Postdoc: Trust, Cooperation and Adapt

Are you a researcher with a background in social psychology (or related areas) and interested in new approaches to research on trust and human cooperation, especially as they relate to collective threats or crises? Join our team!

Your job

As part of the Gravitation project Adapt!, we are looking for a postdoc researcher who will conduct and facilitate research on trust, cooperation, and adaptation to crises.

For crisis responses to be successful, people, groups of people, and societal institutions need to act in ways that promote (often longer-term) collective interests. The project examines what people, groups of people, and societal institutions can do to respond in adaptive ways to increase trust and cooperation. This includes issues such as various forms of punishment, direct versus indirect, punishment by individuals or collectives, that can help to ensure a sufficient level of trust and cooperation. The project will involve experimental studies as well as one or more field studies.

Your duties

You will have the following tasks and responsibilities:

• coordinate and conduct research within the period of appointment
• contribute to teaching, both (guest) lecturing and supervision of research master students
• write (and co-write) peer-reviewed journal articles
• present research results at national and international workshops and conferences;
• help with the organization of events, workshop, and conferences
• participate in project meetings and collaborate with the other team members
• assist with knowledge dissemination and other activities of Adapt!

Your profile

• Your qualities
• a completed PhD in social psychology or related social or behavioral science or a PhD manuscript formally approved by supervisors.
• expertise in interdisciplinary topics related to trust and human cooperation and how they may help reduce or solve collective or societal problems.
• expertise in conducting experimental research, survey research, and ideally innovative methods such as experience-sampling.
• ideally you have a fluency in Dutch and English.
• strong interpersonal, analytical and organizational skills.

As a university, we strive for equal opportunities for all, recognising that diversity takes many forms. We believe that diversity in all its complexity is invaluable for the quality of our teaching, research and service. We are always looking for talent with diverse backgrounds and experiences. This also means that we are committed to creating an inclusive community so that we can use diversity as an asset.

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not meet all the requirements.

What do we offer?

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of minimum € 3.378,00 (Scale 10) and maximum € 5.331,00 (Scale 10) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile Researcher 4. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• a position for at least 0.8 FTE. Your employment contract will initially last 1 year. Afterwards, the possibility of expansion exists.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package
• discounts on collective insurances (healthcare- and car insurance);

About us

About the department, institute, project

The postdoc will be positioned at the Department of Experimental and Social Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

About Adapt!

Adapt! is a team of researchers from different universities. Our goal? Building knowledge and expertise to help prepare societies for future crises.

The open society is increasingly threatened by crises such as pandemics, terrorism, floods, and earthquakes. The future of the open society depends on its adaptability to prepare for future crises. Adapt! investigates the role of cultural, social, and governmental capabilities of a society in building an effective and legitimate response to crises. Together with citizens and frontline professionals, the Adapt! consortium will translate research findings into tools and strategies that help societies navigate through crises.

Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences
Developing knowledge for an active, healthy and meaningful life: that is our mission at the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences at VU Amsterdam. We maintain a broad focus on the fields of behaviour and health. Our teaching and research programmes are devoted to current developments in society. From healthy aging to e-health, and from training top athletes to social media as a teaching tool. We combine three academic disciplines: psychology, movement sciences and education. A multidisciplinary approach allows us to arrive at a better understanding of human behaviour and movement. Our aims are to help people live healthier lives, learn better and function better.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research.

Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of VU Amsterdam. VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.

We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research and our services.

Therefore, we are always searching for people whose backgrounds and experience contribute to the diversity of the VU community.