Prof Henry WW Potts

"Fitness apps can sometimes leave users feeling demoralised and ready to give up – which is the exact opposite of what these tools are supposed to do." Dr Lucy Porter, Centre for Behaviour Change. Image in background: close up of person on an exercise mat, holding a phone showing a fitness app.

New research: Do fitness apps do more harm than good?📱
Analysis of 58k+ posts on X about the 5 most profitable fitness apps found almost 1 in 4 had negative sentiment.
📘 Paper co-authored by Dr Lucy Porter: bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@uclbrainscience.bsky.social

<em>British Journal of Health Psychology</em> | Wiley Online Library Objectives Use artificial intelligence–Human collaboration to investigate the unintended consequences of the most popular commercial fitness apps through social listening via X (formerly Twitter) po...

The original paper is at bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Emotional strain of fitness and calorie counting apps revealed Some users of popular fitness and calorie counting apps experience shame, disappointment and demotivation, potentially undermining their health and wellbeing, according to a new study led by researche...

Emotional strain of fitness and calorie counting apps revealed
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/oc...

Research by my colleague Paulina Bondaronek et al.

New from @harrymlewis.bsky.social @hannaeldarwish.bsky.social & team:

'Social Cure and Savouring: Attending Live Music Events Is Associated With Wellbeing and Behaviour Changes to Maintain Wellbeing'

Please share.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A group of chairs on wheels

Genesis of the Daleks

had some stuff to get off my chest about strategies ~ gilest.org/notes/strate...

The Constitution Unit. Do the government's electoral reforms go far enough? 24 October 2025, 1:00pm–2:00pm. Cat Smith MP (Labour MP for Lancaster and Wyre). Rose Whiffen (Senior Research Officer at Transparency International UK). Tom Hawthorn (Head of Policy at the Electoral Commission). Prof David Howarth (Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and former Electoral Commissioner). Chair: Prof Alan Renwick (Deputy Director of the Constitution Unit).

Does the elections white paper go far enough?

On 24 October, join @catsmithmp.bsky.social, @rosewhiff.bsky.social, Tom Hawthorn and David Howarth at our free, online event to consider if the government's plans are sufficient to ensure electoral integrity.

Sign up 👉 www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo....

🎵 They did the Monster Slash 😭 @ellecordova.bsky.social

Effects of a brief digital problem-solving intervention on depression and anxiety symptoms in Ukrainian children and adolescents displaced by war: a crossover, randomised controlled trial Our data suggest that a brief problem-solving DMHI, efficiently implemented in schools, could reduce internalising symptoms in refugee Ukrainian youths. After context-specific adaptations, DMHIs…

Happy Friday! Today is #WorldMentalHealthDay with the theme of access to services - mental health in catastrophes and emergencies. An appropriate paper from our team is one on digital problem-solving intervention in Ukrainian children displaced by war -

Apps are making personalised health advice possible – but what do people think about their privacy risks? « Science & Technology# « Cambridge Core Blog Image Credit: Unsplash/Luke Chesser Personalised recommendations for goods and services are increasingly common, from algorithms that tailor social media content to individual users to adverts that ad...

We've also written a blog about the paper, available at www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

📢 New: "Behavioural perspectives on personal health data sharing and app design: an international survey study" www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

by Veronica Li @carlawashbourne.bsky.social me et al.

We looked at the factors influencing personal health data sharing by users in London and Hong Kong

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

🔊 Exciting research role available if you're interested in applying evidence synthesis to food policy and public health. Part of a @nihr.bsky.social study evaluating supermarket policies restricting the use of price promotions.

Closes 8th October. Further details 👇 www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Yes, it is. Ministers of the Crown Act 1937, Section 10(1): "'Leader of the Opposition' means that member of the House of Commons who is for the time being the Leader in that House of the party in opposition to His Majesty's Government having the greatest numerical strength in that House"

Why is there a universe anyway? A thematically connected pair of extracts from my new (old) book.

Did the universe come about because an Egyptian god knocked one out? Asking all the big questions in my new (old) book

When a parrot wanted to connect with a distant friend, a touchscreen showed a selection of other birds available online. The parrots learned to activate the screen, designed specially for them, by touching it gently with their tongues rather than pecking aggressively with their beaks. "We had 26 birds involved," said Hirskyj-Douglas. "They would use the system up to three hours a day, with each call lasting up to five minutes." The interactions ranged from preening and playing with toys to loud vocal exchanges. "When we went through the data, we found that most of these parrots had favourite friends," said Hirskyj-Douglas.

Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔
on.ft.com/3K05vhS

New paper by my colleague Paulina Bondaronek & more, "Using machine-assisted topic analysis to expedite thematic analysis of free-text data: Exemplar investigation of factors influencing health behaviours and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic"

bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

My colleagues at the MHRA and Brunel University London are exploring the use of AI in clinical decision making. They have developed a survey that takes about 10 minutes to complete. If you are a clinician, please help out by filling it in... yoskrochiucl.github.io/mhra_questio...

UKRI award rate halves in seven years as grant applications double - Research Professional News Trends across research councils prompt warning that system is “overstretched or broken”

Feels about right

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

How the NHS commissions digital health solutions (or rather fails to) is, I suggest, a bigger barrier than processing power.

🧑‍🔬💰 PhD Scholarship open for a September start at
#SussexUni

Great opportunity if you're interested in sleep, biological rhythms and signals, physical & mental performance, or elite sports.

Application deadline: 25th July

Details at: realitybending.github.io/jobs/phd/

#Psychology #PhD

Talking therapy could be effective treatment for stroke survivors Stroke survivors with depression or anxiety who attend talking therapy sessions are more likely to recover from their psychological symptoms, finds a new study by UCL researchers.

Stroke survivors with depression or anxiety who attend talking therapy sessions are more likely to recover from their psychological symptoms, finds a new study by @uclpals.bsky.social researchers.

Target Book Club - A Celebtraion of Doctor Who Books with a day of talks and guests. The Abbey Centre, Westminster, July 19th - 10am - 5pm

Quick #DoctorWho #TargetBookClub update:
We've only 20 tickets left, which feels weird.

Tickets: bit.ly/escape2danger

Mapping the economic returns of R&D in the UK In 2024, the British Academy and the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) commissioned Cambridge Econometrics to conduct a systems-based analysis of the strengths and weaknesses within the UK’s...

We've published a new paper with @sciencecampaign.bsky.social reviewing the UK’s innovation ecosystem looking across 10 technologies. Innovation is not a linear process from idea to market & so Govt intervention should not take a one-size-fits-all approach
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications...

Inside the digital publishing industry, which I try to monitor closely, this is the big news. By Julia Alexander at Puck.

Sarah Riley presenting at #ISCHP2025

Problematising menstrual tracking apps: presenting a novel critical scoping review methodology for mapping and interpreting research literature

Sarah Riley, Siobhán Healy-Cullen, Carla Rice, Katrin Tiidenberg, Alexandra Hawkey, Tracy Morison et al

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#ISCHP2025

Happy World Porcupine Day! For those wondering what a baby porcupine is called, it’s a porcupette. For those wondering what a group of porcupines is called, it’s a prickle. And for those wondering what porcupines sound like, turn up your volume for this smol guy called Kemosabe nomming on a banana…

Which Quotations to Use? Guidance on Selecting and Reporting Quotations in Qualitative Research - Sarah Yeo, Seungheon Han, 2025 Quotations serve multiple purposes in qualitative research, such as supporting claims, illustrating findings, explaining, impressing, and offering readers vicar...

Which Quotations to Use? Guidance on Selecting and Reporting Quotations in Qualitative Research

Sarah Yeo and Seungheon Han

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Plenty studies showing that your postcode is a better predictor of your health outcomes than your genome.

Trump Administration Cancels Scores of Grants to Study Online Misinformation

Seems like the most blatantly self-motivated of the administrative funding cuts so far…

Optimizing Online Support Groups: A Realist Review of What Works, For Whom and in What Circumstances for Patients with Cancer Background: Online support groups (OSGs) are often a convenient way for many patients with cancer and cancer survivors to obtain information and support. However, not all OSGs are helpful, and...

New preprint:

Optimizing Online Support Groups: A Realist Review of What Works, For Whom and in What Circumstances for Patients with Cancer

preprints.jmir.org/preprint/77445