What are we researching?
SPICE is a collaborative research hub that investigates how Sexuality, Pleasure, Identity, Culture, and Emotion shape our everyday lives, our relationships, and our societies.
Our research spans topics such as:
- how cultural stereotypes become embedded in sexual fantasies;
- how to improve young people’s sexual health and well-being;
- how pleasure, humour, and play can challenge power structures or reveal hidden social injustices.
Why are we doing this research?
Sexuality, pleasure, identity, culture, and emotion are all powerful forces that bring people together, but they also produce boundaries and inequalities that influence public health, well-being, and social justice. Yet despite their wide-reaching impact, they remain underexplored and often stigmatized in science and society. SPICE works to change that.
How are we doing this research?
SPICE stimulates interdisciplinary, open, and team-based science. We are not tied to one method. Instead, we creatively combine qualitative and quantitative approaches drawn from the social sciences and beyond. Our toolbox includes, for example, serious games, Q-methodology, Natural Language Processing, experiments with physiological measures, and other innovative techniques.
We make use of the research facilities offered by the Erasmus Behavioural Lab, and build on the expertise in creative design, interdisciplinary collaboration and strong commitment to impact of the core research team and its network.
How does this research make an impact?
Using fun, humour, and creativity as catalysts for curiosity and connection, SPICE sparks cutting-edge research collaborations and exchange between scholars, teachers, students, and public partners. Together, we aim to deepen our understanding of SPICE topics and spark meaningful social dialogue that helps challenge inequality and promote collective well-being.
To this end, we regularly feature in newspapers, on radio and television, host popular lecture nights, collaborate with theatre and festivals, and produce podcasts, explainer videos, and game-based interventions.
Examples include multiple podcasts with De Universiteit van Nederland, public-facing social science experiments at Lowlands Science, sold-out ‘Let’s Talk About Sex’ lecture nights, and policy briefs that inform stakeholders and policymakers about effective interventions.