In one way or another, most people want to understand social life. How can we understand the ways in which individuals, groups, and even nations approach each other - and how they interact with each other? How can we understand the development of trusting, cooperative interactions in which people benefit from mutual help? How can be understand the development of selfish or competitive interactions? What are the functions of fairness, empathy, generosity, forgiveness, and gratitude? And what are the functions of competition, retaliation, and even hate?

Scientifically, social interaction is one of the most comprehensive and challenging topics one can address. Most inside-the-head phenomena (such as feelings of trust, empathy, or sympathy) are, at some level, of part of a system guiding us how we should approach another person, and most inside-the-head phenomena help us to make sense of the social world around us. And societally, if we really understand social interactions, then we are much better equipped at understanding several key questions - how can we improve unselfish behavior in relationships and small groups, how can we promote energy-friendly actions, how can we optimize coordination in traffic and elsewhere, how can we improve interactions among ethnically diverse groups, and even how can we prevent or resolve conflict between groups and broad forms of international conflict.

My research focuses on several topics that center on social interaction, such as cooperation and competition, prosocial orientation, forgiveness, trust, generosity, and misunderstanding. These phenomena are often studied in the social psychology laboratory at the Vrije Universiteit.

Self-interest is overestimated inside and outside of science

My original interests focused on extensions of the assumption of rational self-interest, thereby addressing the concept of social value orientation. In particular, my earlier research illuminated the theoretical and predictive value of prosocial, individualistic, and competitive orientation in determining motivation, cognition, and behavior in social interaction situations, social development contexts, political contexts, and ongoing relationships (see Van Lange & Kuhlman, 1994; Van Lange, Otten et al., 1997).

Generosity outperforms reciprocity (or stinginess) in most situations

Rather than giving an eye for an eye and engaging in social book-keeping, my research seeks to delineate the circumstances under which acts of sacrifice, generosity, and forgiveness provide benefits through interaction - an issue strongly relevant to the evolution of cooperation. For example, my research (with several colleagues) has provided evidence in support of the functionality of sacrifice in ongoing relationships, generosity in situations in which misunderstands are bound to happen, and forgiveness in committed relationships (see Van Lange et al., 1997; van Lange, Ouwerkerk, & Tazelaar, 2002; Karremans et al., 2003). Among the various issues, I seek to extend this line of research by examining the functionality of honesty (i.e., genuine and open communication), gratitude, and clarity, especially in situations in which misunderstandings are bound to happen.

Bridging Social psychology is essential for genuine scientific progress

My activities also center on examining "bridges" between social psychology and other fields of psychology or disciplines - such as neurosciences, other fields of psychology, and economics (see Van Lange, 2006). Also, I intend to examine the utility of social psychological theories by examining not only standards such as Truth, Abstraction, and Progress, but also Applicability to Society. At present, I am editing (with Arie Kruglanski and Tory Higgins) a Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology, in which applicability of theory is part of the Handbook's mission.

Keywords:

Bridging Social Psychology
Cooperation and competition
Forgiveness
Generosity
Impression formation
Interdependence
Morality
Noise and Misunderstanding
Social dilemma
Social interaction
Social value orientation