Social Psychology Network

Maintained by Scott Plous, Wesleyan University

Jacques-Philippe Leyens

Jacques-Philippe Leyens

  • Media Contact
  • SPN Mentor

After obtaining his PhD in 1969 from the University of Louvain, Jacques-Philippe Leyens worked for 2 years with Leonard Berkowitz and Ross Parke at the University of Madison-Wisconsin. He returned to Louvain in 1971, where he has remained since then. Starting with the influence of violence in the mass media, his research interests extended to war traumas in Palestinian children, interpersonal perception, stereotyping, intergroup relations, and racism. His current main interests are the infrahumanization of outgroups and the differential impact of various norms of nondiscrimination. The last two streams of research question the conditions leading groups members to unconsciously think as themselves as more uniquely humans than outgroup members, and to use color-blind or color-conscious strategies to restore harmony between groups. Infrahumanization leads to construe a subjective reality, whose nature determines the success of one or the other norm of nondiscrimination.

He has served as chief editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology and as President of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology. Among his awards, he is most proud of the First International Prize of Psychology from the Association of Portuguese Psychologists and the Tajfel Lecture Award.

Primary Interests:

  • Aggression, Conflict, Peace
  • Causal Attribution
  • Intergroup Relations
  • Person Perception
  • Prejudice and Stereotyping
  • Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

Journal Articles:

  • Boccato. G., Cortes, B. P., Demoulin, S., & Leyens, J. Ph. (2007). The automaticity of infra-humanization. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 987-999.
  • Cortes, B. P., Demoulin, S., Rodriguez, R. T., Rodriguez, A. P., & Leyens, J. Ph. (2005). Infra-humanization or familiarity? Attribution of uniquely human emotions to the self, the ingroup, and the outgroup. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 243-253.
  • Demoulin, S., Leyens, J. Ph., & Yzerbyt, V. (2006). Lay theories of essentialism. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 9, 25-42.
  • Leyens, J. Ph., Demoulin, S., Vaes, J., Gaunt, R., Paladino, M. P. (2007). Infra-humanization: The wall of group differences. Social Issues and Policy Review, 1, 139-172.
  • Vaes, J., Paladino, M. P., & Leyens, J. Ph. (2006). Secondary emotions and the activation of the human concept. Can “they” be human? Perverse effects of uniquely human emotions in inter-group relations. European Journal of Social Psychology, 36, 169-181.

Jacques-Philippe Leyens
6, rue de la Garenne
1360 Maleves Sainte Marie
Belgium

  • Phone: 010 88 87 72

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