On this episode Dr. Amanda Rotella tells us about her research on social competition and how we use social signals to choose our friends, romantic partners, and preferred colleagues. We talk about how and why these judgements are useful and why they’re adaptive in a biological market where we have limited resources and choices.
You can keep up with Amanda’s research on Twitter @amRotella and on her website.
You can find the show transcript here.
On this episode we celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month with Richard Rawlings who tells us about his research exploring the ways in which LGBTQ+ people use dating apps to form connections in rural and urban settings. We discuss resilience and how both the city and country offer different challenges and opportunities for queer people to find connection.
Follow Richard’s research updates on his website.
Richard and his supervisors would like to thank all the LGBTQ+ participants who contributed to his research and the knowledge they shared about their experiences of place and finding connection.
Show transcript can be found here.
Dr. Carolina Are is an Innovation Fellow at the Centre for Digital Citizens. The Centre for Digital Citizens is a joint initiative with colleagues at Newcastle and Northumbria University from computing, design, law, and psychology who study how to make the internet a safer place for everyone. Carolina’s work centres on understanding why certain people are deplatformed and how to encourage social media platforms to prevent unnecessary deplatforming.
To follow Carolina’s research check out her website bloggeronpole.com or follow her on Twitter @bloggeronpole
(Fittingly, my work computer wouldn’t let me access Carolina’s website…)
You can find the show transcript here.
WE HAVE NEW SOCIALS! We’re on Twitter and Instagram @thebig5_psych. Give us a follow and we’ll be posting about new episodes and will respond to comments.
We also now have a gmail account that you can use to contact us thebig5.nupodcast@gmail.com.
Many thanks to my intern Maria Kouppi for mixing this episode and setting up the socials.
On this special Halloween episode, Claire Murphy-Morgan tells us about the links between art and psychology, treating eating disorders remotely, and the online communities that are discussing parapsychology. We talk all things parapsychology: ghosts, near-death experiences, and spooky Wikipedia editors.
Show notes:
If you’d like to keep up with the Remote Healthcare for Eating Disorders throughout COVID-19 project you can check out their website or follow the project on Twitter @RHEDC_Project.
You can also follow Claire’s work on parapsychology on Twitter @ClaireMorganM.
To stay updated on episodes you can follow me on Twitter @BrownGenavee.
On this episode Connor Leslie tells us about her work on agression detection from both an evolutionary and forensic psychology perspective. Connor discusses the importance of detecting agression for preventing violence. Look out for those aggressive behaviors and try to avoid them on the International Day of Non-violence! #internationaldayofnonviolence
Show notes:
To follow Connor’s research check her out on Twitter @ConnorLeslie91.
Want to know more about motion capture and psychology research of a more non-violent nature? Check out these studies from members of our department:
Which dance moves make men look like a good partner?
Which dance moves should women use?
To stay up to date on the show, follow me @BrownGenavee.
This week (13th-17th June 2022) sees the 6th Loneliness Awareness Week hosted by the Marmalade Trust. This is one of many such campaigns in recent years with the aim of raising awareness and reducing the stigma associated with talking about feeling lonely. Intiatives like the UK’s Campaign to End Loneliness and the Jo Cox Loneliness Commission aim to share research evidence about loneliness and to demonstrate the need for national leadership and guidance to address this issue. This has resulted in the appointment of the very first Ministers for Loneliness and the creation of a cross-governmental Tackling Loneliness Strategy and team.
This increased focus is not without good reason. Experiencing loneliness, also referred to as perceived social isolation, can potentially lead to increased risk of developing health problems. Such issues include cardiovascular disease and stroke (1), dementia and cognitive decline (2), depression and anxiety (3) and chronic health conditions such as diabetes (4). Additionally, chronic loneliness and social isolation carries the same level of health risk as obesity and smoking (5).
Traditionally, older adults are viewed as those in society that are most likely to experience loneliness. Although recent evidence suggests that younger people are equally or more likely to report loneliness (6), loneliness in older adults is still a concern in this age group. In 2018 around 1 million UK residents aged over 50 reported that they were chronically lonely, and this number is expected to increase to more than 2 million by 2025. We also have an ageing population in the UK and worldwide, meaning that the effects of loneliness are likely to be experienced by an increasing number of older adults in the near future. Loneliness therefore poses a significant public health risk and has the potential to place increased strain on health and social care services.
This risk has been compounded by the recent COVID 19 pandemic. Social distancing and successive lockdown measures meant that for many older adults their already limited social contact was further reduced. This was clearly a concern for those already experiencing loneliness, but also meant that a new wave of older adults were at risk of becoming lonely, particularly those in residential care. Since these measures have been reversed the potential for more social contact has increased and the risk has hopefully reduced. However, given that negative effects may have already occurred, it’s important that we continue to focus on re-establishing our social connections and those of older adults to minimise this impact.
As you might expect, romantic social connections, such as being in a relationship or being married, offer some protection against loneliness (7). But what about other types of social links? One social connection which appears to be particularly important to older adults are friendships. Friendships seem to be more beneficial in preventing loneliness than family relationships (8). This may not be that surprising as family relationships have the potential to be based more on obligation than friendships and also at times can be fraught with conflict. It has been shown that (9) increasing the number of friends you have generally reduces loneliness (9). However, recent evidence from our department has shown that simply making more friends might not be the answer (10).
We surveyed hundreds of older adults about their levels of loneliness and friendships. Our study (10) demonstrated that although having more friends may indeed stave of loneliness, for older adults, adding more close friendships beyond four friends has no further effect in reducing loneliness. If four is the optimal number, then this means that older adults and interventions aimed at reducing loneliness in this age group can focus on establishing and maintaining this relatively small number of close connections. Many individuals have a support group of around five members (11), so it may be possible that some older adults already have the optimal number of close friendships. For those, individuals, focus is best placed on improving the quality within these relationships or addressing other aspects linked to loneliness such as mobility and functional status (12).
Alexandra Thompson is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology, working within the Evolution and Social Interaction Research Group and supervised by Professor Thomas Pollet. You can read more about the work of the research group over in this section of the blog
In honor of LGBTQ history month, on this episode Ansel Lawson tells us about their experience as a trans student at Northumbria University and talks about their research on well-being in trans and non-binary people living in the North East, UK.
Show notes:
Trans, non-binary, or gender diverse and looking for support? Check out Gires for a wide range of resources available.
You can find a transcript of the episode here.
In honor of LGBTQ history month, on this episode, Dr. Amy Newman tells us about her research on the prevalence of sexual assualt in gender and relationship diverse couples. We also discuss the need for more inclusive laws and sex education. CW: sexual assault, coercive sex, relationship violence.
Show notes:
Looking for support after a sexual assualt or ways to volunteer to support survivors of sexual assault? Check out Galop for LGBTQ+ friendly support communities and chat lines.
To follow Amy’s research, you can check out her staff profile or follow her on Twitter @ameee__
A transcript of the episode can be found here.
In this episode, Dr. Lee Shepherd tells us about his work on emotions and sexual objectification. He discusses how it feels to be objectified and why it’s so important to study this issue to prevent objectification from occuring and to help support victims. We also discuss a funded PhD opportunity to study the causes and consequences of online misogyny.
Show notes:
To find out more about his work, Lee’s staff profile is here.
For more information on the PhD project, you can watch this video or check out this advertisement.
You can also find all of the PhD projects offered by Northumbria Psychology department on this blog. Applications are due February 18, 2022 for a start date of October 2022.
You can find a transcript of this podcast here.
In a 2021 BBC News Panorama report, Marianna Spring details the online abuse, including threats of violence, she receives daily on social media simply because she’s doing her job investigating online disinformation. She’s not the only one receiving abuse online. In fact, research shows that women are more than twice as likely as men to receive online abuse and it often targets their intersectional identities (gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation) (Sunden & Paasonen, 2018). Beyond being psychologically upsetting, online misogyny can silence women’s voices and create major barriers to women’s equal participation in public and political spheres by forcing women to leave the online sphere because of the threat posed to their emotional or physical safety. For example, in a recent poll 1/3 of women MPs said that they had considered leaving political office due to online abuse.
Online misogyny is online media (e.g., videos, blogs, posts) that target and harm women due to the posters’ hatred of women. It can take many forms and range from insulting or belittling comments to doxing to threats of rape and death. One example, doxing, occurs when an internet user’s offline personal information is shared online. For example, some prominent activists have had their home addresses or telephone numbers shared. Experiencing online misogyny can result in feelings of emotional distress and some women even leave online platforms like Twitter to avoid receiving online abuse. Thus, online misogyny can lead to women’s voices being silenced. In some rare cases it has also led to real world violence. For example, several men who later engaged in mass shootings posted online manifestos which evoked misogynistic ideas that spurred them to real-world violence against women (Hoffman, Ware, & Shapiro, 2020).
Recent calls have been made for social psychologists to address the issue of online misogyny (Tileaga, 2019). In this PhD, we’ll be examining online misogyny through a social psychology lens. Research in social psychology shows that social media provides a unique environment in which misogyny can occur. First, the internet conveys some sense of anonymity, and this has been associated with a willingness to engage in online misogyny (Fox, Cruz, & Lee, 2015). Second, social media platforms allow users to garner large audiences which can result in feeling powerful (Brown & Merritt, 2020). Power has been associated with a wide range of anti-social behaviours because being powerful prevents taking the perspective of others. This is especially true for people who have a dominant personality (Kim & Guinote, 2021).
In this PhD project we’ll be examining the consequences for women who receive misogynistic comments online as research in this area is lacking. We’ll also examine the profiles of the men who engage in online misogyny, specifically examining their power and dominance. By determining who the most likely perpetrators are, we can try to intervene and reduce online misogyny.
Successful candidates should have experience in psychology research including strong research methods and statistics knowledge. Independent and critical thinking and writing skills, passion for research, and self-motivation will also be necessary.
Dr. Genavee Brown is a Lecturer and social psychology researcher at Northumbria University. She studies how technology intervenes in our relationships. Her previous work has focused on cultural differences in social media use, social capital online, and how mobile phones influence face-to-face relationships. Recent projects centre on the concept of online power and how this can help us understand antisocial behaviours online. She teaches Psychology of Intimacy and Quantitative Research Methods. She is also the host of The Big 5 podcast where she speaks to staff and students at Northumbria about their experience of studying psychology at Northumbria University.
Dr Jenny Paterson is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and has published widely on the impacts of hate crimes in which perpetrators target individuals because of a hatred towards the person’s characteristic, including gender. Within this research, she has worked closely with victims of prejudice to reveal the substantial and wide-ranging impacts that such prejudice can cause both in the online and offline realms. In addition to examining the impacts of hate, Jenny has a keen interest in developing and utilising prejudice reduction strategies to identify and nullify perpetrators of prejudice.
Dr. Lee Shepherd is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Northumbria University. He undertakes research on the role of emotions on behaviour. These behaviours range from different health behaviours (e.g., health screenings) to people’s responses to discrimination.
If you’d like to discuss the opportunity, please contact the principal supervisor, Genavee Brown (genavee.brown@northumbria.ac.uk). Details on how to submit an application are below. We’ve added some useful reading for prospective candidates at the end of the post
The advert for the post can be found here, this includes full eligibility requirements. As part of the application process you will need to submit a 1000 word proposal of how you would approach the project by 18th February 2022
Full details of the application process can be found here
Northumbria University Psychology Department 