Jan Antfolk

We’re excited to share that the Psych-AID research team has received funding from the Nordic Gender Fund! 🎉

This support means a great deal to us and enables us to take the next steps in our work. We’re looking forward to what’s ahead — stay tuned for more updates soon!➡️

Field reflections from training Finnish asylum officials Abstract. Evaluating asylum claims has been described as one of the most challenging forms of decision-making in the modern state. Recent research has high

📢 New paper alert by Jenny Skrifvars and Julia Korkman!

📑 The paper presents field-based reflections from a training programme for Finnish asylum officials, identifying organisational challenges and their implications for interview practices and well-being.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jrs/...

🎉 Thrilled to announce our international conference on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Asylum Decision-Making!

📍 Turku, Finland | 📅 15–17 Oct 2026

🔎 Find out more and stay updated via our website — details on the program, speakers, and registration coming soon: lnkd.in/dpjR-JvY

Some shots from Hedayat Selim's doctoral defence last month. Professor Hilary Evans Cameron (Toronto Metropolitan University) served as opponent, and Prof. @janantfolk.bsky.social as custos. Many congratulations to Dr Selim for this achievement!
🔗https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/193050

We are thrilled to bring back our Meet the Team series to introduce our newly recruited team members! Catharina Walldén has just joined the Psych-AID network as project manager. Aside from these responsibilities, Catharina is also a doctoral researcher in evolutionary psychology.

Psych-AID team members at wine tasting

Psych-AID team members at pizza dinner.

Paintings at an art exhibitions inside a green house

Psych-AID team members sitting outside on a porch.

🍂 Psych-AID kicked off fall in the Turku archipelago! We welcomed our new members with a visit to Nauvoo—exploring Paratiisi (combined winery and art gallery), kayaking, and ending with pizza & board games. We are excited for the season ahead!

The Psych-AID team is growing! We are happy to welcome Dilhan Töredi as a new postdoctoral researcher in our team. Dilhan will be working on applying an innovative experimental lie paradigm where the ground truth of asylum claims is known.

📢 New paper alert by Hedayat Selim and colleagues!

📑 In Finnish asylum interviews with sexual minority applicants, most questions focused on sexual orientation over persecution risk. More open questions could support fairer decisions.

🔗 lnkd.in/gz-2wPaD

Welcome Siyu Li to the Psych-AID team! 🎉 Siyu joins as a doctoral researcher, working on Avatar Training to help interviewers use better questions & supportive statements. Reach out for collabs!

📢 New pre-print alert by Malin Ekelund, Jenny Skrifvars, Hedayat Selim, and @janantfolk.bsky.social!

📑 The study explores how stereotypes and social perceptions shape credibility assessments in asylum cases involving sexual identity.

Link below!
🔗https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/acwp3_v1

New paper by my master student and me on why young people send sexts and how they react to sending/receiving them. Both girls and boys reported mostly positive reactions; reasons to send follow gender norms. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/C3GNV... (first 50 have free acccess):

Doctoral Researcher Hedayat Selim will publicly defend her doctoral thesis entitled "Psychological aspects in the evaluation of asylum claims based on sexual orientation" this coming Friday, 22 August 2025.

More information below:
🔗 www.abo.fi/en/event/pub...

📢 PROJECT FUNDING NEWS: To kick off the new academic year, the Psych-AID network is thrilled to share an exciting update: Our PI @janantfolk.bsky.social was recently awarded a research grant by the Research Council of Finland!

📢 New pre-print alert! In their new manuscript, @janantfolk.bsky.social, Laura Stevens, Emilia Lundsten, Jenny Skrifvars & Hedayat Selim use data from 255 respondents to investigate how personal immigration attitudes, gender, and age shape beliefs about asylum decisions.
🔗 osf.io/preprints/ps...

📢 Study participants needed! Do you speak Finnish and hold a masters degree? Help us investigate the factors influencing asylum decision-making by answering researcher Juliana Raitis' questionnaire. Participating takes no more than 5 minutes! redcap.abo.fi/surveys/?s=L...

The 2024 annual report of Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi / The Åbo Akademi Foundation has been published! Among the highlights featured is our very own Centre of Excellence, @psychaid.bsky.social led by PI @janantfolk.bsky.social. Read it below here (available in Swedish)!
arsberattelse.stiftelsenabo.fi

Last week, our doctoral researchers Obed Kwame Appiah, Malin Ekelund, and Rasmus Ahlgren represented the Psych-AID Network by presenting their doctoral projects at the Nordic Asylum Law and Data Lab workshop at the University of Copenhagen.

NEW PRE PRINT ALERT!
Doctoral researcher Hedayat Selim and Psych-AID colleagues have conducted research on reasons reported by applicants for late disclosures of sexual orientation and consequences on the asylum decision.
Read full pre-print here - osf.io/preprints/ps...

Our PI Jan Antfolk presented research today at #APLS2025 on questions asked in official asylum interviews with sexual minorities. Findings show low use of open questions and reliance on western narratives of sexuality. Further research and training is needed!

Our post doc researcher Jenny Skrifvars presented today at #APLS2025 on developing & evaluating a training program in legal psychology for Finnish asylum officials. They found that officials' knowledge of best practice questioning improved post training & at 5 month follow up.