The Head of the Department is Jeroen Vaes

Jeroen Vaes is Full Professor in Social Psychology. He obtained his PhD in Psychology from the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. He worked as a researcher at the University of Padua from 2002 to 2014, when he moved to the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences of the University of Trento.

His research deals with issues such as prejudice, stereotypes, sexism and sexual objectification, media influences, and discriminatory behavior towards minorities and migrants. He is an expert in processes of dehumanization that he has studied in the field of inter-group relationships, the sexual objectification of women and in the doctor-patient relationship. In researching these phenomena, he has used behavioral and cognitive measures as well as techniques of social neuroscience.

His research has been published in important international journals and monographs. He was associate editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology, of the British Journal of Social Psychology, of Psycologica Belgica and of the Italian Journal of Psychology. He was co-editor of a book called: "Humanness and Dehumanization" published and distributed by Psychology Press. His work has been awarded with several international awards, such as the prestigious Jos Jaspars Award for young researchers from the European Association of Social Psychology.