Jeroen van Baar

Jeroen van Baar is an interdisciplinary researcher and author. He studies the ways in which psychology and the brain shape society. As of 1 September 2024 he is a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University (Mailman School of Public Health). Prior to this he was a staff scientist at the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction (Trimbos Institute), specializing in the socioeconomic drivers of mental health.

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Jeroen studied psychology and cognitive neuroscience at Utrecht and ENS Paris. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2019 at the Donders Institute of Radboud University Nijmegen with a thesis on the psychology and neuroscience of moral decision-making. He then spent two years at Brown University as a post-doc working on the politically polarized brain.

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In Fall 2013 he was a member of the National Think Tank, researching the future of health care in the Netherlands alongside 25 other students. In January 2014, he published the book De Prestatiegeneratie on achievement anxiety in youth. And in 2016 he was a fellow of the BKB Academy, a training program on political campaigns and media.

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Articles by Jeroen have appeared in outlets including De Volkskrant, NRC Handelsblad, De Groene Amsterdammer, Donders Wonders and Psychology Today. He has given dozens of invited talks on how scientific insights can advance our understanding of and improve society.

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Academic publications: Google Scholar.