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‘Our research on perceived justice and uncertainty helps citizens and public organizations to trust societal changes, yielding more sustainable and human-friendly interactions in our society’

Kees van den Bos, Professor of Governance, Chair Organizational Development and Leadership for Societal Transitions

Social Justice and Societal Change
 

The research and organizational advice of Kees van den Bos and colleagues focuses on the role that perceived (in)justice plays in trust and (warranted and unwarranted) distrust in core democratic values and the rule of law. In his chair he examines with colleagues key changes in society. People are often uncertain about their role in society. They are therefore looking for information to remove this uncertainty. When they are treated in just ways by important societal authorities (such as civil servants or work supervisors but also judges and politicians) this can lead to interpersonal trust as well as trust in public organizations, social institutions, and society in general. In contrast, perceived injustice feeds societal conflict and can contribute to polarization and radicalization.

Research

Together with colleagues, he systematically addresses basic questions pertaining to the experience of (in)justice and (2) uses the insights thus obtained to understand complex social and societal phenomena that revolve around social conflict, trust and distrust in society, perceived fair and unfair treatment, morality, cultural worldviews, pro-social behavior, radicalization, extremism and terrorism. These insights are applied in important societal contexts, especially in the domain of how citizens and public organizations can approach and lead transitions in society, including issues of climate change and the need to engage with each other in more humane ways. Topics that he and his research team study include the issue of fair processes in government-citizen interactions, the role of group deprivation and breaches of morality in terrorism and radical behavior, and the psychological processes that lead people to trust government and important social institutions.

Short CV

Kees van den Bos is a Professor at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ since 2001, based at the School of Governance as of 2025. Van den Bos has published more than 300 publications, including several publications in high-impact outlets. He received his Ph.D. cum laude at Leiden ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ in 1996 on the issue of procedural justice and conflict. He won the dissertation award of the Association of Dutch Social Psychologists, and obtained several competitive research grants, including a fellowship of the Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, VICI and Gravitation grants from the Dutch national science foundation, and several research grants from Dutch ministries. He was an associate or a senior associate editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the European Journal of Social Psychology, and Social Justice Research. A former chair of his department for several years, Kees was the Psychology Teacher of the Year three times at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Kees is a first-generation student.

Some publications

• The Fair Process Effect (2024, Cambridge ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ Press)
• Social Psychology and Law (2021, Handbook of Basic Principles)
• Unfairness and Radicalization (2020, Annual Review)
• Empirical Legal Research (2020, Elgar)
• Why People Radicalize (2018, Oxford ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ Press)
• Inhibition of Benign Social Motives (2013, Advances)
• Subjective Quality of Social Justice (2003, JPSP)
• Uncertainty Management by Means of Fairness Judgments (2001, Advances)
• How do I Judge my Outcome (1997, JPSP)

(For highlights of more applied work, please see the Dutch version of this website)