Eliska Prochazkova
Postdoc
- Name
- Dr. E. Prochazkova MSc
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2727
- e.prochazkova@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-4709-8485
Dr. Eliska Prochazkova uses neuroscientific methods to understand the biological systems that underlie human’s (pro)social behaviour, for example love, trust collaboration), with the aim to bring these findings towards application(s) in society.
More information about Eliska Prochazkova
News
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Leiden researchers receive Ig Nobel Prize for research into romantic click -
Mariska Kret: ‘The arrogance of thinking we’re better than animals is downright stupid’ -
Psychology Awards 2021 -
‘Heart rate and skin conductance predict romantic attraction’
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Aspasia grant for promising researchers in psychology -
Pupil size of discussion partners reflects trust
Dr. Eliska Prochazkova uses neuroscientific methods to understand the biological systems that underlie human’s (pro)social behaviour, for example love, trust collaboration), with the aim to bring these findings towards application(s) in society.
Research
In August 2020, Prochazkova started her 3-year post-doc position at the faculty of Social Sciences of Leiden University and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in which she is developing virtual reality training to better prepare police officers for mentally and emotionally challenging work situations. This research is taking place in two countries: the Czech Republic and the Netherlands and is expected to expand to many more countries in the following years.
Short CV
Eliska Prochazkova graduated from Heriot-Watt University, Faculty of Life Sciences, with a First-Class Honours degree in Applied Psychology in 2013. After a MSc degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Amsterdam in 2015, Prochazkova was awarded the NWO talent grant, which offers talented and ambitious young researchers a platform to carry out their Ph.D. research. In her Ph.D. Prochazkova employed many neuroscientific tools, e.g., pupillometry and fMRI, to understand the neurobehavioral pathways through which emotions influence (pro)social behaviors. For example, in one of her multidisciplinary studies, she tackled the topic of romantic love. In this research, she measured people's nonverbal behavior, e.g. eye gaze, facial expression, and physiology, e.g. skin conductance and heart rate, during couples’ first dates. This project revealed that overt signals such as smiles, laughter, eye gaze, or the mimicry of those signals were not significantly associated with attraction. Instead, attraction was predicted by synchrony in heart rate and skin conductance between partners, which are covert, unconscious and difficult to regulate. These findings suggest that interpersonal attraction is reflected in subconscious physiological alignment, which opens a completely new avenue for studying human relationships. Prochazkova finished her Ph.D. with Cum laude at CoPAN Lab in 2021.
Prochazkova about her experiment at Lowlands festival
Postdoc
- Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen
- Instituut Psychologie
- Cognitieve Psychologie
- Prochazkova E., Venneker D., Zwart R. de, Tamietto M. & Kret M.E. (2022), Conscious awareness is necessary to assess trust and mimic facial expressions, while pupils impact trust unconsciously, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 377(1863): 20210183.
- Prochazkova E., Sjak-Shie E., Behrens F., Lindh D. & Kret M.E. (2022), Physiological synchrony is associated with attraction in a blind date setting, Nature Human Behaviour : .
- Samara I., Roth T.S., Nikolic M., Prochazkova E. & Kret M.E. (2022), Can third-party observers detect attraction in others based on subtle nonverbal cues? , Current Psychology : .
- Prochazkova E. (4 March 2021), Connecting minds and sharing emotions through human mimicry (Dissertatie. Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden University). Supervisor(s) and Co-supervisor(s): Dreu C.K.W. de, Kret M.E.
- Roth T.S., Samara I., Tan J., Prochazkova E. & Kret M. E (2021), A comparative framework of inter-individual coördination and pair-bonding, Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 39: 98-105.
- Kret M.E., Prochazkova E., Sterck E.H. & Clay Z. (2020), Emotional expressions in human and non-human great apes, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 115: 378-395.
- Behrens F., Snijdewint J.A., Moulder R.G., Prochazkova E., Sjak-Shie E.E., Boker S.M. & Kret M.E. (2020), Physiological synchrony is associated with cooperative success in real-life interactions, Scientific Reports 10(1): 1-9.
- Prochazkova E., Prochazkova L., Rojek Giffin M., Scholte H.S., De Dreu C.K.W. & Kret M.E. (2018), Reply to Mathot and Naber: Neuroimaging shows that pupil mimicry is a social phenomenon, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(50): E11566-E11567.
- Prochazkova E., Prochazkova L., Giffin M.R., Scholte H.S., De Dreu C.K.W. & Kret M.E. (2018), Pupil mimicry promotes trust through the theory-of-mind network, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(31): E7265-E7274.
- Prochazkova E. & Kret M.E. (2017), Connecting minds and sharing emotions through mimicry: A Neurocognitive Model of Emotional Contagion, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 80: 99-114.