dr. K.E. (Kees) Keizer

Social Influence - 3de Year - Block 1b - Part of University Minor
The environment, the economy, the spread of Corona virus, your partner not putting the cap on your toothpaste. Most important problems entail human behavior, either as a cause, a solution or both. This raises the question: "How can you motivate people to engage in certain behaviors?" A handgun, a two million Euro incentive, or a set of great arguments will do the trick but we will focus on situations in which you have non of these.

In order to answer this question regarding persuasion and influence, many others arise: "Why are some campaigns effective in motivating people and others not? To what extent does the setting influence the effectiveness of compliance requests? Why is “playing hard to get” sometimes effective? How did TellSell convince me into buying the Huggy? Together we will answer these questions and many more.
In this course you’ll learn how people’s beliefs, and actions are influenced by others. You will be introduced to various theories, principles and studies that give insight in how you can use people’s need for affiliation, accuracy and a positive self-concept to persuade them.

This (interactive) course is focused at both theory development and practical application.

Learning goals
Students who participated in this course will..
..know and understand relevant theories and empirical evidence in the field of Social influence,
..be able to see the various theories in relation to each other, in that they can name key similarities and differences.
..be able to recognize and name social influence tactics used in media,
marketing, interventions.
..be able to evaluate and construct social influence tactics in the field, based on the theories and principles or combinations of those.

Applying psychological theories in practice - 2de Year - Block 2a
The course focuses on the application of social-psychological theories, interventions and methods to understand and manage various social problems. In a series of lectures, we first describe important problems in different social fields. Next, it is analysed which behaviours are important in that field and which factors influence these behaviours. Finally, it is demonstrated how behaviour in that field can be changed by means of interventions. Among others, the following social fields are discussed: environment (promoting pro-environmental behaviour), health (smoking, safe sex), traffic and transport (aggression in traffic, traffic safety), economic behaviour (gambling behaviour), consumer behaviour (the influence of media and advertising), diversity, and social changes in developing countries (the effects of ICT). A short overview is given of the application of relevant theories and interventions and of types of applied research. In addition, we discuss different research methods, including survey research, correlational research, quasi-experimental research, experimental research and evaluation research.

Learning goals
After attending this course, students can:
- explain how people’s perceptions and behaviour affect different societal problems,
- analyse how human behaviour is influenced by individual factors and by the physical and social environment,
- discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different research methods that can be used to investigate societal problems,
- apply psychological theories and methods to explain existing interventions for societal problems,
- produce theory-based psychological interventions aimed at changing people’s perceptions and behaviour to reduce societal problems.

Research supervision
I supervise bachelor and master theses and internships on the following topics:  

• Social influence
• Consumer behavior  
• Social norms and behavior  
• Pro-social and unethical behavior
• Situational influence on behavior and decission making
• Social design and architecture
• Nudging