Wilma Kannegieter obtained bachelor’s degrees in theology/religious studies (BA, 1987) and psychology (BSc, 2010), trained as a language teacher (English and Dutch) and has worked in the field of (language) education, media and technology. She is now enrolled in the master’s program Theology and Religion: Exploring a Discipline. Her main interest is in why people believe what they believe, focusing on deviant (extreme) belief systems, heresies, cults and conspiracy theories in both past and present and more specifically on psychological mechanisms and how deviating convictions were/are perceived, cultured and countered by ingroup and outgroup processes.

As an intern with the Extreme Beliefs project Wilma is involved in finding ways to translate research output to different non-academic target groups using multimedia and e-learning.