
Zoom Psychology & Law Symposium
7th edition 2025
The Zoom-Psychology and Law Symposium (Z-PLS) is a recurring online symposium addressing topics in the area of psychology and law. Z-PLS, launched in 2020, is a collaboration between Maastricht University, KU Leuven, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the University of Bari Aldo Moro.
The goal is to 'zoom' in on topical issues in the legal psychological domain by inviting experts to discuss their perspectives on psychology and law topics. Thanks to its free and accessible approach, Z-PLS has reached a wide variety academics, legal professionals and students from all around the world.
On May 22nd, 2025 we are organizing the 7th edition of Zoom-Psychology and Law Symposium (Z-PLS 7.0)
In this edition, we will zoom-in on misinformation: its forms, scope, and prevention. The program will feature talks that explore how misinformation manifests across various domains, as well as strategies to understand and mitigate its effects. We will also host a round table discussion on the topic “Counteracting misinformation: Can it be done and how?”, where we will examine diverse approaches to combating misinformation in different fields.
Initiated by
> Prof. dr. Henry Otgaar
> Dr. Irena Boskovic
> Dr. Ivan Mangiulli
Organizing Committee
> Prof. dr. Henry Otgaar
> Dr. Irena Boskovic
> Dr. Ivan Mangiulli
> Dr. Paul Riesthuis
> Dr. Fabiana Battista
> Dr. Charlotte Bücken
> Dr. Tamara De Beuf
> PhD. candidate Mara Moldoveanu
> MSc. Zorica Kojic

Program Z-PLS 7.0
Speakers Z-PLS 7.0
Thank you for your valuable participation in this year's edition of Z-PLS.
Check our website for news regarding next editions!

Sacha Altay
Sacha Altay is a behavioural scientist working on misinformation, social media and the news. He’s currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Zurich, and holds a PhD in cognitive science from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Ciara Greene
Ciara Greene is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at University College Dublin, and co-author of Memory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember. Her work focuses on the reconstructive nature of memory, examining the development of false and distorted memories across a range of contexts. Her research interests include the effects of misinformation and “fake news” on cognition and behaviour. Ciara’s research is funded by the Irish Research Council and the Health Research Board of Ireland.

Gillian Murphy
Gillian Murphy is an Associate Professor in the School of Applied Psychology, University College Cork, Ireland. She leads the Everyday Cognition Lab and is generally interested in understanding cognition in day-to-day life, especially in the areas of memory distortion, misinformation and human-computer interaction. She also has a special interest in the ethics of deceptive research practices.

Michael Geers
Michael Geers is an assistant professor of Marketing at the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin. His research primarily focuses on consumer behavior in online environments. Specifically, he explores how consumers process information and make decisions online, currently pertaining to misinformation and microtargeting. Michael holds a PhD in Psychology (Humboldt University of Berlin), a Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences (University of Pennsylvania), an MSc in Marketing (Trinity College Dublin), and a BA in Business Administration (Provadis School of International Management and Technology).

Stephan Lewandowsky
Stephan Lewandowsky is a cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol. His research examines people’s memory, decision making, and knowledge structures, with a particular emphasis on how people update their memories if information they consider to be true turns out to be false. He is interested in people’s responses to misinformation and propaganda, and how corrections affect our memory and why people reject well-established scientific facts such as climate change. Stephan is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council.

Marina Wimmer
Marina Wimmer is an international expert in Cognition. She is currently leading the “The centre for mind and creativity research – CEDAR” which vision is to examine Cognition in a fast changing world and to use the knowledge from Cognition in the building of our environment. Marina holds a PhD from Stirling University and has had various research positions at Stirling University, Lancaster University and Warwick University researching topics such as false memories, mental imagery, and pictorial representation. She currently works as an Associate Professor at Edinburgh Napier University.

Frédéric Tomas
Frédéric Tomas is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication and Cognition at Tilburg University. His work focuses on miscommunication. His current interests expand to the use of technology to foster (mis)communication, such as undrstanding why we believe conspiracy theories, how AI is used in the criminal justice system, or how AI can be leveraged to counter misinformative content. Frédéric has trained multiple field actors on the matters of deception and critical thinking.

Charlotte Bücken
Charlotte Bücken is a legal psychologist interested in misinformation effects in the legal arena. Her current research focuses on misinformation exposure prior to forensic interviews and possible ways to counter the effects of such misinformation. Charlotte is a post-doctoral researcher at KU Leuven, and holds PhD in psychology criminology from KU Leuven and PhD in psychology from Maastricht University.
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