Francesca Righetti is an Associate Professor at the Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology at the VU Amsterdam. Francesca’s research focuses on the psychology of close relationships, investigating processes related to relationship quality and maintenance.

For example, she studies what happens when partners’ needs and interests diverge: when people decide to sacrifice for one another, how these sacrifices are perceived and communicated, and what they mean for personal and relational well-being. She also investigates relationship evaluations that are neither simply positive nor negative, such as ambivalence and indifference, and how these evaluations, both explicit and implicit, shape relationships over time. Other work examines the roles of self-regulation, trust, and perceived partner responsiveness in helping relationships thrive.

To address these questions, she combines experiments, daily diary and longitudinal studies with both partners, observation of couple interactions, implicit measures, and meta-analysis.

Her research has been funded by several grants and has received recognition from several international scientific societies. More details can be found in her CV See Curriculum Vitae

Are you interested in learning how to do research in Social Psychology? Check our Research Master in Social Psychology! Research Master in Social Psychology VU Amsterdam