Batja Mesquita

In 2020, Batja received an Advanced Grant, funded by the European Research Council under the H2020 programme, for the project called EmotionAcculturation. The Advanced Grants support Principal Investigators that have established excellent research achievements. The project is responsible for investigating how emotions, as crucial interaction processes, reflect on immigrant minorities’ social inclusion and wellbeing.

Interested by the contrast between the ethnographic findings of marked cultural differences in emotions and psychological research that yielded universality, Mesquita set out to understand the role of culture in emotions. In an extensive literature review that appeared in Psychological Bulletin, she and Nico H. Frijda arrived at a synthesis of the research findings from different disciplines, which challenged the notion of universal basic emotions. They concluded that, while some aspects of emotions may be universal, other aspects are cross-culturally different. In later work, Mesquita found that cultural differences in emotions are systematic and meaningful, and can be understood from cultural differences in self and relationship models (e.g., Mesquita, 2003). The finding of systematic and meaningful cultural differences led Mesquita to formulate a socio-cultural theory of emotions. According to this theory, emotions emerge from interpersonal interactions that are bound and guided by cultural meanings and practices. Her current research focuses on unveiling the interpersonal processes that give rise to cross-culturally different emotions. In another line of research, Mesquita and her colleagues study the consequences of cultural differences in emotions for the multicultural society. They have yielded evidence for emotional acculturation: Emotions change as a result of contact with another culture. The work on acculturation shows the role of culture in producing and reproducing emotions, even beyond their initial socialization. It has also led to a cultural psychological theory of acculturation, in which ‘deep’ psychological processes, such as emotions, change upon contact with another culture. Mesquita’s research interests include the consequences of emotional misfit of immigrant minorities for their belonging to and inclusion in majority culture. The recently published book, Between Us, highlights precisely this theory. It combines a diversity of psychological research and intimate personal stories from different cultures. Notwithstanding, Between Us was nominated for The Next Big Idea. It was also part of the Behavioral Scientist's Summer Book List 2022 and reviewed by Science and The New Yorker.

Mesquita married Michael Zajonc in 1994, they have two children together, Oliver and Zoë. She has been married to Benny Carlé since 2012.

Mesquita was born in Amsterdam in 1960 to Jewish Dutch parents who had survived the World War II in hiding. Her father, Albert Gomes de Mesquita was a class mate of Anne Frank. Her mother, Lien de Jong, was orphaned in the war. Both parents were educated, and the family lived a comfortable middle-class life. Mesquita has two younger brothers.