Henk Dekker (1949) studied Political Science at the Free University in Amsterdam (1966-1972), taught Social Studies at a secondary school (1970-1975), and received his Ph.D. from Groningen University (1986).
He has been Professor for the "Social-Scientific Study of the Germany-Netherlands Relationships" at Utrecht University since 1998 and Associate Professor of Political Science at Leiden University since 1992.

He also serves as director of education of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of Leiden University and as director of the European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations at Utrecht University. He is member of the Netherlands Institute of Government’s Advisory Council, member of the Advisory Committee on Social Studies of the Dutch Ministry of Education and Sciences, member of the Advisory Committee for the Civics and Citizenship Education research project of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, and served as vice-chair of the International Political Science Association's Research Committee on Political Socialization and Political Education.
He chairs, together with Tereza Capelos, the Political Psychology Standing Group of the European Consortium for Political Research. In 2005, he together with Tereza Capelos organized the Political Psychology Section at the General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research in Budapest, hosting 40 scholars and 12 panels.

His courses focus on Political Psychology, Political Socialization, and National Identities and Stereotypes. He received the 2002 Casimir Award for best teacher of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of Leiden University.

His research focuses on explaining political behavior, political cynicism, nationalism, national stereotypes, and citizenship behavior and attitudes. Publications include: ‘The Internet and Political Socialization: Political Party Websites and their Effectiveness’ (together with A. In ‘t Veld, in: Farnen, R. F., et al., Democratization, Europeanization, and Globalization Trends, Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2005, pp. 41-67), ‘Nationalism and Its Explanations’ (together with D. Malová and S. Hoogendoorn, in: Political Psychology 24, 2, 2003, pp. 345-376), and ‘Political competence of the younger generation in Western Europe: creating a context for future national and European political socialization research’ (in: Farnen, R. F. ed., Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Identity, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2004, 427-439).

In 2006, he received the Nevitt Sanford Award from the International Society of Political Psychology. He would like to expand ISPP's membership in- and outside the United States, inform scholars within Europe about the ISPP and make them enthusiast about the society, support graduate students in political psychology and make the society younger, promote more political psychology university programs at the undergraduate and graduate level, and to support interdisciplinary and cross-national perspectives and methodological pluralism in political psychology research and teaching.