Richard Brown

Northumbria University · Department of Psychology

People who believe they have greater control over health and longevity are typically more likely to invest in their long-term health. Investigating individual differences in perceived control over risk and exploring different determinants of health effort may help to tailor health promotion programs to more effectively encourage healthy behaviors....

Background Health-related stigma can act as a barrier to seeking treatment and can negatively impact wellbeing. Comparing stigma communication across different conditions may generate insights previously lacking from condition-specific approaches and help to broaden our understanding of health stigma as a whole. Method A sequential explanatory mix...

Background: Chatbots are increasingly being used across a wide range of contexts. Medical chatbots have the potential to improve healthcare capacity and provide timely patient access to health information. Chatbots may also be useful for encouraging individuals to seek an initial consultation for embarrassing or stigmatizing conditions. Method: Th...

The UK policing model relies on public trust and consent. This POSTnote outlines recent trends in levels of public trust in the police, including variation between demographic groups. It summarises research on barriers to trust in the police and the effectiveness of different approaches to increasing trust. It also outlines stakeholder views on pol...

Background A large number of deaths could be avoided by improving health behaviours. The degree to which people invest in their long-term health is influenced by how much they believe they can control their risk of death. Identifying causes of death believed to be uncontrollable, but likely to occur, may provide actionable targets for health interv...

There are growing calls for a comprehensive, evidence-based national eating disorder strategy. This is due to the rising prevalence of eating disorders (EDs) in England, the lack of national guidance in relation to different ED presentations (and potentially varying treatment needs), ad hoc data collection, and inconsistencies in both care and eval...

Introduction COVID-19 necessitated a rapid move from face-to-face services to remote care for eating disorders/eating distress (EDs). This study explores the advantages and challenges of remote care, identifying future implications for service provision. Remote care has been considered in the broadest of terms, including therapeutic care (e.g., Cog...

The ‘Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis’ employs a behavioural ecological model of human health behaviours to explain the presence of social gradients in health. It states that those who are more likely to die due to factors beyond their control should be less motivated to invest in preventative health behaviours. We outline the theoretical a...

Introduction: COVID-19 necessitated a rapid move from face-to-face services to remote care for eating disorders/eating distress (EDs). This study explores the advantages and challenges of remote care, identifying future implications for service provision. Methods: Using a mixed methods approach, data were collected from 211 people with lived experi...

Background The Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis (UMRH) states that those who are more likely to die due to factors beyond their control should be less motivated to invest in preventative health behaviors. Greater levels of perceived uncontrollable mortality risk (PUMR) have been associated with lower health effort in previous research, but...

Online sexism is a persistent problem that has negative effects on internet users. Sexism is particularly entrenched on TikTok, a platform where viral challenge videos helped drive the popularity of the site. In the current study, we sampled 20 comments (N = 7,688) from each of 100 videos from 4 viral TikTok challenges (Cake, Thor, Chair, and Bottl...

England and Wales have a range of sentencing options to deal with offending behaviour. These include fines, cautions, community orders (CO), and imprisonment. Prison sentences may be suspended or result in immediate custody. For the purposes of this paper, a short prison sentence is one where a person is sentenced to non-suspended immediate custody...

Aim Perceived uncontrollable mortality risk (PUMR) refers to people's beliefs regarding their risk of death due to factors outside of their control. Previous theoretical models and empirical studies provide evidence that those with greater PUMR are less motivated to invest in preventative health behaviors, but little is known about how accurately p...

Cybersecurity awareness in Hospitals

The use of digital technology amongst people living with a range of long-term health conditions to support self-management has increased dramatically. More recently, digital health technologies to share and exchange personal health data with others have been investigated. Sharing personal health data with others is not without its risks: sharing da...

Greater levels of perceived uncontrollable mortality risk have been associated with lower reported health effort in previous research, but the topic remains understudied. The ‘Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis’ states that those who are more likely to die due to factors beyond their control should be less motivated to invest in preventative...

Background: A large number of deaths could be avoided by improving health behaviours. The degree to which people invest in their long-term health is influenced by how much they believe they can control their risk of death. Identifying causes of death believed to be uncontrollable, but likely to occur, may provide actionable targets for health inter...

Background: People who believe they have greater control over health and longevity are typically more likely to invest in their long-term health. Investigating individual differences in perceived control over risk, and exploring different determinants of health effort, may help to tailor the promotion of preventative health to more effectively enco...

In response to Covid-19, many universities and research institutions around the world suspended face-to-face interactions in preference for online research. Online data collection presents notable challenges for conducting qualitative interviews. This article discusses some key benefits and limitations to conducting interviews online compared t...

Human error in security plays a significant role in the majority of cyber-attacks on businesses. Security behaviours are impacted by numerous factors, including individual perceptions of information sensitivity. However, there is currently a lack of empirical measurement of information sensitivity and its role in determining security behaviours. Th...

Background Investigating perceptions of control over mortality risk may be fundamental to understanding health behaviours and tackling socioeconomic gradients in health. Few studies have explored perceptions of control over different causes of death and there is a lack of qualitative risk research. Our aim was to examine participants’ perceptions o...

This article provides a short reflection on experiences of rejection in academic life and the potential impact on students and early career researchers. It considers the importance of carefully adapting previously rejected work in order to fully take advantage of future opportunities. Finally, the article offers some practical guidance on upcyc...

Background The emerging landscape of patient-generated data (PGData) provides an opportunity to collect large quantities of information that can be used to develop our understanding of different health conditions and potentially improve the quality of life for those living with long-term health condition (LTHCs). If the potential benefits of PGData...

Background The growing popularity of collecting self-generated health and lifestyle data presents a valuable opportunity to develop our understanding of long-term health conditions and improve care. Barriers remain to the effective sharing of health and lifestyle data by those living with long-term health conditions which include beliefs around con...

Using digital technology to share patient-generated health data has the potential to improve the self-management of multiple long-term health conditions. Sharing these data can allow patients to receive additional support from healthcare professionals and peer communities, as well as enhance their understanding of their own health. A deeper underst...

The popularity of Wearable and Implantable Medical Devices (WIMDs) has risen dramatically in recent years and this technology is expected to be integrated into expanding medical networks in the years ahead. Data collection via networks of WIMDs promises to revolutionise healthcare by providing timely and effective diagnosis and delivery of care. Th...

The open science movement has gained momentum in recent years. With fresh appeals to the virtues of openness and transparency and an arsenal of emerging digital platforms, many ‘open science enthusiasts’ describe the potential for change as being analogous to the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. Physicist and writer Michael Nie...

The impacts of COVID-19 are not evenly distributed in society. Understanding demographic and occupational differences in personal experiences and information seeking and how these shape perceptions of COVID-19 related risk may help to improve the effectiveness of public health strategies in the future. We surveyed a nationally representative sample...

Aim Understanding COVID-19 risk perceptions and their impact on behaviour can improve the effectiveness of public health strategies. Prior evidence suggests that, when people perceive uncontrollable risks to their health, they are less likely to engage in healthful behaviour. This article aims to understand the extent to which COVID-19 is perceived...

Background The impacts of COVID-19 are not evenly distributed in society. Understanding the differences in the experiences and perceptions of COVID-19 related risk may help to improve the effectiveness of public health strategies in the future. Method We surveyed a nationally representative sample of 496 participants during the strictest period of...

Background Understanding COVID-19 risk perceptions and their impact on behaviour can improve the effectiveness of public health strategies in the future. Prior evidence suggests that, when people perceive uncontrollable risks to their health, they are less likely to make efforts to protect their health in those ways which they can control (e.g. thr...