The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded 400.000 euros in funding to Lotte van Dillen, associate professor at the unit of Social, Economic and Organizational Psychology. With this grant, Lotte van Dillen will investigate how daily distractions influence our dietary consumption habits and glucose dynamics.
The grant allows Lotte van Dillen to start up a new project entitled ‘Distracted and disaffected. How daily
distractions influence our dietary consumption habits and glucose dynamics’. ‘We have a lot on our minds and often eat and drink behind the television, the wheel, or the computer. At the same time, our eating habits have become more unhealthy and overweight and diabetes are increasing in the population. This project will test the relationship between these observations, by examining how distraction affects our eating and drinking habits and metabolic glucose dynamics’, explains Van Dillen.
‘The proposal builds upon the work of a previous NWO-ORA project that we just finished, and for which
the last findings are currently being written up, so the timing is perfect. I had presented similar ideas twice before in the VIDI interview and just missed out on both occasions. This was of course quite frustrating,
especially because I was so enthusiastic about it myself. But perhaps it needed a bit more development
and polishing – in any case I am happy that it was successful this time around. The project involves a
mixture of quite technical, fundamental research with more explorative co-creation with citizens. I like
this kind of combination because it allows you to develop theory and examine how it could play out in the real world. This kind of approach calls for a strong, interdisciplinary team so I am grateful to be able to do this project in an environment that facilitates this kind of work and with many talented colleagues around who can think along.’