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Social and Affective Processes Group

Social and Affective Processes Group

Social and Affective Processes Group

The Social and Affective Processes (SAP) Research Group focuses on social cognition with a focus on perception, inference, belief, and coalitional processes. Across the group, members test and develop explanations for social cognition across the lifespan, in psychiatric and neurological disorder, and in synthetic systems such as Large Language Models. Neuroimaging, computational, behavioural, and experimental methods are used to test core theories, and work is frequently applied to clinical treatment development pipelines and government policy.

The HWB group is convened by Dr Joe Barnby.

Please see here for list of publications, projects, and awards. 

Description:

Building and testing the algorithms humans and artificial agents use to learn about the social world.

Members:

Dr Gavin Cooper (PostDoc Fellow)

Christina Dimitriadou (PhD student)

 

For more information, see here. 

Description:

I’m interested in how we form and revise our beliefs about ourselves and the world, and in how this process can derail to produce “pathologies of belief”, ranging from bizarre delusions in clinical settings, to “collective delusions” where thousands or millions of people adopt poorly evidenced beliefs. I also dabble in some other topics, for instance I have some recent projects on swearing (both in the sense of profanity and in the sense of solemn vows).

Members:

Dr. Andrew Hunter (postdoctoral research assistant)

Dr. Francesco Scaramozzino (postdoctoral research assistant)

Dr. Matt Tompkins (postdoctoral research assistant)

Gaia Giampietro (PhD student)

Diana Cheso (PhD student)

Aleks Rydzkowska (PhD student)

Elizabeth Beacon (PhD student)

 

For more information, see here. 

Description:

This interdisciplinary group unites academics and students from various academic fields who share an interest in death studies. It serves as a vibrant hub for research, outreach, and engagement on death-related topics, emphasizing the importance of the need to have open conversations about death.  Throughout the year, the group will host a variety of activities, including seminar discussions, death cafes, film and documentary screenings, and more.  By joining this group, you'll have the chance to engage in groundbreaking research, as well as explore, discuss and debate topic that perhaps you don't often get the chance to,  bringing the conversations about death to life!

Members:

Dr. Izzat Morshidi (Teaching Fellow)

Dr. Melissa Henderson (Lecturer)

Dr. Natalie Pitimson (Lecturer)

 

For more information, see here. 

Description:

Our research takes an interdisciplinary approach and focuses on the neurocognitive mechanisms that shape the experience of embodiment and self-identity and their social and political dimensions.  

Members:

Dr Irena Arslanova (Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow)

Dr Mariana Von Mohr (Post-doctoral researcher)

Dr Catherine Moez (Post-doctoral researcher)

Dr Andrea Vik (Post-doctoral researcher)

Olaf Borghi (PhD Student)

Irene Arahal-Moreno (PhD Student)

Valerio Villani (PhD Student)

Dr Jamie Moffatt (ESRC DTP Post-doctoral Fellow)

 

For more information, see here. 

Description:

Hiro is interested in cooperation in intergroup contexts and undertakes a range of projects investigating how psychological and ecological factors influence intergroup cooperation. His past and ongoing work has addressed questions such as how indirect reciprocity guides intergroup cooperation, how social and natural ecological factors (e.g., culture, hierarchy, norms, disasters, etc.) shape intergroup relations, and how our knowledge about intergroup cooperation can help us tackle climate change. 

Members:

Rui San (external research assitant)

Kotomi Ideishi (external research assistant)

 

For more information, see here. 

Description:

Our lab studies personal and cultural values (e.g., benevolence, achievement), their nature, development, change, and relations to behaviour.

Members:

Danica Giles (PhD student)

For more information, see here. 

Description:

Insulab investigates interoception (how we process internal bodily signals e.g. cardiac, respiratory and gastric signals) and social cognition. This includes how we process interoceptive states and emotions in ourselves and others, empathy, face recognition, and body perception. Insulab is particularly focused on how these processes differ between individuals, in particular within and across clinical and typical populations.

 

For more information, see here. 

Description:

The aim of the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law (CSEL) is to bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines, as well as practitioners in Psychology, Law, Human Rights, Social Work, Psychiatry, Computer Science together with Policy Makers, Statutory/Voluntary Organisations and individuals with lived experience to reconsider the role of emotion within law and practice. Among the current projects are those looking at the impact of use of AI and remote technology on refugees and decision makers.

Members:

Dr Zoe Given-Wilson (postdoctoral research assistant)
For more information, see here. 

Within the ECHO-O lab we are interested in understanding how experiences and connections we form, online and offline, may impact mental health and wellbeing. We are exploring research on self-disclosure, social media, nature connection and loneliness. Much of our work focuses on addressing these questions during the period of adolescence, but we are interested in the questions across the lifespan as well. We use a combination of research methods to allow us to better understand the experiences that people are having with an aim of identifying how we can maximise positive experiences, and have a benefit for mental health and wellbeing.

 

For more information see here.

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