Our Team
dr. Ruud Hortensius – Principle Investigator
After a BSc in in Social Work, he completed a BSc in Psychology (cum laude) and an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience at Utrecht University (NL). In 2016, he obtained his PhD cum laude from Tilburg University (NL). Before joining Utrecht University as an assistant professor, he travelled around the (academic) world as a postdoc at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), Bangor University (Wales), and the University of Glasgow (Scotland). His research and teaching focusses on social cognition in the age of the algorithm. Using a social neuroscience perspective he tries to answer the question how real interactions with people, robots, and AI, affect everyday social cognition?
Ronja Fiona Held – PhD candidate
Ronja obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology followed by a Research Master’s degree in Social and Economic Psychology from Leiden University. Currently, she works as a PhD candidate at Utrecht University under the supervision of Dr. Ruud Hortensius. Throughout her academic journey, she developed an interest in the complex dynamics within and between groups. As a result, she specialized further in physiological synchrony that arises during dyadic interactions. Additionally, she developed an affinity for using economic games to study social behavior. In her current Ph.D. research, she investigates the long-term effect of the presence of an artificial agent at home on the social dynamics of families using fNIRS
Aline Moore Lorusso – Research Assistant
Aline is originally coming from Rome. But apparently for her not “all road lead to Rome” since after high school, she decided to move away to complete a BSc in Psychology (with distinction) at Tilburg University. She is currently working as a research assistant at Utrecht University while completing the Social and Health Psychology Research MSc at the same university. As part of her thesis, she is working along with Ruud and Zsuzsa to shed some light on the underlying mechanisms that might explain why people believe in conspiracy theories and what role social media might play in it. Her interest in Psychology is manifold although her fascination with conspiracy theories (for research purposes only of course) is growing more and more, and after her MSc, she would like to pursue a PhD which ideally would go in that direction.