معرفی
Astrid Fokkema is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Communication and Cognition at the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Tilburg University, and a lecturer at Fontys University of Applied Sciences where she teaches (market) research and academic skills.
Education:
- Research Masters in Linguistics and Communication Sciences (2023)
- Masters in North America Studies (2013)
- Masters in European Union Studies (2013)
Dr. Fokkema specializes in gendered communication, particularly examining how cognitive biases influence the perception and experience of interactions such as mansplaining. Her research combines experimental methods, behavioral observations, and self-report data to explore the subtle dynamics of unsolicited explanations, interruptions, and authority in conversation. With expertise spanning both academic research and practical education, she investigates not only who explains more often but also how those explanations are interpreted differently based on gender. Her work provides valuable insights into how stereotypes and expectations shape communication patterns in both everyday and professional settings.
Her recent publication analyzes mansplaining through the lenses of the better-than-average effect and interpretation bias, offering empirical evidence to give mansplaining its proper conceptual grounding in communication theories. This research represents an important contribution to understanding communication biases and similar phenomena.
Dr. Fokkema leads an NWO-funded project titled "Bias is in the eye of the beholder? How mansplaining can help us better understand miscommunication and the perception of bias" running from 2024 through 2030 as principal investigator. Her work has received media attention including coverage in Volkskrant, a VSR podcast, and NPO Radio1.
She is scheduled to participate in the Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap conference in February 2025 and has created replication data for her research available through DataverseNL.
