David Sander

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Professor

University of Geneva — Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (CISA)
Psychology

General Information


David Sander is professor at the University of Geneva where he holds the Chair for the psychology of emotion. He studied mathematics and psychology at the University René Descartes (Paris, France), and received a PhD in Cognitive Sciences from the University Louis Lumière (Lyon, France).

In 2002, he joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). He is now full professor in this Department where he directs the Laboratory for the study of Emotion Elicitation and Expression. 

In 2012, he has been appointed Director of the Centre Interfacultaire en Sciences Affectives (CISA), and of the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) in Affective Sciences, which is located at the Campus Biotech. He directed the CISA between 2012 and 2024 when he became vice-dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education.

He is mainly interested in the brain and cognitive mechanisms involved in emotion elicitation, and how these mechanisms modulate attention, memory, and decision-making. He has published more than 150 articles and edited 6 books on these topics. For his work, he was awarded the 2013 National Latsis Prize.

Research field


Research in the Laboratory for the study of Emotion Elicitation and Expression (E3 Lab) investigates the cognitive and brain mechanisms involved in the appraisal of relevant stimuli, and how these processes elicit emotions, and modulate attention, learning, memory, and decision-making. The Laboratory for the study of Emotion Elicitation and Expression conduct their experiments on the sites of the Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, of Uni Mail, and of the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences at the Campus Biotech.

List of publications


2026

Scientific articles

Thesis supervisions

2025

Scientific articles

Thesis supervisions

2024

Scientific articles

2023

Scientific articles

Book chapters

2022

Scientific articles

Book chapters

  • Zaharia, A., Dell’Angela, L., Sander, D., & Samson, A. C. (2022). Play and games: means to support emotional development [Book Chapter]. In Dukes, D., Samson, A.C. & Walle, E. (Ed.), Handbook of Emotional Development (pp. 354–370). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198855903.013.9

Thesis supervisions

2021

Scientific articles

Thesis supervisions

2020

Scientific articles

2019

Scientific articles

Thesis supervisions

2018

Scientific articles

Professional articles

Thesis supervisions

2017

Scientific articles

Edited books

  • Sander, D., & Herschdorfer, N. (2017). Emotions [Edited Book]. Benteli.

Book chapters

Thesis supervisions

2016

Scientific articles

Journal issues

Edited books

Book chapters

  • Brosch, T., & Sander, D. (2016). From values to valuation: an interdisciplinary approach to the study of value [Chapitre de livre]. In T. Brosch & D. Sander (Editor), Handbook of Value: Perspectives from Economics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology. Handbook of Value: Perspectives from Economics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198716600.003.0019

Thesis supervisions

2015

Scientific articles

Thesis supervisions

2014

Scientific articles

2013

Scientific articles

Book chapters

Thesis supervisions

2012

Scientific articles

Book chapters

Thesis supervisions

2011

Scientific articles

Book chapters

  • Coppin, G., & Sander, D. (2011). The Flexibility of Chemosensory Preferences [Book Chapter]. In R.J. Dolan and T. Sharot (Ed.), Neuroscience of preference and choice. Cognitive and neural mechanisms (pp. 257–275). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-381431-9.00021-8

Thesis supervisions

2010

Scientific articles

Book chapters

2009

Scientific articles

Edited books

Book chapters

Proceedings chapters

  • Chrea, C., Delplanque, S., Grandjean, D. M., Cayeux, I., Le Calvé, B., Margot, C., Velazco, M. I., Sander, D., & Scherer, K. R. (2009). Toward a Domain-specific Scale to Verbally Measure Odour-elicited Emotions [Proceedings Chapter]. In Abstracts from the XVIIIth Congress of European Chemoreception Research Organization, ECRO–2008 (p. E42). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjn083

Thesis supervisions

2008

Scientific articles

Book chapters

2007

Scientific articles

Proceedings chapters

2005

Scientific articles

2004

Scientific articles