Helen Pluut (Department of Business Studies) will discuss diary studies as an example of multilevel research designs in an online-offline hybrid session of the series Empirical Methods in Legal Research.

Multilevel analysis applies to any research design where data from participants are organized at more than one level, such as students nested in classrooms, researchers nested in project teams, and insolvency practitioners nested in districts. Also, when the same information is repeatedly collected over time, the data are of a multilevel nature. Daily diaries are an example of this. In her talk, Pluut will discuss various ways of researching daily life and how to analyze such data.

Law intersects with almost every aspect of daily life. Legislators hope to change everyday behavior in such a way that societies, markets, and environments are safe. It may be relevant for legal scholars to study what people do in their everyday lives and how they respond to rules. Researching daily life can help to unravel some of the behavioral mechanisms at play.

Helen Pluut studied Organisation Studies and obtained her PhD at Tilburg University (Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences). She has been affiliated with Leiden Law School since 2016 and is head of the Empirical Legal Studies Lab at this faculty. She has published mainly survey studies in the area of organisational psychology. You can find her publications on her personal profile page.

The working language of this session is English. Please register with Asmaa Khadim by 16 November 2021 (a.n.khadim@law.leidenuniv.nl), and indicate whether you plan to attend online or in-person. You will receive an email confirmation with link needed to access the online session.