Academic Bio
Nicolas Sommet received his PhD in social psychology from the University of Lausanne in 2014. His doctoral work focused on the structural antecedents and the interpersonal consequences of competitive goals (Sommet et al., 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017; for a review, see Butera et al., 2019).
After one year of post-doctoral training at the University of Geneva (2014-15), he received a UNIL/CHUV mobility fellowship to study at the University of Rochester, NY (2015-16). He kept working on achievement motivation (Sommet & Elliot, 2017), while developing a line of inquiry on inequality.
Then, Nicolas held a Junior Lecturer position at the NCCR LIVES (2016-20) and obtained a SNSF Ambizione fellowship to study the psychological effects of income inequality (2020-2024) and a SNSF Spark fellowship (co-applicant) to study the psychological effects of social class (2019-present).
During these years, he used cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental data to investigate the effects of residing in places with high income inequality on various outcomes such as health, well-being, trust, and competitiveness (for a review of these findings, see Sommet & Elliot, 2023).
Nicolas also published two humorous but rigorous primers on multilevel linear and logistic modeling (Sommet & Morselli, 2017, 2021) and co-developed a method and a web-app to facilitate power calculations when testing an interaction (Sommet et al., 2024).
Nicolas now holds a permanent research position at the LIVES Centre at the University of Lausanne.
Academic Positions
2024 - present. Research Officer
Swiss Centre of Expertise in Life Course Research
University of Lausanne (CH)
2020 - 2024. Lecturer Ambizione SNSF
Swiss Centre of Expertise in Life Course Research
University of Lausanne (CH)
Mar/Jun - 2022. Visiting Scholar
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (NC, US)
2016 - 2020. Junior Lecturer
National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES
University of Lausanne (CH)
2015 - 2016. Post-Doctoral Fellow
Department of Psychology,
University of Rochester (NY, USA)
2014 - 2015. Post-Doctoral Fellow
Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education
University of Geneva (CH)
2009 - 2014. Assistant/PhD student
Laboratory of Social Psychology
University of Lausanne (CH)
Grants
MAIN APPLICANT
2020. SNSF Ambizione Grant – 48 months
The Effects of Inequality on Psychological Functioning
2020. SNSF Spark Grant – 12 months
Advancing the Psychology of Social Class
2015. UNIL/CHUV Mobility – 18 months
The Psychological Consequences of Social Inequalities
OTHERS
2022. AAP IdeX Innovations Pédagogiques
« Stat to the point ! »
2021. ANR (research partner) – 42 months
From money scarcity to income inequality – COGPOV