Research

Our research provides insights into increasingly relevant topics of our time

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Research areas

These research areas include, but are not limited to:

  • mental health difficulties across the lifespan (e.g., ageing and dementia)
  • kindness and well-being in professional and community contexts
  • social movements and collective action
  • substance misuse and addiction
  • healthy eating and obesity
  • cultural differences in cognition, self-construal, beliefs, values, and norms
  • children’s social interaction and learning
  • prosocial and pro-environmental behaviour, environmental sustainability
  • refugee resettlement and acculturation
  • gene expression in different societies
  • inequalities in mental health, health-related behaviours, education and income
  • psychology of social media use (e.g., social media and body image)
  • social and cultural neuroscience
  • mental health interventions in developing nations
  • political polarisation
  • sociocultural influences on exercise behaviour
  • individual differences in cognition and perception within and between cultural groups
  • social and cultural change
  • peacebuilding
  • sustainable attitude and behaviour change 
  • community-building in urban regeneration projects 
  • prior fault intoxication and the criminal law
  • minimal social interactions with weak ties and strangers
  • the impact of displacement and marginalisation on the identity of women refugees
  • future of work
  • behaviour in mass emergencies and disasters

Our broad focus, which cuts across social, cultural, developmental, clinical, health, and cognitive psychology, helps us address major societal challenges, applying psychological science to inform policy and practice in relation to diverse issues of growing importance in a world facing rapid change including the climate emergency, Brexit, COVID-19, BLM, #MeToo, aging society, and political instability in many nations.

Our research benefits from expertise in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method approaches and experience of conducting research in field, laboratory and survey contexts, with both humans and animals using a range of methods including EEG, multinational surveys, virtual reality, and clinical testing.