Research

Gert Stulp, Rolf Granholm, Amke M. G. van Tintelen, Zoltán Lippényi

The substantial rise in the age at first birth in recent decades suggests that people are delaying their first attempt to have a child. The age at first birth, however, may…

Jun 10, 2026

Microsimulation reveals that medically assisted reproduction is unlikely to compensate for cohort fertility decline due to increasing maternal ages

Rolf Granholm, Astrid Cantineau, Annemieke Hoek, Gert Stulp

STUDY QUESTION Can medically assisted reproduction (MAR) compensate for completed cohort fertility (CCF) decline within coresidential unions due to increasing maternal ages…

Feb 18, 2026

Examining the relationships between education, coresidential unions, and the fertility gap by simulating the reproductive life courses of Dutch women

Rolf Granholm, Anne Gauthier, Gert Stulp

Background: Couples in Europe have fewer children than they intend to, resulting in a gap between intended family size and completed fertility. This is partly because…

Apr 23, 2025

Developing a qualitative and quantitative ambulatory assessment-based feedback system within cognitive behavioural interventions for people with persecutory beliefs

Laura F. Bringmann, Eva Tolmeijer, Maarten Piot, Merijn Mestdagh, Stijn Verdonck, Gert Stulp, Felicity Waite, Louise Isham, Anton P.B. Staring, Daniel Freeman, David van den Berg

Background: Although the application of self-monitoring (ambulatory assessment) and visual feedback in psychological interventions has yielded promising results, there are…

Apr 10, 2025

Understanding Narratives of Uncertainty in Fertility Intentions of Dutch Women: A Neural Topic Modeling Approach

Xiao Xu, Anne Gauthier, Gert Stulp, Antal van den Bosch

Uncertainty in fertility intentions is a major obstacle to understanding contemporary trends in fertility decision-making and its outcomes. Quantifying this uncertainty by…

Aug 23, 2024

A template and tutorial for preregistering studies using passive smartphone measures

Anna M. Langener, Björn S. Siepe, Mahmoud Elsherif, Koen Niemeijer, Pia K. Andresen, Samir Akre, Laura F. Bringmann, Zachary D. Cohen, Nathaniel R. Choukas, Konstantin Drexl, Luisa Fassi, James Green, Tabea Hoffmann, Raj R. Jagesar, Martien J. H. Kas, Sebastian Kurten, Ramona Schoedel, Gert Stulp, Georgia Turner, Nicholas C. Jacobson

Passive smartphone measures hold significant potential and are increasingly employed in psychological and biomedical research to capture an individual’s behavior. These…

Aug 7, 2024

Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS): A team science effort to predict societal trajectories in adolescence and young adulthood

Eveline A. Crone, Thijs Bol, Barbara R. Braams, Mark de Rooij, Barbara Franke, Ingmar Franken, Valeria Gazzola, Berna Güroğlu, Hilde Huizenga, Hilleke Hulshoff Pol, Loes Keijsers, Christian Keysers, Lydia Krabbendam, Lucres Jansen, Arne Popma, Gert Stulp, Nienke van Atteveldt, Anna van Duijvenvoorde, René Veenstra

Our society faces a great diversity of opportunities for youth. The 10-year Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) program has the long-term goal to understand which…

Jun 1, 2024

Combining the strengths of Dutch survey and register data in a data challenge to predict fertility (PreFer)

Elizaveta Sivak, Paulina Pankowska, Adriënne Mendrik, Tom Emery, Javier Garcia-Bernardo, Seyit Höcük, Kasia Karpinska, Angelica Maineri, Joris Mulder, Malvina Nissim, Gert Stulp

The social sciences have produced an impressive body of research on determinants of fertility outcomes, or whether and when people have children. However, the strength of…

Apr 13, 2024

Capturing the Social Life of a Person by Integrating Experience-Sampling Methodology and Personal-Social-Network Assessments

Marie Stadel, Laura F. Bringmann, Gert Stulp, Timon Elmer, Stijn Verdonck, Merijn Mestdagh, Marijtje A. J. van Duijn

The daily social life of a person can be captured with different methodologies. Two methods that are especially promising are personal-social-network (PSN) data collection…

Apr 12, 2024

Explaining uncertainty in women’s fertility preferences

Amke van Tintelen, Gert Stulp

People’s fertility preferences are often considered an important determinant of fertility. What is often neglected in studies of preferred fertility, is the uncertainty that…

Mar 13, 2024

It’s All About Timing: Exploring Different Temporal Resolutions for Analyzing Digital-Phenotyping Data

Langener, A. M., Stulp, G., Jacobson, N. C., Costanzo, A., Jagesar, R. R., Kas, M. J., & Bringmann, L. F.

The use of smartphones and wearable sensors to passively collect data on behavior has great potential for better understanding psychological well-being and mental disorders…

Jan 19, 2024

FertNet: Process Data from the Social Networks and Fertility Survey

A new patch (version 0.1.1) for the R-package FertNet was published on CRAN.

Stulp, G.

Jan 18, 2024

Predicting Mood Based on the Social Context Measured Through the Experience Sampling Method, Digital Phenotyping, and Social Networks

Anna M. Langener, Laura F. Bringmann, Martien J. Kas & Gert Stulp

Social interactions are essential for well-being. Therefore, researchers increasingly attempt to capture an individual’s social context to predict well-being, including…

Jan 10, 2024

A data-driven approach shows that individuals’ characteristics are more important than their networks in predicting fertility preferences

People’s networks are considered key in explaining fertility outcomes—whether people want and have children. Existing research on social influences on fertility is limited…

Dec 20, 2023

Testing the combination of Feeling Safe and peer counselling against formulation-based cognitive behaviour therapy to promote psychological wellbeing in people with persecutory delusions: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial (the Feeling Safe-NL Trial)

Eva Tolmeijer, Felicity Waite, Louise Isham, Laura Bringmann, Robin Timmers, Arjan van den Berg, Hanneke Schuurmans, Anton B. P. (Tonnie) Staring, Paul de Bont, Rob van Grunsven, Gert Stulp, Ben Wijnen, Mark van der Gaag, Daniel Freeman, David van den Berg

Background: Persecutory delusions are strong threat beliefs about others’ negative intentions. They can have a major impact on patients’ day-to-day life. The Feeling Safe…

Oct 8, 2023

Describing the Dutch Social Networks and Fertility Study and how to process it

Background: The social networks of people play a prominent role in theories on fertility. Investigating how networks shape behaviour is hard, because of the difficulty in…

Sep 8, 2023

Feedback About a Person’s Social Context - Personal Networks and Daily Social Interactions

Marie Stadel, Gert Stulp, Anna M. Langener, Timon Elmer, Marijtje A. J. van Duijn & Laura F. Bringmann

The social context of a person, meaning their social relationships and daily social interactions, is an important factor for understanding their mental health. However…

Aug 24, 2023

Simulating the evolution of height in the Netherlands in recent history

Gert Stulp, Tyler Bonnel, Louise Barrett

The Dutch have a remarkable history when it comes to height. From being one of the shortest European populations in the 19th Century, the Dutch grew some 20 cm and are…

Mar 23, 2023

FertNet: Process Data from the Social Networks and Fertility Survey

Processes data from The Social Networks and Fertility Survey, downloaded from https://dataarchive.lissdata.nl, including correcting respondent errors and transforming…

Gert Stulp

Mar 20, 2023

Capturing the Dynamics of the Social Environment Through Experience Sampling Methods, Passive Sensing, and Egocentric Networks: Scoping Review

Anna Langener, Gert Stulp, Martien Kas, Laura Bringmann

Background: Social interactions are important for well-being, and therefore, researchers are increasingly attempting to capture people’s social environment. Many different…

Mar 17, 2023

Crisissignaleringsplan monitoren en visualiseren

Massi Aoudjan, Elisa van Delft, Date van der Veen, Laura Bringmann, Gert Stulp, Barbara Montagne

Patiënten met een borderline-persoonlijkheidsstoornis (BPS) zijn kwets- baar voor crises. Een crisissignaleringsplan (CSP) kan een crisis helpen voor- komen, maar voor het…

Mar 10, 2023

Fertility preferences in China in the twenty-first century

Rui Lu, Anne Gauthier, Gert Stulp

There is continuing debate on how low China’s fertility has reached and whether China has fallen into the “low fertility trap”. This paper addresses this debate by…

Mar 7, 2023

Understanding Narratives from Demographic Survey Data: a Comparative Study with Multiple Neural Topic Models

Xiao Xu,Gert Stulp, Antal van der Bosch, Anne Gauthier

Fertility intentions as verbalized in surveys are a poor predictor of actual fertility outcomes, the number of children people have. This can partly be explained by the…

Nov 30, 2022

Quantifying the sources of heterogeneity of fertility preferences in China

Rui Lu,Gert Stulp, Anne Gauthier

There are no unanimous estimates on fertility preferences in China; they vary considerably across studies. Understanding this cross-study heterogeneity of reported preferred…

Jul 20, 2022

Explaining the Associations of Education and Occupation with Childlessness: The Role of Desires and Expectations to Remain Childless

Renske Verweij, Gert Stulp, Melinda Mills, Harold Snieder

Although there are well-established relationships between women’s higher education, labour force participation (LFP), and occupation on the one hand and childlessness on the…

Nov 30, 2021

Balancing bias and burden in personal network studies

Personal network data is increasingly used to answer research questions about the interplay between individuals (i.e., egos) and their social environment (i.e., alters).…

Marie Stadel, Gert Stulp

Nov 16, 2021

Friends, family, and family friends: Predicting friendships of Dutch women

Vera L. Buijs, Gert Stulp

Friends are an important source of well-being but people differ in who they consider to be friends. With a unique quantitative test of such differences based on 17,650…

Nov 15, 2021

Do Data from Large Personal Networks Support Cultural Evolutionary Ideas about Kin and Fertility?

The fertility decline associated with economic development has been attributed to a host of interrelated causes including the rising costs of children with…

May 18, 2021

Collecting large personal networks in a representative sample of Dutch women

In this study we report on our experiences with collecting large personal network data (25 alters) from a representative sample of Dutch women. We made use of GENSI, a…

Nov 30, 2020

Effect of Self-reported Height on Occupational Rank Among Police Officers: Especially for Women it Pays to be Tall

Abraham P Buunk, Gert Stulp, Wilmar B. Schaufeli

This study among 725 male and 247 female police officers from The Netherlands examined the association between self-reported height and occupational rank from the…

Nov 29, 2020

ESMvis: A tool for visualizing individual Experience Sampling Method (ESM) data

Laura F Bringmann, Date van der Veen, Marieke Wichers, Harriëtte Riese, Gert Stulp

Purpose: The experience sampling method (ESM) is used for intensive longitudinal time-series data collection during normal daily life. ESM data give information on momentary…

Nov 20, 2020

Three facets of planning and postponement of parenthood in the Netherlands

Renske Verweij, Melinda Mills, Harold Snieder,Gert Stulp

Background: The age at parenthood has risen by about five years in the last decades in the Netherlands. Previous studies typically focused on the age at which people have…

Sep 1, 2020

Using Polygenic Scores in Social Science Research: Unraveling Childlessness

Renkse M Verweij, Melinda C Mills, Gert Stulp, Ilja M Nolte, Nicola Barban, Felix C Tropf

Biological, genetic, and socio-demographic factors are all important in explaining reproductive behavior, yet these factors are typically studied in isolation. In this…

Nov 12, 2019

How might life history theory contribute to life course theory?

A commentary on life course theory

Gert Stulp, Rebecca Sear

Apr 18, 2019

Identifying the limits to socioeconomic influences on human growth

Daniel J. Hruschka, Joseph V. Hackman, Gert Stulp

Contemporary humans occupy the widest range of socioeconomic environments in their evolutionary history, and this has revealed unprecedented environmentally-induced…

Dec 31, 2018

Evolution and Human Behaviour: Helping to Make Sense of Modern Life

Evolution and Human Behaviour: Helping to Make Sense of Modern Life

Dec 30, 2018

Visualizing Individual Dynamics: The Case of a Talented Adolescent

Joske K. Van der Sluis, Steffie van der Steen, Gert Stulp, Ruud J. R. Den Hartigh

Research on talent and performance development has primarily focused on inter-individual differences. However, research suggests that performance and the underlying…

May 17, 2018

Hidden heritability due to heterogeneity across seven populations

Felix C. Tropf, S. Hong Lee, Renske M. Verweij, Gert Stulp, Peter J. van der Most, Ronald de Vlaming, Andrew Bakshi, Daniel A. Briley, Charles Rahal, Robert Hellpap, Anastasia N. Iliadou, Tõnu Esko, Andres Metspalu, Sarah E. Medland, Nicholas G. Martin, Nicola Barban, Harold Snieder, Matthew R. Robinson, Melinda C. Mills

Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies, which dominate genetic discovery, are based on data from diverse historical time periods and populations. Genetic scores…

Sep 11, 2017

ggplotgui: Create Ggplots via a Graphical User Interface.

ggplotgui: Create Ggplots via a Graphical User Interface. Easily explore data by creating ggplots through a (shiny-)GUI. R-code to recreate graph provided.

Jul 11, 2017

The Reproductive Ecology of Industrial Societies, Part I: Why Measuring Fertility Matters

Gert Stulp, Rebecca Sear, Louise Barrett

Is fertility relevant to evolutionary analyses conducted in modern industrial societies? This question has been the subject of a highly contentious debate, beginning in the…

Sep 26, 2016

The Reproductive Ecology of Industrial Societies, Part II: The Association between Wealth and Fertility

Gert Stulp, Rebecca Sear, Susan B. Schaffnit, Melinda C Mills, Louise Barrett

Studies of the association between wealth and fertility in industrial populations have a rich history in the evolutionary literature, and they have been used to argue both…

Sep 26, 2016

Big Man

The phrase ‘Big Man’ is used to signify both an important individual as well as one large in size, both historically and cross-culturally (B. J. Ellis 1992; Murray and…

Sep 20, 2016

Assortative mating for human height: A meta‐analysis

Gert Stulp, Mirre JP Simons, Sara Grasman, Thomas V Pollet

Objectives: The study of assortative mating for height has a rich history in human biology. Although the positive correlation between the stature of spouses has often been…

Sep 17, 2016

Revolution, reconciliation, integration: Is there a way to bring social and biological anthropology together?

In this paper, we review four books in the light of the divide between social and biological anthropology

May 16, 2016

Wealth, fertility and adaptive behaviour in industrial populations

The lack of association between wealth and fertility in contemporary industrialized populations has often been used to question the value of an evolutionary perspective on…

Mar 18, 2016

Evolutionary perspectives on human height variation

Human height is a highly variable trait, both within and between populations, has a high heritability, and influences the manner in which people behave and are treated in…

Jan 1, 2016

Finding your Soulmate: Homosexual and heterosexual age preferences in online dating

Jane R. Conway, Nyala Noë, Gert Stulp, Thomas V Pollet

Heterosexual age preferences have been extensively studied by evolutionary psychologists, social psychologists, and demographers. Much less is known about such preferences…

Oct 29, 2015

Evolved biocultural beings (who invented computers)

Louise Barrett, Thomas V Pollet,Gert Stulp

In this paper, we reply to Bryant (2015).

Jul 22, 2015

Human Fertility, Molecular Genetics, and Natural Selection in Modern Societies

Felix C. Tropf, Gert Stulp, Nicola Barban, Peter M. Visscher, Jian Yang, Harold Snieder, Melinda C. Mills

Research on genetic influences on human fertility outcomes such as number of children ever born (NEB) or the age at first childbirth (AFB) has been solely based on twin and…

Jun 3, 2015

The course (of) (or) history of life?

We note the similarities between sociology’s life course theory and biology’s life history theory.

May 14, 2015

The not-always-uniquely-predictive power of an evolutionary approach to understanding our not-so-computational nature

Gert Stulp, Thomas V Pollet, Louise Barrett

In this paper, we reply to Klasios (2014) and Stephen et al. (2014).

Apr 21, 2015

Body Height Preferences and Actual Dimorphism in Stature between Partners in Two Non-Western Societies (Hadza and Tsimane’)

Piotr Sorokowski, Agnieszka Sorokowska, Marina Butovskaya, Gert Stulp, Tomas Huanca, Bernhard Fink

Body height influences human mate preferences and choice. A typical finding in Western societies is that women prefer men who are taller than themselves and, equivalently…

Apr 1, 2015

Taking the aggravation out of data aggregation: A conceptual guide to dealing with statistical issues related to the pooling of individual‐level observational data

Thomas V Pollet, Gert Stulp, S. Peter Henzi,Louise Barrett

Field data often include multiple observations taken from the same individual. In order to avoid pseudoreplication, it is commonplace to aggregate data, generating a mean…

Mar 14, 2015

Human Height Is Positively Related to Interpersonal Dominance in Dyadic Interactions

Gert Stulp, Abraham P. Buunk, Simon Verhulst, Thomas V. Pollet

Across cultures, taller stature is linked to increased social status, but the potential reasons why this should be are unclear. One potential explanation is that taller…

Feb 26, 2015

Fertility Theory: Theory of Life History Evolution

Variation in fertility patterns in relation to environmental factors and mortality schedules can be understood using evolutionary life history theory. In addition to…

Jan 1, 2015

Evolutionary Psychology

Although the name “evolutionary psychology” would appear both simple and self-explanatory, suggesting a rather straightforward application of evolutionary theory to both…

Jan 1, 2015

Parental Social Status and Intrasexual Competitiveness among Adolescents

Abraham P. Buunk, Gert Stulp, Johan Ormel

A study among 1,881 adolescents (52.3% girls) with a mean age of 19.1 years examined the effects of parental social status upon intrasexual competitiveness. Whereas females…

Dec 1, 2014

From computers to cultivation: reconceptualizing evolutionary psychology

Louise Barrett, Thomas V. Pollet, Gert Stulp

Does evolutionary theorizing have a role in psychology? This is a more contentious issue than one might imagine, given that, as evolved creatures, the answer must surely be…

Aug 12, 2014

Does natural selection favour taller stature among the tallest people on earth?

Gert Stulp, Louise Barrett, Felix C Tropf, Melinda C Mills

The Dutch are the tallest people on earth. Over the last 200 years, they have grown 20 cm in height: a rapid rate of increase that points to environmental causes. This…

May 15, 2014

Non‐linear associations between stature and mate choice characteristics for American men and their spouses

Gert Stulp, Melinda Mills, Thomas V. Pollet, Louise Barrett

Objectives: Although male height is positively associated with many aspects of mate quality, average height men attain higher reproductive success in US populations. We…

May 12, 2014

Preferred and Actual Relative Height among Homosexual Male Partners Vary with Preferred Dominance and Sex Role

Jaroslava Varella Valentova, Gert Stulp, Vít Třebický, Jan Havlíček

Previous research has shown repeatedly that human stature influences mate preferences and mate choice in heterosexuals. In general, it has been shown that tall men and…

Jan 14, 2014

Binomial Tests and Randomization Approaches: The Case of US Presidential Candidate Height and Election Outcomes

Media reports often emphasize how the height of US presidential candidates plays an important role in election outcomes, with taller candidates winning an overwhelming…

Jan 1, 2014

Four more reasons why ethology matters: Tinbergen and the human sciences

Tinbergen’s paper on aims and methods in ethology is, quite rightly, a citation classic. Here, we would like to emphasize that, 50 years after its initial publication, it…

Dec 1, 2013

A statistical approach to distinguish telomere elongation from error in longitudinal datasets

Mirre J.P. Simons, Gert Stulp, Shinichi Nakagawa

Telomere length and the rate of telomere attrition vary between individuals and have been interpreted as the rate at which individuals have aged. The biology of telomeres…

Oct 4, 2013

Born to win? Testing the fighting hypothesis in realistic fights: left-handedness in the Ultimate Fighting Championship

Thomas V.Pollet, Gert Stulp, Ton G.G.Groothuis

Given the heritability of human left-handedness and its purported associations with fitness-lowering traits, the persistence of the minority of left-handedness in human…

Sep 5, 2013

The height of choosiness: mutual mate choice for stature results in suboptimal pair formation for both sexes

Gert Stulp, Abraham P. Buunk, Robert Kurzban, Thomas V. Pollet

Mutual mate choice is prevalent in humans, where both males and females have a say in their choice of partner. How the choices made by one sex constrain the choice of the…

May 1, 2013

Sex Differences in Risk Taking Behavior among Dutch Cyclists

Kelly D. Cobey, Gert Stulp, Freek Laan, Abraham P. Buunk, Thomas V. Pollet

The majority of research examining sex differences in risk-taking behavior focuses on overt physical risk measures in which failed risk attempts may result in serious injury…

Apr 1, 2013

The Golden Years: Men From The Forbes 400 Have Much Younger Wives When Remarrying Than the General US Population

Thomas V Pollet, Sophia E Pratt, Gracia Edwards, Gert Stulp

A common stereotype is that richer men have wives who are substantially younger than themselves. However, some research suggests that large age gaps are actually more common…

Mar 3, 2013

Women want taller men more than men want shorter women

Gert Stulp, Abraham P. Buunk, Thomas V. Pollet

Physical characteristics, such as height, play an important role in human mate preferences. Satisfaction with one’s own height and one’s partner height seem likely to be…

Feb 8, 2013

The pleasures and pitfalls of studying humans from a behavioral ecological perspective

We know it’s incredibly tedious, but we have to admit we agree with everything Nettle et al. (2013) say. Not only is that tedious, it also makes for a rather brief…

Jan 22, 2013

Are Human Mating Preferences with Respect to Height Reflected in Actual Pairings?

Gert Stulp, Abraham P. Buunk, Thomas V. Pollet, Daniel Nettle, Simon Verhulst

Pair formation, acquiring a mate to form a reproductive unit, is a complex process. Mating preferences are a step in this process. However, due to constraining factors such…

Jan 16, 2013

Tall claims? Sense and nonsense about the importance of height of US presidents

Gert Stulp, Abraham P. Buunk, Simon Verhulst, Thomas V. Pollet

According to both the scientific literature and popular media, all one needs to win a US presidential election is to be taller than one’s opponent. Yet, such claims are…

Oct 9, 2012

Increased aggression during human group contests when competitive ability is more similar

Gert Stulp, Tobias Kordsmeyer, Abraham P. Buunk , Simon Verhulst

Theoretical analyses and empirical studies have revealed that conflict escalation is more likely when individuals are more similar in resource-holding potential (RHP).…

Aug 15, 2012

Intralocus sexual conflict over human height

Gert Stulp, Bram Kuijper, Thomas V. Pollet, Abraham P. Buunk, Simon Verhulst

Intralocus sexual conflict (IASC) occurs when a trait under selection in one sex constrains the other sex from achieving its sex-specific fitness optimum. Selection…

Aug 8, 2012

High and Mighty: Height Increases Authority in Professional Refereeing

Gert Stulp, Abraham P. Buunk, Simon Verhulst, Thomas V. Pollet

Human male height is associated with mate choice and intra-sexual competition, and therefore potentially with reproductive success. A literature review (n = 18) on the…

Jul 1, 2012

The effect of female height on reproductive success is negative in western populations, but more variable in non‐western populations

Gert Stulp, Simon Verhulst, Thomas V. Pollet, Abraham P. Buunk

Objective: In this article we examine the association between female height and reproductive success in a US sample and present a review of previous studies on this…

Mar 12, 2012

A curvilinear effect of height on reproductive success in human males

Gert Stulp, Thomas V. Pollet, Simon Verhulst, Abraham P. Buunk

Human male height is associated with mate choice and intra-sexual competition, and therefore potentially with reproductive success. A literature review (n = 18) on the…

Nov 15, 2011

Parental Height Differences Predict the Need for an Emergency Caesarean Section

Gert Stulp, Simon Verhulst, Thomas V. Pollet, Daniel Nettle, Abraham P. Buunk

More than 30% of all pregnancies in the UK require some form of assistance at delivery, with one of the more severe forms of assistance being an emergency Caesarean section…

Jun 29, 2011

Male facial width is associated with death by contact violence: narrow-faced males are more likely to die from contact violence

Michael Stirrat, Gert Stulp, Thomas V. Pollet

Male facial width-to-height ratio (bizygomatic width scaled for face height) is a testosterone-linked trait predictive of reactive aggression, exploitative behavior…

May 11, 2011

Western scrub-jays conceal auditory information when competitors can hear but cannot see

Gert Stulp, Nathan J. Emery, Simon Verhulst, Nicola S. Clayton

Western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica) engage in a variety of cache-protection strategies to reduce the chances of cache theft by conspeci- fics. Many of these…

Jul 15, 2009

Antonymy and Contrast Relations

Jennifer Spenader, Gert Stulp

In this paper we report on experiments to determine if antonymy is a good predictor of contrast, using 124 texts from the British National Corpus and the antonymy relations…

Jan 10, 2007

TALKS

Falling Fertility - Fears, Foundations and Fixes

In this presentation, I talked about the decline in fertility, its causes, and its consequences.

Jun 4, 2026

Exploring the limits of predicting births using survey and administrative data

Predicting life outcomes is important because it can inform theory and enable targeted interventions. Unlike fields like climate science or medicine, social science…

Jul 9, 2025

Social Freezing: hype of hope? CON

Een praatje over Social Freezing voor gynaecologen.

Mar 25, 2025

Zwakke Banden, Goede Banen?

Zeer kort praatje voor de carrièredag Societas

Mar 14, 2025

Predicting fertility outcomes with networks

People’s networks are considered an important factor in explaining whether people want and have children. Existing research has rarely quantified how well we can predict…

Feb 12, 2025

How predictable is having a child in the next three years? Results of the first data challenge in population research

A data challenge is a competition where many researchers work on the same dataset to make the best predictions of a well-defined outcome. Clear measures of predictive…

Jan 20, 2025

The Predicting Fertility Data Challenge: Introducing the Winners

In this talk we present the three winning teams from the PreFer data challenge!

Dec 10, 2024

Predicting fertility outcomes with networks

In this talk, I discussed how well fertility preferences are predicted by machine learning outcomes and what we can learn from that.

Nov 27, 2024

Leveraging machine learning to understand fertility behaviour: what we learned from the Predicting Fertility (PreFer) data challenge

The first talk on the (preliminary) results from the PreFer data challenge!

Sep 2, 2024

Social mechanisms underlying whether people have children

I gave a talk on how the demographic transition relates to networks.

Jun 4, 2024

Life history theory and human behaviour

I gave a talk on life history theory and human behaviour for a group of talented biology PhD-students. The location was exciting!

Jan 17, 2024

Introducing the PreFer data challenge and its potential for fertility research

In a data challenge, (teams of) researchers using the same dataset try to best predict a particular outcome. In several fields like computer vision, natural language…

Dec 12, 2023

A data-driven approach shows that individuals’ characteristics are more important than their networks in predicting fertility preferences

People’s networks are considered key in explaining fertility outcomes–whether people want and have children. Existing research on social influences on fertility is limited…

Dec 4, 2023

A data-driven approach shows that individuals’ characteristics are more important than their networks in predicting fertility outcomes

Social influences on fertility behaviour are well-established. Individuals learn from, receive support from, and perceive pressure from people in their social network…

Nov 2, 2023

The secret sauce of data science

In this five minute talk, I argue that a focus on (out-of-sample) prediction will benefit the social sciences.

Oct 4, 2023

This mess we’re in? Or how simulation and prediction will advance the social sciences

Demography and sociology have produced a sophisticated body of work on fertility outcomes, i.e., whether, why, and when people have children. Such research has uncovered…

Sep 21, 2023

Collecting personal networks to study social influences on fertility behaviour

People’s social environment is key in explaining their behaviour and preferences, including how many children people want and have. Unfortunately, obtaining information on…

Mar 2, 2023

Collecting personal networks to study social influences on fertility behaviour

People’s social environment is key in explaining their behaviour and preferences, including how many children people want and have. Unfortunately, obtaining information on…

Feb 20, 2023

R workshop for teachers

R workshop for teachers

Nov 21, 2022

Using microsimulation, administrative data, and supercomputers to realistically model fertility behaviour: the case of fertility preferences and childlessness

Simulation

Education is a strong driver of whether and when women become mothers. Many different and contradicting mechanisms have been proposed to explain why highly educated women…

Nov 9, 2022

This mess we’re in? Or how simulation and prediction will advance (demographic) research

Demography and sociology have produced a sophisticated body of work on fertility outcomes, i.e., whether, why, and when people have children. Such research has uncovered…

Aug 23, 2022

Network Data Visualization in R

This workshop focuses on producing network-visualisation in R. We will use the packages, {ggplot2}, {tidygraph}, and {ggiraph} to create many different types of…

Jul 7, 2022

Opportunities for social influence on fertility behaviour among Dutch women

Social influence has a prominent role in theories on fertility, implying that people’s reproductive decision-making is affected by the choices and behaviours of others.…

Jun 29, 2022

A microsimulation model of fertility shows that preferences cannot explain why highly educated women remain childless more often

Simulation

Education is a strong driver of whether and when women become mothers. Many different and contradicting mechanisms have been proposed to explain why highly educated women…

Jun 24, 2022

This mess we’re in? Or how simulation and prediction will advance fertility research

Demography and sociology have produced a sophisticated body of work on fertility outcomes, i.e., whether, why, and when people have children. Such research has uncovered…

Jun 15, 2022

R workshop for Graduate School of Medical Science

Visualisation

R workshop for Graduate School of Medical Science

Nov 25, 2021

Do Data from Large Personal Networks Support Cultural Evolutionary Ideas about Kin and Fertility?

The fertility decline associated with economic development has been attributed to a host of interrelated causes including the rising costs of children with…

Nov 24, 2021

A roadmap on how to be as open as possible, and as closed as necessary

In this talk, I describe a roadmap to help make the work of researchers as open as possible yet confirm to GDPR-standards.

Nov 15, 2021

De mens: geëvolueerd, maar ook evoluerend?

Dat de mens onderdeel is van het dierenrijk, daar zijn de meesten het wel over eens. Maar in welke mate we de evolutionaire biologie kunnen gebruiken om menselijk gedrag te…

Nov 13, 2021

‘Above all else, show the data’ workshop

Visualisation

Visualizations are an essential tool in scientific communication. The programming language R allows making great visualizations. During the workshop, everyone simultaneously…

Nov 1, 2021

Growing up in times of crises. (Bio-)social and evolutionary reflections on the impact of adverse early life experiences on later life

A discussion of the usefulness of evolutionary perspectives on development.

Aug 23, 2021

Do Data from Large Personal Networks Support Cultural Evolutionary Ideas about Kin and Fertility?

The fertility decline associated with economic development has been attributed to a host of interrelated causes including the rising costs of children with…

Jul 11, 2021

Do Data from Large Personal Networks Support Cultural Evolutionary Ideas about Kin and Fertility?

The fertility decline associated with economic development has been attributed to a host of interrelated causes including the rising costs of children with…

Jun 10, 2021

Methodological challenges and theoretical opportunities of collecting large personal networks in large samples

People’s social environment is key in explaining their behaviour and preferences. Unfortunately, obtaining information on the social environment, for instance through…

Apr 13, 2021

Simulating the evolution of height in the Netherlands in recent history

The Dutch have a remarkable history when it comes to height. From being one of the shortest European populations in the 18th Century, the Dutch grew some 20 centimetres and…

Mar 24, 2021

Doing academic stuff builds your CV

In this talk, I address some of the factors that I think were important for my CV.

Mar 12, 2021

6 rules of success that you shouldn’t listen to

In this talk, I make the point that you shouldn’t listen to people giving advice. Nonetheless, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 6 rules of success also work well for Academia.

Dec 17, 2020

Evolutionary aspects of human height: a long story short

Height

During a conference on Perspectives on Human Body Height, I gave a talk about human heigh variation from an evolutionary perspective.

Jun 5, 2019

Family planning in the Netherlands: social networks and fertility

Deciding whether and when to have children are important decisions in the lives of people. In this talk, I focus on how these decisions may be influenced by others.…

May 8, 2019

Kinderen? Dat komt wel.

Outreach

Werk vinden, carrière maken, een huis kopen… voor jongvolwassenen heeft het plannen van het gezinsleven vaak geen prioriteit. De biologische klok tikt door, maar de…

Apr 17, 2019

Family planning in the Netherlands: social networks and fertility

Deciding whether and when to have children are important decisions in the lives of people. In this talk, I focus on how these decisions may be influenced by others.…

Apr 1, 2019

Easy visualisation in ggplot2

daylong ggplot2 workshop.

Mar 21, 2019

Collecting personal networks

Collecting persional networks is not easy. I gave a presentation about it for the FLAG-group

Mar 12, 2019

Hack the Gap 050

Hackaton

The municipality of Groningen organised a Hackaton: Hack the Gap - Equal educational opportunities

Mar 1, 2019

Collecting large personal networks in a representative sample of Dutch women

Sociology relies heavily on the idea that social interactions with people in the network are important in changing minds and behaviours. Information on the personal networks…

Nov 28, 2018

Planning and postponement of parenthood in the Netherlands

The age at parenthood has risen by about five years in the last decades in the Netherlands. Previous studies typically focused on the age at which people have their first…

Nov 28, 2018

Go Paleo? Evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour

A talk on the usefulnuss and lack thereof of evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour.

Nov 13, 2018

Interdisciplinary PhDs

A Young Academy Groningen talk about the usefulness (or lack thereof) of interdisciplinary research

Oct 18, 2018

Families, Lifecourse, and Ageing Group

Sociology

Sociology Groningen turned 80, and there was a huge festive event. I presented on the Families, Lifecourse, and Ageing Group

Oct 12, 2018

Applying evolutionary reasoning to humans

A debate on the use(fulness) of evolutionary theorising for understanding human behaviour

Sep 20, 2018

Gezinsvorming in Nederland: sociale invloeden op de kinderwens

For the Expert Meeting - Spitsuur van het leven, I gave a talk on social influences on fertility.

Jun 26, 2018

Collecting large personal networks in a representative sample of Dutch women

Sociology relies heavily on the idea that social interactions with people in the network are important in changing minds and behaviours. Information on the personal networks…

Jun 22, 2018

R workshop for university teachers

R workshop for teachers from the University of Groningen.

Jun 18, 2018

Collecting large personal networks in a representative sample of Dutch women

Sociology relies heavily on the idea that social interactions with people in the network are important in changing minds and behaviours. Information on the personal networks…

Jun 14, 2018

Evolved and evolving humans: The reproductive ecology of Industrial Societies

Humans are a peculiar species. On the one hand, our species has evolved and is part of the tree of life just like any other species. An understanding of humans would most…

Jun 6, 2018

Easy visualisation in ggplot2

daylong ggplot2 workshop.

Apr 26, 2018

Mismatch or Misnomer

The western world is very different from those environments in which our species has roamed around for most of the time. Biology 101 tells us that with rapidly changing…

Apr 5, 2018

Visualisation in ggplot2

ggplot2 workshop for the Open Science and Reproducibility event.

Mar 28, 2018

R workshop for university teachers

R workshop for teachers from the University of Groningen.

Jan 22, 2018

R workshop for municipality employees

R workshop for employees from the municipality in Groningen.

Jan 11, 2018

Easy visualisation in ggplot2

My first R workshop.