Eva Vives

Eva Vives

Experimental Psychology

Posts

2026

Skeptics in the Pub

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On November 29th 2025, I had the pleasure to talk about social presence effets at the Skeptics in the Pub event in Brussels. These events are devoted to share knowledge about science to general audiences. During the conference, I presented the different types of social influence identified in social psychoology and neuroscience, from mere presence to direct social interactions. We discussed the Triplett experiments with bikers, the ‘watching eyes’ effect and recent neurophysiological studies using hyperscanning technique to measure direct social interactions between people. And, of course, I also got the public to answer moral dilemmas live!

The video recording of my talk will be made available soon, stay tuned.

A Note on Data Privacy & Storage

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This is a slightly unusual post, that has been close to my heart for a long time.

As both a researcher and an internet user, data privacy and data storage have become increasingly crucial over the years. This concern is not only about protecting my own data (never forget: your online data are valuable), but also about ensuring the safety and confidentiality of research participants and collaborators.

There is no such world where you have ‘nothing to hide’, because our world is constantly changing, both culturally and politically. Spread the word.

Without commenting further on the current global situation, I simply wanted to share a few practical solutions that can help maintain at least some control over personal data.

⚠️ This list is of course non exhaustive as I am not an IT engineer and because everyone must consider which practices and tools are best for their own situation. My idea is to provide suggestions that might be useful or inspiring for your own setup. This post is a living document, intended to evolve over the years. Feedback and additional suggestions are very welcome

Communication Tools

🛡️ iPhone iMessage

  • One of the messaging services with very limited governmental access
  • Designed and controlled by Apple
  • Blocking iMessage would require blocking entire telecommunications systems, making it practically infeasible

🛡️ Email — Proton Mail

  • Strong focus on privacy and encryption
  • Allows the creation of temporary security keys when sending emails to non-Proton users (e.g., Gmail)
  • Example:
    • You send an email from Proton to a Gmail address
    • The recipient receives a secure link
    • The message is opened directly on Proton’s servers, not Google’s

🛡️ Instant Messaging

  • Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal:
    • Each conversation establishes a direct link between users
    • No reliance on a centralized server nor cloud
  • Strong identity-based cryptography

Signal (Fallback Option)

  • Preferable to Meta-owned services
  • Important note:
    • Not linked to a phone number
    • Smaller ecosystem and better privacy guarantees than most mainstream alternatives

🛡️ Data Storage

Personal NAS (Network Attached Storage)

  • Strongly recommended for:
    • Personal file storage
    • Photos and videos
    • Secure file sharing
  • Advantages:
    • Full control over your data
    • No third-party cloud dependency
    • Can be set up in half a day

Final Thoughts

Privacy-respecting tools are not about paranoia, they are about responsibility, especially in research contexts. Small choices, when combined, can significantly reduce unnecessary data exposure.

–> Read more about digital surveillance and what you can do about it

If you have tools, services, or workflows to recommend, feel free to share!

2025

Experimenter presence

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In one of my experiments, we manipulated the presence of the experimenter in the (EEG) Faraday cage. Results coming soon ! Special thanks to our amazing interns and research assistant Sandra and Eloise!

2024

Welcome to Rozelin Vurgun

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A month ago, the team and I were happy to welcome Rozelin Vurgun for her internship in the Moral and Social Brain lab! Rozelin is doing her Master at Kadir Has University (Turkey) and is currently doing an Erasmus internship as part of her training. In our lab, she is using EEG to measure moral conflict under social presence (so much time spent in the UGent basement :’) and in parallel is preparing a new study on surveillance effects (stay tuned for the results!).

PS. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you are interested in an internship in our team :)

Friday Social Club at Ghent University

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A few days ago, my friend Yulong Huang, PhD at UGent came to me with this idea: What if we organised a scientific and social event in our department to share thoughts, results and ideas about research in social cognition ? 1, 2, 3, on Monday the invitation letter was sent to the department!

2023

Cutting EEG 2023 in Ghent University

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This autumn, I had the opportunity to attend the Cutting EEG Worldwide Summit for the first time. During the transition to my upcoming position, I had the privilege of visiting UGent, my future host university, which was one of the 20 Cutting Gardens featured in this impressive 2023 edition.

On the menu : MNE (python package) tutorial, introduction to Bayesian Hidden-Markov models (HMM <3) and many interesting methodological talks. I was particularly absorbed by Jelmer Borst and Gabriel Weindel’s latest work on HMM solutions. They adapted these models to decompose cognitive stages of single event-related potentials and developped a python-friendly package adapted to ERPs analyses. Their slides and package are available on their Github repository.

Better late than never

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The official resource page of the Profan research programme has finally been released!

Indeed, during my PhD, I had the opportunity to participate in the ProFan project, a large experimental research programme in psychology and education. This project was funded by two French ministries (MENJS and MESRI) and investigated the impact of alternative learning methods on development of social skills and academic performance among vocational students. Of particular interest for my PhD was whether cognitive factors (i.e. working memory capacity) and psychosocial factors (i.e., self-esteem, achievement goals) were likely to play a role during resource-dependent cooperation.

A full summary of my work and a video recording of my PhD defence are now available (in French) on the e-fran platform.

Playing the academia game

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This year, ICPS convention took place in Brussels, and it was a blast ! On the occasion, I shared our research proposal (MORALEM) about socioemotional response to moral transgressions. My poster entitled Moral Appraisals of Transgressions and Outrages: A Perpetrator vs. Victim Focus Study, is available on Research Gate

Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship

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I am delighted to announce that my project entitled YourMorals - The role of social presence on moral decision-making: realistic settings for the understanding of utilitarian and deontological preferences has been accepted for a 2-year funding Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship with excellent evaluation.

This research project emerged a few years ago while I was working on the impact of emotions on moral dilemmas with Yousri Marzouki and Olivier Oullier. Since then, I never stopped thinking that psychologists should consider social context a bit more to get a better picture of the processes associated with moral decision-making - because yes, moral choices are rarely made out of the social arena. Beyond any doubt, this project is the cornerstone of a larger program of research I expect to establish in the next years.

I am so grateful to start this position in one of the top-ranking universities in Europe, alongside an incredible supevisor, Prof. Emilie Caspar. More about my project is coming on this page. So let’s keep in touch !

2022

A little throwback

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One year ago, on November 19th 2021, I defended my Ph.D. thesis at Aix-Marseille University, entitled ‘Cognitive and psychosocial mechanisms involved in Jigsaw cooperative learning : experimental studies in educational settings’, under supervision of Prof. Isabelle Régner. This day was amazing !

Découvrir la psychologie pour mieux enseigner

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Le MOOC « La Psychologie pour les enseignants » a suscité avant même sa diffusion un très fort engouement de la part de la communauté des enseignants, pédagogues, et formateurs en France. Les contenus riches proposés par ce cours en ligne (MOOC) sont suivis par des centaines de personnes chaque semaine. Sous l’égide de l’ENS et du Réseau Canopé, le MOOC aborde en trois grands chapitres, trois clefs de voute des apprentissages : les notions de mémoire, de punition/récompense et de motivation en milieu scolaire. Avec autant d’informations désormais en accès libre sur les bonnes pratiques d’enseignement, plus question d’ignorer l’architecture cognitive des élèves ou de se laisser submerger par un comportement perturbateur en classe.

Full article is available in French, on Cortecs website.