Cretien van Campen (born 24 January 1963) is a Dutch author, editor and scientific researcher in social science and fine arts.

From the mid-nineties he focussed on multisensory perception and synesthesia in art and science, resulting in the bestselling Tussen zinnen in the Netherlands and the internationally acclaimed The Hidden Sense.

He showed that the apparent rise of Gestalt psychology in perception research in the 1910s had its roots in late 19th century art history in Germany.

The study was done in the context of the interdisciplinary Working Group Iconic Processes, including art historians, psychologists, physicists and anthropologists from several Dutch universities.

For a wider audience he wrote the book Pictorial Illusions (1994),[4] exploring the links between artistic and scientific experiments with visual perception since the Renaissance.

[2] Since then, van Campen has been consulted on synesthesia and the senses in a number of national and international projects, among them Art Education Belgium (RASA), Unilever UK and Rabobank Netherlands.

At SCP he published a series of research reports on the quality of life and participation of frail elderly and persons with physical disabilities.

His publications include Values on a Grey Scale: Elderly Policy Monitor 2008.,[35] Frail Older Persons in the Netherlands.,,[36] Steering on happiness.,[37] Ageing in Care (2013), and Happy in a Nursing Home?