dr. Caspar van Lissa

Bio

For my up-to-date resumé, see: https://cjvanlissa.github.io/resume/

My research revolves around three themes: The “theory crisis” in social sciences, cumulative knowledge acquisition, and reliability of research findings. My primary veni-funded research line uses machine learning for rigorous exploration, and uses the resulting data-driven insights to complement blind spots in theory. My secondary research line focuses on evidence synthesis: Summarizing existing knowledge, e.g. through systematic reviews and meta-analysis. Specifically, I develop machine learning methods to account for heterogeneity in meta-analysis and to qualitatively summarize published literature. My third research line revolves around open science, in particular computational reproducibility. As statistical co-author, I support research in many societally relevant areas. 

Expertise

Statistical expertise

• Data science
• (Longitudinal) structural equation modeling
• Random forests and recursive partitioning
• Meta-analysis

Substantive expertise

• Adolescents' socio-emotional development
• Parent-child conflict resolution
• Fathers' role in child development

Academic resumé

• Bachelor Liberal Arts & Sciences (minors in statistics and neuroscience; University College Utrecht, 2007)
• MSc Social Psychology (cum laude; VU University, Amsterdam, 2011)
• PhD Adolescent development (Utrecht University, 2016)
• Postdoc Family sociology (Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2015-2018)

Teaching

The choice for an academic career was partly motivated by my passion for teaching. Since I had the opportunity to teach workgroups in my bachelor's degree (2007), I have continuously taught students with diverse background knowledge and motivation: from talent education for highschool students to summer schools for colleagues and evening classes for professionals. I take students seriously and focus on interactivity in my lectures; for example, by using a "flipped classroom": Students watch my lectures on YouTube, and lecture time is used for in-depth discussion and follow-up questions. I received the 2021 "Teacher of the year" award from USocia. I invest in educational innovation, particularly with regard to open science education, problem-based learning, and constructive alignment.

Courses

• Statistics 1 and 2 (LAS)

Collaboration

I strongly value collaboration. If you have an idea you want to discuss, please contact me for a meeting. For my ongoing collaborations, see my online resume.

Recent publications

1. Conceptual replication and extension of health behavior theories' pre…

   Abakoumkin, G., Tseliou, E., McCabe, K. O., Lemay, E. P., Stroebe, W., Agostini, M., Bélanger, J. J., Gützkow, B., Kreienkamp, J., Kutlaca, M., VanDellen, M. R., Abdul Khaiyom, J. H., Ahmedi, V., Akkas, H., Almenara, C. A., Atta, M., Bagci, S. C., Basel, S., Berisha Kida, E., ... Van Lissa, C. J. (2024). Conceptual replication and extension of health behavior theories' predictions in the context of COVID-19: Evidence across countries and over time. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 18(2), Article e12909.

2. Morality as cooperation, politics as conflict

   van Leeuwen, F., van Lissa, C. J., Papakonstantinou, T., Petersen, M. B., & Curry, O. S. (2024). Morality as cooperation, politics as conflict. Social Psychological Bulletin, 19, Article e10157. Advance online publication.

3. Identifying important individual- and country-level predictors of con…

   Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., Van Lissa, C. J., Stroebe, W., Kreienkamp, J., Agostini, M., Belanger, J. J., Guetzkow, B., Abakoumkin, G., Khaiyom, J. H. A., Ahmedi, V., Akkaş, H., Almenara, C. A., Atta, M., Bagci, S. C., Basel, S., Berisha Kida, E., Bernardo, A. B. I., Buttrick, N. R., ... Leander, N. P. (2023). Identifying important individual- and country-level predictors of conspiracy theorizing: A machine learning analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology, 53(6), 1191-1203.

4. Test-retest reliability of the STRAQ-1 - A registered report

   Dujols, O., Lindenberg, S., van Lissa, C. J., & IJzerman, H. (2023). Test-retest reliability of the STRAQ-1: A registered report. PsyArXiv Preprints.

5. Intentions to be vaccinated against COVID-19 - The role of prosociali…

   Enea, V., Eisenbeck, N., Carreno, D. F., Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., Agostini, M., Belanger, J. J., Gutzkow, B., Kreienkamp, J., Abakoumkin, G., Khaiyom, J. H. A., Ahmedi, V., Akkas, H., Almenara, C. A., Atta, M., Bagci, S. C., Basel, S., Kida, E. B., Bernardo, A. B., ... Leander, N. P. (2023). Intentions to be vaccinated against COVID-19: The role of prosociality and conspiracy beliefs across 20 countries. Journal of Health Communication, 38(8), 1530-1539.