. [No known commissioning body]
• Broadwood, J., Bunting, C., Andrews, T., Abrams, D., & Van de Vyver, J. (2012). Arts and kindness. [No known commissioning body]