James Reynolds

In our new preprint led by my MSc student, Karla Hitchins, we test how providing the public with evidence summaries of the benefits and safety of psilocybin influences attitudes towards different psilocybin policies:

Perceptions of science, science communication, and climate change attitudes in 68 countries – the TISP dataset - Scientific Data Scientific Data - Perceptions of science, science communication, and climate change attitudes in 68 countries – the TISP dataset

Discover the #TISP Dataset now out in #ScientificData! The open access dataset includes responses from 71,922 people in 68 countries on their perceptions of science, science communication, and climate change attitudes. 🌍🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great to see this finally published!

Our global study on the state of trust in scientists is now out in Nature Human Behaviour! 🥳

With a team of 241 researchers, we surveyed 71,922 people in 68 countries, providing the largest dataset on trust in scientists post-pandemic 👇🧵https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-02090-5

I love these kind of discussions but everytime it happens it reminds me of 1) how little we understand psychological concepts and 2) how little we agree on which of the bad definitions is the best current one

Calorie (energy) labelling for changing selection and consumption of food or alcohol - Clarke, N - 2025 | Cochrane Library Select your preferred language for Cochrane reviews and other content. Sections without translation will be in English.

🔊 Published today, our new Cochrane review on the impact of calorie labelling on people’s selection and consumption of food (including non-alcoholic drinks) and alcohol:
www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10....

Short thread below 👇

Fair point. I'll have another go with ggplot. The first few I saw were not what I was looking for. But if you have a handy walkthrough to hand I'd love to see it

Any package recommendations for building good forest plots in r? I often see ones much nicer than metafor or ggplot can produce but no idea how

Something magical just happened in excel

Disentangling the temporal relationship between alcohol‐related attitudes and heavy episodic drinking in adolescents within a randomized controlled trial Background and aims Within many alcohol prevention interventions, changes in alcohol-related attitudes (ARA) are often proposed as precursors to changes in drinking behaviour. This study aimed to me...

Our new study led by @prof-andy.bsky.social has been published in @addictionjournal.bsky.social (£0) We investigated whether changes in alcohol-related attitudes were precursors to changes in drinking behaviour - hence this proxy outcome could be useful... onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

If you missed our EHPS OS SIG webinar on Registered Reports featuring the incredible speaker Aoife O'Mahony, don't worry 💫 You can still watch the recording here to learn more about Registered Reports, their benefits, and see some examples: youtu.be/lREc5et4e9Q?...

Published version out now: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @katieedders.bsky.social @profblissett.bsky.social #behsci #psychscisky

In most places in the world, power from new renewables is now cheaper than power from new fossil fuels.

Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

The answer: learning curves.

📢New job!!!

We've got a new postdoc research position in our group, working with @hannahforde.bsky.social to develop a Nutrient and Environment Profiling Model to support UK healthy sustainable food policy. Click below for details.

Please share widely! Don't make me log in to LinkedIn...

Repurposing Semaglutide and Liraglutide for Alcohol Use Disorder This cohort study examines nationwide registry data for Swedish residents with a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder to determine whether hospitalization risk for an individual is decreased during perio...

GLP-1 agonists are showing promise for alcohol abuse disorder. This is good news, if it holds up in RCTs. Tx for all substance use disorders are badly needed, and the capacity of GLP-1 to modulate generalized craving response may predict benefit for other drugs.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Physical Activity and All-Cause Mortality by Age in 4 Multinational Megacohorts This cohort study examines whether there is an age-dependent association between physical activity and all-cause mortality at all stages of adult life.

A large mega-study involving 4 population cohorts shows reliable mortality risk offset with increased leisure time physical activity. This benefit is present across the whole lifespan but increasing benefit evident with advancing age. #exercise
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The link between changing news use and trust: longitudinal analysis of 46 countries Abstract . Changing levels of public trust in the news are of deep concern to both researchers and practitioners. We use data from 2015 to 2023 in 46 count

New article in Journal of Communication looking at changes to trust in news across 46 countries in the last 10 years.

Trust in news declined in just over half of countries.

It decreased more in countries where TV news use has declined, and/or where social media news use has grown.

A thread:

Just Asking Questions: Can an Implication Generate an Illusory Truth Effect? Ira E. Hyman, Jr., Jasmine Balmelli-Morales, Macallan Enns-Ford, Annika Fiala, Zoe Gadbow, Macy Kneipp, Isabel Nguyen, Gwen Pane Western Washington University Madeline Jalbert University of Washington

A Just Asking Questions Effect for spreading false information.
This thread is an overview of my lab’s research that I presented at Psychonomics this morning. #psynow24

TLDR: Getting people to generate their own false answers leads them to believe that info. 1/

Nigel Farage’s anti-WHO campaign has link to nicotine products industry Action on World Health co-founder’s firm provides services to organisation that advocates for nicotine pouches

"Nigel Farage’s group campaigning against the WHO is staffed by consultants who work with the nicotine products industry.

Farage is the chair and a co-founder of Action on World Health, which campaigns to reform or replace the WHO"

And nobody was at all surprised.

Published version out now: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @katieedders.bsky.social @profblissett.bsky.social #behsci #psychscisky

I have started a Behavioural Science starter pack - just let me know if you would like to be added - see go.bsky.app/CzLwTyZ

Figure summarising the 6 main categories of interventions in the TIPPME framework: Availability, Position, Functionality, Presentation, Size, and Information

New publication out 🎉 with Natasha Clarke, @gjhollands.bsky.social, Rachel Pechey, and @lauramkoenig.bsky.social. In this EHPS policy summary we discuss ways to change environments to change health behaviours: www.ehps.net/wp-content/u...

Can you add me too? Thanks!

Sorry @katieedders.bsky.social for not tagging you! I didn't realise you had an account even though i follow you!

This study suggests that results from previous studies on adults that tested these interventions do generalise to adolescents. It also provides further evidence to show how much our food choices can be influenced by environmental factors outside of the individuals control.

Availability reduced energy selected per meal by 178 kcals (d = .43) and Position reduced energy selected by 108 kcals (d = .25). However the results differed by course. Availability was only effective for starters (113 kcals, d = .74) and position for mains (59 kcals, d = .23). We are not sure why!

A stater course menu depicting BBQ beef tacos, crispy coated prawns, chicken & chorizo croquettes, garlic breaded mushrooms, halloumi fries, and an option to not choose any of the above. Each option shows the kcal content of the option.

We used three real menus (starters, main course, and desserts) across three different restaurants with hot-spot click features that could detect which option participants clicked on and the total energy selected was summed to create our outcomes: total energy per meal and per course. Example below:

We conducted an online-experiment to test whether food selection can be influenced two interventions: Availability (+ availability of low kcal foods on menus) and Position (putting low kcal foods first on menus) vs a control group. The primary outcome was total energy selected per meal

New publication out soon in Appetite 🎉 led by Katie Edwards and with @profblissett.bsky.social we find that Availability and Position interventions influence adolescent food selection: osf.io/preprints/ps...

I continue this work now - with a focus on improving methodology, trying to synthesise disconnected parts of the field, and apply these insights to advise public health officials internationally. Follow me if you want to hear more about these topics and get in touch if you wish to collaborate! /end