There are five institutes at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences:

We are very happy to welcome you to spend a semester or year studying with us at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. This website will provide you per programme with information on your course schedules and much more.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences brings together high-quality research and outstanding teaching in the disciplines of cultural anthropology, education and child studies, political science, psychology, science and technology studies, as well as in multidisciplinary approaches.

Have you experienced or witnessed unacceptable or transgressive behaviour? The University has a page that gives information about what you can do yourself and which ‘helplines’ can assist you in this situation.

A warm welcome to the Graduate School of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Leiden University.

Our mission: a positive impact. Our vision: community. By involving the world around us in our education and research we make a positive impact. We do this by applying Open Science.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences provides its ca. 5000 students with a thorough education in the social and behavioural sciences. The student population is very diverse and international in nature.

This ecological community has long been known to affect host biology, and their diverse roles have been further clarified in recent years following numerous studies of animal:microbiota interactions in diverse systems.

Most degree programmes at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences are based in the Pieter de la Court building on the Wassenaarseweg in Leiden. Besides this location, some degree programmes are based in The Hague, at Campus The Hague’s Wijnhaven building.

Sarah Giest, Assistant Professor at Leiden University, and Ishani Mukherjee researched the topic of 'Behavioural Insights Teams (BITs) and Policy Change: An Exploration of Impact, Location, and Temporality of Policy Advice'.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences brings together high-quality research and outstanding mono- and multidisciplinary teaching.

Some MPs are very active, while others are not. The number of proposals and questions that MPs in the Netherlands put forward is determined in part by the level of activity of their fellow committee members rather than by electoral incentive, which is the case in other countries.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences brings together high-quality research and outstanding teaching.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences brings together high-quality research and outstanding mono- and multidisciplinary teaching.

Can socioeconomic differences in health behaviour be explained by competing goals and demands in everyday life?

In 2021, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) asked Leiden University to conduct a rapid review of best practices and possibilities for follow-up research on the integration of behavioral sciences in security by design methodologies and projects. This academic field is called security by behavioral…

Within the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FSW), D&I translates as the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and identities among both students and staff.

A neurobiological perspective on individual differences in social competence

Research in Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science focuses on the dynamics and the interaction of political institutions, individual decision-making, and collective behaviour.

The more opportunities a child has to learn and develop, the stronger his or her future position in society. Leiden University investigates how the brain picks up information, and how learning processes can be influenced positively.

By training with virtual opponents known as computer generated forces (CGFs), trainee fighter pilots can build the experience necessary for air combat operations, at a fraction of the cost of training with real aircraft.

Leiden University social scientists have shown that customised intervention pays off. A new fundamental research-based approach in children who are in danger of going off the rails has delivered spectacular results.

Promotores: Prof.dr. M.K. Richardson, Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink

A Study of Middle Palaeolithic Riverside Settlements at Maastricht-Belvédère (The Netherlands).

Our current lifestyle is not sustainable, and we know it. Our carbon-based economy causes climate change, and our livestock threatens the rainforests. We also know what we ought to do to save the planet: decarbonize the economy and change our diet. However, too many people lack the moral motivation…

Researchers at Leiden study group behaviour. One of their findings is that when people make sacrifices for another member of their group, it is probably instinctive. Insights of this kind enable us to better understand and influence the social processes in a neighbourhood or company.

Promotor: S.M. Verduyn Lunel

The development process of any software has become extremely important not just in the IT industry, but in almost every business or domain of research.

The research group Organizational & Entrepreneurial Behavior investigates the behavior of individuals and groups who start, work in, or lead organizations, in order to inform organizational practice. By focusing on the behavior of (groups of) employees, entrepreneurs and leaders, the main levels of…

The main aim of my Ph.D. thesis is to further explore the value of using early developing zebrafish larvae (up to 5 dpf) as a model to study anxiety-like behaviour and their pharmacological modulation with drugs.

Anthropogenic noise negatively affects wildlife in a wide range of taxonomic groups.

What is the relation between the experience and the act of exclusion?

Political scientists Tom Louwerse, Simon Otjes & Cynthia van Vonno introduce the Dutch Parliamentary Behaviour Dataset, a record of parliamentary (voting) behaviour in the Dutch Tweede Kamer (Second Chamber, House of Representatives) since 1945.

Promotor: Carel J. ten Cate, Co-Promotor: Hans W. Slabbekoorn

This article explores how employees use leadership behaviours and how characteristics of the organizational context affect their engagement in leadership.

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This study tests whether behavioural problems at a young age are related to early reading and mathematics development.

Does knowledge of environmental performance change farmer's behaviour?

Leiden University researchers and their collaborators report the development of new research frameworks that use day-to-day smartphone behavior gathered from a large sample of healthy people to help understand aging, and how aging alters with epilepsy and stroke. These reports occupy two back-to-back…

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To what extent is sound a stressor to fish? And are behavioural and physiological phenotypes equally sensitive to disturbance by noise pollution?

This edited volume draws from papers presented at the conference Closing the Gap | Responsibility in Cyberspace: Narratives and Practice, organized in June 2022 at the Egmont Palace in Brussels, Belgium, by Leiden University, as part of the EU Cyber Direct project.

How do people vote? How rational are voting choices? How much do external factor weigh in? In this article social scientis provide some background.