My name is Amarins Jansma, I am a PhD Candidate at the departments of Social Psychology and History of International Relations, and I study the motivations and action strategies of the environmental and climate movement.

Motivation

Personally, I am very concerned about climate change, institutional racism, and social inequality. As I participated in protests, I noticed that more people shared these concerns. This sparked my curiosity about protesters' different motivations for taking action and what kind of actions they think are (or will be) needed. To study this, I wrote a research proposal for a PhD project that I started in 2020 under supervision of prof. Kees van den Bos and prof. Beatrice de Graaf.

In the video below, I explain (in Dutch) more about my research interest and why I think it is important to contribute to a just world:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbAMHmQd9Ec

Questions that concern me include: Why does one concerned citizen stay home while the other is on the barricade? What makes some protesters employ strategies of civil disobedience while other groups do not (or cannot) use these tactics? How do individuals and groups legitimize lawbreaking, define violence, and when do they become sympathetic to such tactics? How is it that "left-wing" action groups (relative to right-wing and religious groups) remain nonviolent while often facing police conflict during protests? And what role do past memories and future expectations play in contemporary activism?

Research

In my research, I aim to contextualize the psychology of unfairness with historical insights. I do this by combining social psychological theories and methodologies with historical research. My research focuses on theories of perceived unfairness, historical injustice frames, processes of radicalization and non-radicalization, intergroup conflict, and moral principles. Specifically, I explore whether perceived unfairness, whether recent or historically grounded, is a key driver that drives the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals.

Ethical research practices are of paramount importance to me. Following Open Science principles, I use pre-registration, publish open access, and aim to communicate my research insights both within and outside the academic domain in an open and transparent manner. Safeguarding my role as an independent researcher is very important to me, as is constantly reflecting on the influence of my own position, perspectives and background in my research. I believe that high-quality scientific research can contribute to a better understanding of the social discontent of both protest groups that radicalize towards law-breaking or violent behavior, but also movements and individuals who do not radicalize and, in fact, function peacefully within the democratic rule of law.