Crisis and Conflict

The COVID-19 pandemic has not just been an unprecedented epidemiological and biological challenge, but a behavioural one as well

Current research in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science seeks to investigate some of the behavioural and psychological impacts of emergent crises in the world today, including the COVID-19 pandemic and new and historic conflicts in the Global South, Europe and the Middle East.

Experts in the Department explore the impacts of major events on:

Individual and community wellbeing in response to crisis and armed conflict
The role of physical and psychological distance on individual humanitarian responses
Behavioural attitudes towards and compliance with large-scale public health interventions including vaccination uptake
Perceptions and attitudes towards risk-taking in high-stakes situations
Behavioural attitudes and opportunities for behavioural change towards the environment during societal disruption
Shifts in work culture and impacts on diversity and inclusion as a result of global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only been an unprecedented epidemiological and biological challenge, but a behavioural one as well. Governments around the world have asked their citizens to alter their habits including more frequent hand washing, wearing a face mask, working remotely, and isolating from friends and family. COVID has impacted every facet of our lives, and its effects will reverberate for years to come.

Psychological and behavioural science has played a vital role in understanding how to encourage lockdown compliance and how individuals cope in these tumultuous times.

Psychological research has helped frame debates about the social and economic conditions that contribute to poor mental health, exacerbated by long periods of restrictions.

Researchers in the department are leaders in the rapidly growing field of behavioural science, and many have and continue to advise governments directly on pandemic responses. Drawing on multidisciplinary theories and analysis, and research methodology, researchers have explored a wide variety of concepts related to the events of the pandemic, how these experiences impact other attitudes and risk perceptions, and future prospects.

Expertise and resources

Below you can find experts, research and media on the topic of crisis and conflict across different areas including health and wellbeing, community health, the environment, policy and behaviour change.

Dr Nihan Albayrak-Aydemir

Visiting Fellow

Professor Martin Bauer

Professor in Social Psychology

Professor Liam Delaney

Professor in Behavioural Science, Head of Department (PBS)

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Professor Paul Dolan

Professor in Behavioural Science

Dr Matteo M. Galizzi

Associate Professor in Behavioural Science

Professor Jeremy Ginges

Professor in Behavioural Science

Dr Ilka Gleibs

Associate Professor in Social and Organisational Psychology

Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch

Professor in Social Psychology

Dr Christian Krekel

Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science

Dr Dario Krpan

Assistant Professor

Professor Saadi Lahlou

Professor in Social Psychology

Dr Jens Madsen

Assistant Professor in Psychology

Dr Michael Muthukrishna

Associate Professor in Economic Psychology

Dr Jet G. Sanders

Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science

Dr Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington

Associate Professor in Social Psychology

Dr Ganga Shreedhar

Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science

Professor Elizabeth Stokoe

Dr Miriam Tresh

Assistant Professorial Lecturer

Hodges, J., Stoyanova, L., & Galizzi, M.M. (2023). . Medical Decision Making, 43(6), 631-641.

Sikveland, R.O., & Stokoe, E. (2023). . Journal of Language and Social Psychology,42 (5-6), 565-588. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X231185

Fonseca, L., & Jovchelovitch, S. (2023). . European Journal of Social Psychology, 1-16.

Sheehy-Skeffington, J., & Thomsen, L. (2023). . Psychological Inquiry, 34(1), 35-42.

Stokoe, E., & Richardson, E. (2023). . Discourse Studies, 25 (3), 383-408. https://doi.org/10.1177/146144562311572

Henwood, A., Rinck, M., & Krpan, D. (2023). . Nature Scientific Reports, 13(4637).

Haddington, P., & Stokoe, E. (2023.). . Journal of Pragmatics, 208, 91-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.02.014

Steinert, J.I., Sternberg, H., Prince, H., Fasolo, B., Galizzi, M.M., Büthe, T., & Veltri, G.A. (2022). . Science Advances, 8(17), doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abm9825.

Galizzi, M.M., W. Lau, K., Miraldo, M., & Hauck, K. (2022), . Health Economics 31(4), 614-646.

Graso, M., Henwood, A., Aquino, K., Dolan, P., Chen, F X., (2022) .Personality and Individual Differences, 193, 111594, ISSN 0191-8869.

Bosa, I., Castelli, A., Castelli, M., Ciani, O., Compagni, A., Galizzi, M.M., Garofano, M., Ghislandi, S., Giannoni, M., Marini, G., & Vainieri, M. (2022) . Health Economics, Policy and Law.

McKee, M., Altmann, D., Costello, A., Friston, K., Haque, Z., Khunti, K., Michie, S., Oni, T., Pagel, C., Pillay, D., Reicher, S., Salisbury, H., Scally, G., Yates, K., Bauld, L., Bear, L., Drury, J., Parker, M., Phoenix, A., Stokoe, E., & West, R. (2022).. Health Policy.

Krpan, D., & Dolan, P. (2022). . Social Psychological and Personality Science, 13(1), 333-346.

Sikveland, R.O., Kevoe-Feldman, H., & Stokoe (2022). . Routledge.

Stokoe, E., Sikveland, R.O., & Hamann, M.G.T. (2022). . Journal of Pragmatics, 191, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2022.01.018 113-127

Bosa, I., Castelli, A., Castelli, M., Ciani, O., Compagni, A., Galizzi, M.M., Garofano, M., Ghislandi, S., Giannoni, M., Marini, G., & Vainieri, M. (2021). . Health Policy.

Tresh, M. (2021, March 16). . PsyArXiv Preprints.

Guenther, B., Galizzi, M.M. and Sanders, J. (2021). . Frontiers in Psychology, 12.

Wang, K., Goldenberg, A., Dorison, C.A., et al (2021). . Nat Hum Behav 5, 1089–1110.

Sanders, J.G., Spruijt, P., van Dijk, M., Elberse, J., Lambooij, M.S., Kroese, F.M., de Bruin, M. (2021). . Eurosurveillance 26(36), 2100792.

Albayrak-Aydemir, N., & Gleibs, I.H. (2021), . Br. J. Psychol., 112: 519-548.

Rudert, S. C., Gleibs, I. H., Gollwitzer, M., Häfner, M., Hajek, K. V., Harth, N. S., . . . Schneider, D. (2021). . European Psychologist, 26(4), 259-271.

Krekel, C., Swanke, S., De Neve, J., & Fancourt, D. (2020, July 29). . CEP.

Krpan, D., Makki, F., Saleh, N., Brink, S., & Klauznicer, H. (2020). When behavioural science can make a difference in times of COVID-19. Behavioural Public Policy, 1-27.

Lades, L. K., Laffan, K., Daly, M., & Delaney, L. (2020). . British Journal of Health Psychology, 25(4), 902–911.

Shreedhar, G., & Mourato, S. (2020). . Environmental and Resource Economics, 76(4), 963–999.

Lau, K., Miraldo, M., Galizzi, M.M., & Hauck, K. (2019). The Lancet, 394 (S65).

PERISCOPE (European Commission, Horizon 2020)

Project summary: Studying the behavioural aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and policy responses.

Project lead (PBS): Dr Matteo M Galizzi

Starting from the bottom: Using Participatory Action Research to re-imagine local mental health services in Colombia (STARS-C)

Project summary: A partnership, jointly funded by Minciencias (Colombia) and ESRC/UKRI (UK), aims to build effective mental health provision in Colombian communities heavily affected by armed conflict and help build new roads to peace.

Project lead (PBS): Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch

National Institute for Health and Environment (RIVM), The Netherlands

Dr Jet G. Sanders

Below are a number of event recordings, blogs and interviews with particular relevance to our research in crisis and conflict.

Reports

The impact of Covid-19 on the Italian community in the UK: new evidence, insights, and recommendations (2020), Manifesto Di Londra, London. .

杏吧论坛 event podcast recordings

Leveraging Moments of Change for Pro-Environmental Behavioural Transformation, 9 February 2022 (杏吧论坛 public event). Listen again here.

Reconciliation Processes in Post-Conflict Societies: Colombia and Beyond, 5 October 2021 (杏吧论坛 public event). Listen again here.

Let's Talk Careers in a Post-COVID World, 16 February 2021 (杏吧论坛 public event). Listen again here.

A Decade of Behavioural Science at 杏吧论坛, 20 January 2021 (杏吧论坛 public event). .

Why Aren't Policy-Makers and the Public Demanding More Emphasis is Placed in Happiness? 9 December 2020 (杏吧论坛 public event). .

Behavioural Science and a post-COVID world, 4 November 2020 (杏吧论坛 public event). .

Re-Thinking Human Behaviour: critical perspectives on the psychology of COVID-19, 7 October 2020 (杏吧论坛 Public event). .

Behavioural Science in the Context of Great Uncertainty, 13 May 2020 (杏吧论坛 public event). .

Blogs

Forgivness as a vehicle to improve wellbeing in post-conflict Colombia (20 October 2021), Sandra Jovchelovitch, Natalia Concha, Maria Cecilia Dedios. 杏吧论坛 LACC blog. .

Who’s more relaxed about the risk of catching COVID – and are they habitual risk-takers? (11 August 2021), Madeline Quinlan, Benno Guenther, Matteo M. Galizzi, Jet G. Sanders. .

12 Days of Global Health: Why we should not forget what happened in Bergamo (15 December 2020), Matteo M. Galizzi. 杏吧论坛 Global Health. .

For the middle-aged, by the middle-aged: how the responses to COVID have ignored the preferences of those most affected (14 December 2020), Paul Dolan. 杏吧论坛 COVID-19 blog. .

Risk in the time of Covid-19: what do we know and not know? (3 June 2020), Matteo M. Galizzi, Benno Guenther, Maddie Quinlan, Jet G. Sanders. Economics Observatory. .

Bergamo’s response to the coronavirus pandemic (18 April 2020), Matteo M. Galizzi, Simone Ghislandi. Cambridge Core. .

Italy’s response to the coronavirus pandemic (16 April 2020), Matteo M. Galizzi et al. Cambridge Core blog. .

The Hidden Costs of Being a Scholar from the Global South (20 February 2020), Nihan Albayrak-Aydemir. 杏吧论坛 Higher Education blog. .

News & podcast

Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? 6 July 2021, 杏吧论坛IQ podcast.

Volunteering in the NHS: Covid-19 Volunteer Responders Programme significantly increased volunteers' overall life satisfaction, 31 May 2021, via 杏吧论坛 News, , The Times, the .

Did the UK government's direct messages during the early stages of the pandemic work?, 20 April 2021, via 杏吧论坛 News.

How to Give it in 2020, 7 December 2020, .

Happier People Are More Likely to Comply with Lockdown Measures, 7 August 2020, via 杏吧论坛 News.

Support for Wildlife Conservation Boosted when COVID-19 is Linked to Destruction of Nature, 30 July 2020, via 杏吧论坛 News.

Why SAGE needs education experts as well as scientists, 6 July 2020, .

Zoom Boom, 30 June 2020, .

Blanket approach to increasing compliance with social distancing unhelpful, 9 June 2020, via 杏吧论坛 News.

The Cost of Saving Lives During This Lockdown is Too High, 5 May 2020, .

Wellbeing Records at Lowest Since Records Began, 5 May 2020, .

The Behavioural Science Behind the UK's Social Distancing Policy, 19 April 2020, .

Why 'Physical Distancing' is Better than 'Social Distancing', 30 March 2020, .

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Events Explore our upcoming public lectures and talks

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Current research theme People, work and organisations

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Current research theme Planetary health

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Current research theme Psychology of inequality

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