Matt Field

Why people are watching livestreams of influencers gambling – and how it could be fuelling addiction A new study finds gambling livestreams, where influencers bet to huge audiences, are normalising risk and fuelling addiction among young viewers.

My GREAT Centre colleague, Jamie Torrance, has written this piece about the worrying rise in influencer-led gambling on livestream platforms theconversation.com/why-people-a...

Investigating the relationship between reasons for gambling and different gambling activities  

Gambling Survey for Great Britain 2024 report now live! Findings
include associations between in-play betting & gambling harms; socio-economic disparities btw weekly gamblers. Data in UK Data archive soon! www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-a...

@uofgsocsci.bsky.social @uofgussp.bsky.social

The ACTUAL truth about moderation
substack.com/@jamesmorris...

It's odd that Republicans can do the mental gymnastics to link Tylenol to autism, but not link gun deaths to guns.

Does Dry January change how we drink? - Institute of Alcohol Studies A new study finds that Dry January does show up in national alcohol sales data – people drink less and buy more no/lo options during the month. But most return to old habits by February, raising quest...

Sober months like Dry January have become increasingly popular in recent years, but do they actually change how we drink?

In this blog, @aishamoolla.bsky.social outlines the findings from recent @sarg-scharr.bsky.social research on the short and long-term impacts.

www.ias.org.uk/2025/09/23/d...

Matthew McConaughey says he wants a private LLM, fed only with his books, notes, journals, and aspirations, so he can ask it questions and get answers based solely on that information, without any outside influence.

this exists it is called thinking

So that’s the end of my 10 day trip - solo travelling around Andalucia (Seville, Cádiz, Granada) ending with a conference in Almeria where I caught up with old friends and made some new ones. It’s a really lovely region to visit, couldn’t pick a favourite, but I do want to come back!

This is good - to add to my daily Wordle and Worldle (yes, two different things)

laugh then think that’s the spirit of the Ig Nobel Prize! 🎉

Our study on alcohol and foreign language skills was honored yesterday. Study team: Jessica Werthmann, Inge Kersbergen & @fieldmatt.bsky.social

Here is a link to the full show for everybody who missed it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1cP...

Other exciting news - my brilliant colleague Lucy Burke has had her 1st PhD paper published in BMJ Public Health.

It looks as associations between the reasons why we drink alcohol and whether we drink no- and low-alcohol drinks and has some important implications for the NHS 10-year plan.

Meet the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize winners The annual award ceremony features miniature operas, scientific demos, and the 24/7 lectures.

Extremely proud and a bit jealous that my excellent colleagues @fieldmatt.bsky.social and Inge Kersbergen have won this year's Ig Nobel Peace prize for showing that being a bit tipsy makes you better at speaking Dutch.

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

I need something to start the “prizes” subsection, so yes

Teflon diet, garlic milk and zebra cows triumph at 2025 Ig Nobel prizes Researchers into idea to blend powdered PTFE into food as a zero-calorie filler to curb hunger win chemistry prize

Well. This was nice www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

What a monumental bellend. I was in a documentary he hosted in the distant past. Little did I know…

"I'm a stupid moron with an ugly face and a big butt and my butt smells and... I like to kiss my own butt"

Was great to share findings from the CONGAM project on contingency management for gambling harm at the #EABCT conference in Glasgow with @fieldmatt.bsky.social @carolagetty.bsky.social @clinpsych.bsky.social and to compete with Comic Con for attendees! 🦸‍♂️

Exploring the impact on emotional wellbeing of having a spouse or cohabiting partner with elevated Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) scores: Secondary analysis of cross‐sectional health survey data Background/Aims To conduct an exploratory analysis of the association between the mental health and emotional wellbeing of an individual and the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) scores of thei...

🆕Research from @uofglasgow.bsky.social shows gambling-related harms affect not only individuals but also their partners’ emotional wellbeing.
Find out more: tinyurl.com/4xybkamk
@shwardle.bsky.social

Lower caution, not inhibitory control, predicts gambling severity – a Registered Report Models of gambling disorder, along with other addiction-related conditions, identify impulsive traits as a key component to developing challenging behaviors. This is supported by empirical findings...

This just published. Great work by Michelle Oxtoby. Full article: Lower caution, not inhibitory control, predicts gambling severity – a Registered Report www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Great thread! ⬇️

Do drinking occasion characteristics differ across individuals using different moderation approaches? A social practice perspective Limiting alcohol consumption is challenging as alcohol often serves as a ‘social lubricant’ in drinking practices. While individuals adopt different behavioral approaches to reduce drinking, it rem...

📢 New SARG paper 📢 This study aimed to investigate whether drinking occasion characteristics differ between those who moderate their drinking and those who do not, and among different subtypes of moderators. #alcoholresearch #publichealth

'Immigration doesn't bother me but it seems to bother everyone else' – Everyone.

This is what happens when the media runs away with Hard Right narratives.

SARG researcher secures major Wellcome funding to model how context influences alcohol consumption - Sheffield Addictions Research Group Dr Amber Copeland from the Sheffield Addictions Research Group (SARG) has been awarded a prestigious Wellcome Trust fellowship worth £591,755 over five years. The funding will support a new project to...

🎉 Huge congratulations to SARG researcher @ambercopeland.bsky.social who has secured almost £600k funding from the @wellcometrust.bsky.social to develop a cutting-edge computational model that explores how a person's environment influences their attempts to cut down on alcohol. #PublicHealth

The SSA explored the background of ketamine and the drug's therapeutic potential with former PhD student Merve Mollaahmetoglu, who reviewed 83 studies of ketamine treatment. Read the full interview here: www.addiction-ssa.org/features/int...

I remember when academic summers involved sitting in the garden reading, thinking and writing papers. Where and when did it all go wrong?

UK gambling industry launches summer charm offensive to head off tax rise Exclusive: Lobbyists meet with ministers, and host a darts night with Labour advisers and MPs’ staff

UK gambling industry launches summer charm offensive to head off tax rise www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Can you use off the shelf generative LLMs (eg ChatGPT, Claude) to assess personality from brief bits of unconstrained, open-ended text? If so, how well do they do?

Turns out you can, and they do amazingly well. I couldn't believe how well.

Here's our pre-print on it and a 🧵

More evidence on how 'othering' is a barrier to problem recognition amongst at-risk/heavy drinking groups. Great novel study led by the excellent @melissaoldham.bsky.social and colleagues.. Open access 👇

Trains. Looks like Delay Repay will continue to be an important source of income.