I conduct inter-disciplinary research on the interaction between human behaviour and technology. This work is usually broadly about either privacy, security or trust - although more recently I've worked on persuasion (including AI and persuasion-at-scale). Early in my career I worked on establishing the field of 'cyberpsychology' - coining the term 'disinhibition' back in the 1998 to describe how people's behaviour changes when online, and authoring one of the first books in the area (and organising the first ever conference). I also pioneered the use of the internet in the collection of psychological and survey data - starting in the mid-1990s analysing log files on some of the first web servers during the 1995/1996 Premier League season, and a 1999 with a paper on social desirability and online questionnaires, and then moving onto a series of studies looking at both data quality, self-disclosure and response rates (e.g. this one). This more methodological research extends to the nature of privacy - including work that attempted to address the 'fuzzy' definition of privacy and a dictionary for studying privacy talk using natural language processing, and a range of self-report measures (including to measure disclosure, privacy concerns, and human cyber resilience). 

Alongside this, I have researched self-disclosure in computer-mediated communication, and privacy and self-disclosure online (including this one that combined survey methodology with privacy and self-disclosure). I then went on to research behaviour and privacy on social media sites (back in 2008) that examined the uses and gratifications of Facebook. This work led to an interest in the links between online and offline - for instance, research that examined the impact of priming Facebook on people's offline behaviour (the so-called 'chilling effect') with my PhD student Ben Marder. 

Between 2015 and 2024 I led the online behaviour and risk strand of the UK Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats which moved from understanding how digital footprints predict human traits to predicting violent action using digital traces. I also spent time working in Government to apply behavioural science to national security - an experience that inspired the work I led that looked into how digital traces can be linked to actual violent acts. I also spent a bit of time (2012-2015) as a Professor of Behaviour Change - leading me to combine my interests in cybersecurity with influence techniques and behaviour change. 

I am co-director of the Bath Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour, and am part of the leadership team for the new EPSRC CRANE Network Plus. Within CRANE, I'm responsible for looking at future and emerging technologies and the security (and social) impacts they might have. I am also co-Director of the joint Bristol-Bath EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Secure Everywhere.  

I was Director of the ESRC Digital Security by Design Social Science Hub+ ('Discribe') between 2020 and 2025. As part of this work I organised community events for the wider Digital Security by Design challenge, and worked with my colleagues to explore how (cyber)security is valued, and balanced against other organisational priorities. One output from this work with colleagues is an online (and physical) game called 'threats and tradeoffs' 

I have been fortunate to have my work funded by the ESRC, EPSRC, EU, British Academy, DSTL and UK Government who have supported my work through 40 research grants, worth in the region of £45m. I led over half of these projects as principal investigator. 

Past PhD students: 

• Karim Adam: Balancing privacy needs with location sharing in mobile computing (2009)
• David Houghton: The Effects of Day-to-Day Interaction via Social Network Sites on Interpersonal Relationships (2013)
• Ben Marder: Saving Face on Facebook: Managing Impressions in the Presence of Multiple Audiences on Social Network Sites (2013)
• Chris Archer-Brown: Towards an Understanding of the Antecedents of Influence in Virtual Communities (2013)
• Tommy Van Steen: The question-behaviour effect: Causes and moderators (2016)
• Naif Algabar: The role of social marketing in addressing the treatment of driving anger: A cognitive approach (2017)
• Brittany Davidson: Shape Shifting Behavior and Identity Across Digital Systems (2019)
• Tom Bowden-Green: The interaction between consumers’ personality traits and their engagement with social media content (2021)
• Samantha Richardson: Exploring online identities of influential users in online communities: A mixed methods approach (2021)
• Kseniya Stsiampkouskaya: Emotions, Feedback, and Social Engagement in Photo Sharing and ‘Liking’ Behaviours on Social Media (2022)
• Alina Gruppe: Exploring pathways to deviant and conformist behaviour in cyberspace (2024)
• Samantha North: Battles for Britain : Exploring Drivers of Political Tribalism in the Wake of Brexit (2024)
• Tobias Weickert: Secure by Habit? Examining the Role of Routine in Cybersecurity (2025)
• Emily Godwin: Making Stigma Work: How Conspiracy Theories Function Productively in Digital Environments (2026)
• Anna Davidovic: The Digital Bystander: Lowering the Barriers and Encouraging Bystander Intervention Within Online Settings (2026)
• Robert Peace: Investigating the Perceived Trustworthiness of Digital Information (2026)

Current PhD students:

• Jessica Johansen: The motivations, techniques, and consequences of digital identity concealment.
• Emma Woodward: Reimagining the Art of Organising Chaos: A Systemic Design Inquiry into the Effectiveness of Cybersecurity Incident Response
• Zaina Dkaidek: Contextual Dynamics in Cybersecurity Investment Decision-Making
• Johnny (Janusz) Swierczynki: Creepy or crime preventing? Investigating how people make decisions about the costs and benefits of adopting smart home security technologies.
• Katie Thomas: Investigating the balance of privacy versus security in a family environment.
• Guy Thompson : Exploring the Impact of Hybrid-Remote Working Practices on Security Behaviours and Organisational Culture

Most of my PhD students come via our joint CDT with the University of Bristol or are attached to specific projects. I am also keen to support students who are sponsored by their employer to undertake a PhD part-time. Over the next year or two I'm particularly interested in students who want to develop work around resilience (from a socio-technical perspective), and around online harms (and specific populations). I'm also open to other topics that develop ideas or interests outlined above.