Lotte van Dillen

Lotte van Dillen is a Professor of Social Cognition and Decision Making at Leiden University's Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology department under the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. She also serves as researcher at the Knowledge Center for Psychology and Economic Behavior (KCPEG) and member of the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC). As Director of Research, she is part of the Psychology Institute's executive board. Her work focuses on how affect influences decision-making across health, legal, and financial contexts, emphasizing limited mental capacity's role in perception and behavior.

Education:

• Master's degrees in Social Psychology and Cognitive Psychology (cum laude), University of Amsterdam (2004)
• PhD in Psychology from VU University Amsterdam (2008, cum laude)
• Postdoctoral research at Utrecht University and New York University

Research Interests: Examines interactions between affect and cognition in decision-making, including attention's role in consumption, moral judgments, and financial decisions. Current projects include distracted eating's effects on health, non-uptake of social welfare benefits, and neuropsychological mechanisms of hedonic compensation.

Grants & Funding:

• €400k NWO grant (2023) for research on distractions and dietary habits
• Police and Science Program funding for camera evidence analysis studies
• Multiple ODISSEI-LISS grants (2020) on consumption patterns and welfare uptake

Teaching: Lectures on decision-making at Leiden's BSc/MSc psychology programs and advises legislators/judiciary via Academie voor Wetgeving and Studiecentrum voor Rechtspleging.

Labs/Teams: Affiliated with KCPEG and LIBC, collaborating on interdisciplinary projects combining psychology, neuroscience, and policy applications.