PhD Position; FTE): Emotions in Regulatory Politics

Psychological sciences » Behavioural sciences

Psychological sciences » Cognitive science

Organisation/Company Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) Research Field Political sciences » Governance Political sciences » Public policy Psychological sciences » Behavioural sciences Psychological sciences » Cognitive science Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Final date to receive applications 15 Apr 2026 - 21:59 (UTC) Country Netherlands Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Not Applicable Hours Per Week 36.0 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

This fully funded four-year PhD position is part of the VIDI research project “Emotion-Infused Risk Regulation:
Rethinking the Fundamentals of Regulatory Governance for Citizen-Centric Rule making”, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and led by Dr. Dovilė Rimkutė. The VIDI project investigates the role of emotions in regulatory governance, examining how emotions shape both regulators’ formulation of rules and citizens’ reception of regulatory responses.

The project is structured around three interlinked objectives:

• Emotion and Regulatory Responsiveness:
  To what extent and why do regulators respond to citizens’ emotion-laden concerns?
• Citizens’ Emotional Responses in Regulatory Encounters:
  To what extent and how are citizens’ emotions elicited during interactions with regulators?
• Emotions and Regulatory Legitimacy:
  What are the effects of citizens’ emotions on their perceptions of regulators’ legitimacy?

Read more about this research agenda in the following link:
Affective regulatory governance: towards an emotion-based understanding of citizen-regulator interactions in regulatory politics.

The PhD project will contribute to the emerging research agenda on affective regulatory governance, with a particular focus on regulatory responsiveness to citizens’ emotionally charged concerns (Objective
1). Specifically, the project will examine when and under what conditions regulators respond to citizens’ emotion‑laden reactions—such as anger, fear, or anxiety regarding regulatory conduct. The project will analyze these dynamics across different regulatory domains (e.g., health, environment, financial regulation) and multiple levels of the EU governance system (supranational and national). It will investigate how independent regulators exercise their discretionary authority when responding to affective citizen concerns, particularly when addressing emerging societal risks that demand regulatory interventions.

Empirically, the PhD project employs a rigorous mixed‑methods design, combining survey experiments with interviews involving top‑level EU and national regulators.

Your duties

As a PhD candidate, you will complete a cumulative dissertation within four years at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration. Your dissertation will consist of approximately six chapters, including four experimental and qualitative studies prepared as journal articles.

Working closely with your interdisciplinary supervisory team led by Dr. Dovilė Rimkutė, you will play an integral role in advancing the VIDI project’s first objective on regulatory responsiveness. You will design and conduct survey experiments and semi‑structured interviews with EU and national regulators, collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data, and disseminate findings through conference presentations, publications in high‑quality international journals, and publicly accessible policy outputs (e.g., reports and policy briefs).

The allocation of your time will be determined in consultation with the Principal Investigator, with a typical balance of approximately 0.95 FTE dedicated to research and 0.05 FTE to teaching activities within the department’s teaching programmes.

As a core member of the recently founded Regulatory Behavior Lab, you will actively contribute to shaping its scientific profile and visibility. You will engage in collaborative research, participate in lab meetings, and help bridge academic and practitioner communities—for instance, by…