Biography

Training and academic positions: Agneta Fischer graduated in theoretical psychology at Leiden University (cum laude) and obtained her PhD on a dissertation entitled 'Emotion Scripts' at the same University in 1991. Since that year she was employed by the University of Amsterdam at the Department of Social Psychology, where she has held a number of research and teaching positions. From 1998-2003 she held a professorship from the De Beauvoir foundation on Gender and Management. From 2003 onwards she has a Professorship in the department of Social Psychology on Emotions and Affective Processes.

Administrative positions: From 2001-2005 she was leader of the programgroup of Social Psychology. From 2006-2012 she was chair of the Psychology Department at the UvA. From 2012-2018 she was Director of the Psychology Research Institute at the UvA, and from summer 2018 onwards she is acting dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences of the UvA.

National activities: She has been chair of the Dutch Association of Social Psychologists (ASPO) from 2012-2018, and has been a member of the board of the Kurt Lewin Institute from 2007-2013, and she has been member of various different NWO committees. 

International activities: From 2005-2009, she was president of ISRE (International Society of Research on Emotions) and she is co-director of CERE (Consortium of European Emotion Researchers). She was chief-editor of Cognition and Emotion (together with Carien van Reekum) from 2012-2017, and member of the editorial boards of Emotion, Emorion Review, Social Psychology Personality and Science, and the European Review of Social Psychology.

Current research interests

The general theme of my research is the influence of social context on emotion, emotion recognition and emotion regulation. Below I describe four lines of research.

1. Emotional mimicry and contagion. We have shown that emotional mimicry does not occur in all circumstances, but depends on the social context and type of emotion. Together with Ursula Hess, I have proposed a Social Context Model of Emotional Mimicry, in which we argue that in the absence of an affiliative cue or tendency, individuals do not mimic their partners. For that same reason, anger and disgust are less likely to be mimicked, whereas happiness and sadness are most likely to be mimicked. We are currently investigating to what extent people mimic crying, and under what circumstances.

2. Recognition of emotions. Another line of research focuses on the way in which social cues, like status or gender influence the recognition of emotions. To examine this we have developed a new set of emotional faces in our lab (see the ADFES link). We currently examine whether differences in emotion granularity (being able to differentiate between emotions) influences emotion recognition. We also examine (together with Disa Sauter, and YongQi Cong) Dutch recognition of Chinese emotions and vice versa, looking at a range of different emotions, both spontaneous and posed. Finally, we developped an app (EMORECO, to be downloaded from the App store, or Google Play Store) for mobile phones that can help individuals who want to improve their emotion recognition abilities.

3. Interpersonal emotion regulation. Together with Disa Sauter and Lisanne Pauw we work on a project on how individuals regulate each other's emotion. We have some recent publications in Cognition and Emotion on this topic (see publications).

4. Hate, contempt, revenge, humiliation. A fourth line of research is concerned with the social functions of extreme negative emotions, like contempt, and hate. Why do we have them and what are they good for? I just published a review paper on contempt, together with Roger Giner-Sorolla, in Emotion Review. Our PhD student, Liesbeth Mann, just finished a dissertation on humiliation, and Elise Seip completed a PhD thesis on revenge.

A new project (with Jan Willem Duyvendak) funded by the EU (Horizon 2020, DEMOS) has just started and will investigate the role of negative emotions in the development of populism.

Books and edited volumes

Fischer, A.H. (Ed.) (2000). Emotion and gender: Social Psychological Perspectives.London : Cambridge University Press.

Manstead,A.S.R., Frijda, N.H., & Fischer, A.H. (Eds.) (2004). Feelings and Emotions: The Amsterdam Symposium. New York: Cambridge University press.

Parkinson, B., Fischer, A.H., & Manstead, A.S.R. (2005). Emotion in social relations: Cultural, group and interpersonal processes. New York: Psychology Press.

Doosje, B. & Fischer, A. H. (Eds.)(2005). Niet boos, maar teleurgesteld. Emoties in het dagelijks leven . Schiedam: Scriptum.

Fischer, A.H. (2010). De zin en onzin van emoties. Amsterdam: Prometheus. 

Hess, U. & Fischer, A. H. (Eds.) (2016). Emotional Mimicry in Social Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

A selection of publications before 2008

Refereed journals English

Fischer, A.H. (1993). Sex differences in emotionality: Fact or stereotype? Feminism and Psychology, 3 , 303-318.

Fischer, A.H. & Jansz, J. (1995). Emotions and Western personhood. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 25, 59-81.

Timmers, M., Fischer, A.H. & Manstead, A.S.R. (1998). Gender differences in the motives for regulating emotions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 974-986.

Fischer, A., Manstead,A.S.R. & Rodriguez, P.M. (1999). The role of honor-based versus individualistic values in conceptualizing pride, shame, and anger: Spanish and Dutch cultural prototypes. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 149-179.

Jakobs, E., Manstead, A.S.R. & Fischer, A.H. (1999). Social motives and subjective determinants of facial displays: The case of smiling. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 424-436.

Rodriguez Mosquera, P. M., Manstead, A. S. R., & Fischer, A. H. (2000). The role of honor-related values in the elicitation, experience and communication of pride, shame and anger. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 7, 833-845.

Jakobs, E., Manstead, A. S.R., &Fischer, A.H. (2001). Social context effects on facialactivity in a negative emotional setting. Emotion, 1,1, 51-70.

Manstead, A. S. R. & Fischer, A. H. (2002). Culture and emotion: Beyond the universality-relativity dichotomy. Introduction to Culture and Emotion, Special Issue of Cognition and Emotion, 16, 1-9.

Rodriguez, P. M., Manstead, A. S. R., & Fischer, A. H. (2002). The role of honor concerns in emotional reactions to offenses. Special Issue of Cognition and Emotion: Culture and emotion, 16, 143-165.

Timmers, M., Fischer, A. H., & Manstead, A. S. R (2003). Ability versus vulnerability: Beliefs about men's and women's emotional behavior. Cognition and Emotion, 17, 41-63.

Zaalberg, R., Manstead, A.S.R., & Fischer, A.H. (2004) Relations between emotions, display rules, social motives andfacial behavior. Cognition and Emotion,18, 183-207.

Fischer, A. H., Rodriguez, P. M., vanVianen, E.A.M., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2004). Gender and culture differences in emotion. Emotion, 4 , 87-94.

Fischer, A. H., Rotteveel, M.,Evers, C., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2004). Emotional assimilation: How we are influenced by others' emotions. Cahier de Psychologie Cognitive, 22, 223-245.

Van Zomeren, M., Spears, R., Fischer, A. H., & Leach, C. W. (2004). Put your money where your mouth is! Explaining Collective Action Tendencies Through Group-Based Anger and Group Efficacy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87 , 649-664.

Evers, C. A. M., Fischer, A. H., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2005). Anger and social appraisal: A spicy sex difference. Emotion , 3 , 258-266.

Pennekamp, S., Doosje, B., Zebel, S. & Fischer, A. H (2007). The past and the pending: The antecedents and consequences of group-based anger in historically and currently disadvantaged groups. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 10 , 41-57.

Fischer, A. H. & Roseman, I. J. (2007). Beat them or ban them: The characteristics and social functions of anger and contempt. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 103-115.

Van Zomeren, M., Fischer, A. H., & Spears, R. (2007). Testing the limits of tolerance: How intergroup anxiety amplifies negative responses to out-group initiated contact.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33.

PhD students

I (Co) supervised the following PhD projects:

K. Rojahn: Gender in the context of leadership (1996).

E. Jacobs: faces and feelings in social contexts (1998).

P. Rodriguez Mosquera: The relationship between honor and gender and its social implications (1999).

M. Timmers: Sex differences in emotion expression (2000).

R. Zaalberg: The expression of emotion in social situations: The mediatingrole of display rules and social motives (2005).

C. Evers: Sex differences in anger: The role of social appraisal in anger regulation (2005).

I.de Pater: Doing things right or doing the right thing: A new perspective on the gender gap in career success (2005).

S. Pennekamp: Dynamics of disadvantage: Uncovering the role of group-basedanger (2008).

S. Hawk (2010): Changing channels: Flexibility in empathic emotion processes.

J. van der Schalk (2010): Reactions to emotional displays in intergroup contexts

S.Oosterwijk (2011): Moving the mind: Embodied emotion concepts and their consequences.

Onderzoek Vrouwen in hogere functies

In het kader van mijn onderzoek voor de Beauvoir stichting, heb ik de (gebrekkige) doorstroming van vrouwen naar hogere functies onderzocht. Hier vindt u de PDFfiles van onderzoeken naar organisatieculturen in relatie tot doorstroming van vrouwen naar topfuncties.

Zie ook:

Van Vianen, A. E., & Fischer, A. H. (2002). Illuminating the glass ceiling: The role of organizational culture preferences. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 75(3), 315-337.

Negative emotions

Fischer, A., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2016). Contempt: Derogating Others While Keeping Calm. Emotion Review, 8(4), 346-357.

Fischer, A.H., Halperin, E., Canetti, D., & Jasini, A. (2018). Why we hate. Emotion Review.

Fischer, A. H., & Roseman, I. J. (2007). Beat them or ban them: The characteristics and social functions of anger and contempt. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(1), 103-115.

Mann, L., Feddes, A. R., Leiser, B.,, Doosje, B., & Fischer, A. H. (2017). When is humiliation more intense? The role of audience laughter and threats to the self. Frontiers in Psychology, 8.

Mann, L., Feddes, A. R., Doosje, B., & Fischer, A. H. (2015). Withdraw or affiliate? The role of humiliation during initiation rituals. Cognition and Emotion,30(1), 80-100.

Gender and emotion

Below you find links to papers on the topic of gender differences on emotions. This research was mainly conduced by my PhD students, Monique Timmers, Patricia Rodriguez Mosquera, and Catharine Evers.

Timmers, M., Fischer, A.H. & Manstead, A.S.R. (1998). Gender differences in the motives for regulating emotions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 974-986.

Timmers, M., Fischer, A. H., & Manstead, A. S. R (2003). Ability versus vulnerability: Beliefs about men’s and women’s emotional behavior. Cognition and Emotion, 17, 1, 41-63.

Evers, C. A. M., Fischer, A. H., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2005). Anger and social appraisal: A spicy sex difference. Emotion, 3, 258-266.

Fischer, A. H. & Evers, C. (2011). The social costs and benefits of anger as a function of gender and relationship context. Sex Roles, 65, 23-34.

Fischer, A. H., Eagly, A.H., & Oosterwijk, S. (2013). The meaning of tears: The danger of crying at work, especially for men. European Journal of Social Psychology.

Fischer, A., & LaFrance, M. (2015). What drives the smile and the tear: Why women are more emotionally expressive than men. Emotion Review, 7(1), 22-29.

Fischer, A.H., Kret, E.M., & Broekens, J. (2018). Gender Differences in Emotion Perception and Self-reported Emotional Intelligence: A Test of the Emotion Sensitivity Hypothesis. PlosOne.

Research on facial expressions

Mimicry

Fischer, A. H., Becker, D., & Veenstra, L. (2012). Emotional mimicry in social context: The case of disgust and pride. Frontiers in Emotion Science, 3, 475

Hess, U. & Fischer, A. H. (2013). Emotional mimicry as social regulation: A review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 17 (2), 142-157

Hess, U. & Fischer, A. H. (2014). Emotional mimicry: why and when we mimic emotions. Social Psychological Compass. 8 (2), 45-57.

Fischer, A., & Hess, U. (2017). Mimicking emotions. Current Opinion in Psychology, 17, 151-155.

Rychlowska, M., Cañadas, E., Wood, A., Krumhuber, E., Fischer, A. H., Niedenthal, P. M. (2014). Blocking mimicry makes true and false smiles look the same. PlOS ONE

Dijk, C., Fischer, A. H., Morina, N., van Eeuwijk, C., & van Kleef, G. A. (2017). Effects of Social Anxiety on Emotional Mimicry and Contagion: Feeling Negative, but Smiling Politely. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 1-19.

Sachisthal, M., Sauter, D. A., & Fischer, A. H. (2017). Mimicry of Ingroup and Outgroup Emotional Expressions. Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology (RRSP), 1 (1-3), 86-105.

Emotion recognition

Sauter, D. A. & Fischer, A. H. (2017). Can perceivers recognize emotions from spontaneous expressions? Cognition and Emotion, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2017.1320978

Kret, M. E. & Fischer, A. H. (2017). Recognition of facial expressions is moderated by Islamic cues. Cognition and Emotion. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2017.1330253

Research on social aspects of emotion

Pauw, L. S., Sauter, D. A. ,Van Kleef, D.A., & Fischer, A.H. (2018). Sense or sensibility? Social sharers’ evaluations of socio-affective vs. cognitive support in response to negative emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 1-18.

van Kleef, G. A., & Fischer, A. H. (2016). Emotional collectives: How groups shape emotions and emotions shape groups. Cognition and Emotion, 30(1), 3-19.

ADFES

Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set
Skyler Hawk and Job van der Schalk developed a new stimulus set, containing nine emotions, posed by male and female actors from different ethnic backgrounds. This set is available and can be freely used for research.