Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
Laura Smith is a Professor of Psychology, Co-Director of the Bath Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour, and lead of the Digital Lives lab. She is Deputy Director of the ESRC Network Plus for Analytical Behavioural Science for Security and Defence. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Exeter (2008), and held academic positions at the University of Queensland, Australia, from 2008-2011, before joining the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath in 2011. She was Chief Editor of the British Journal of Social Psychology from 2020-2022. Her research highlights how human psychology and behaviour interact with the affordances of digital technologies – and how this can produce opportunities, but also creates vulnerabilities and risks. She has published widely over the past 20 years on the psychology underlying polarization, radicalization, social movements, and collective action. As a social psychologist, she has an established program of research examining how polarized groups emerge and evolve through intra- and intergroup interactions (both online and offline), and the implications of these processes for behavior. Prof Smith's research on polarization and radicalization has been funded by three major UK-based research councils and in 2016 she won a mid-career Fellowship from the British Academy to study the psychology of online radicalization.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
Social psychology, Doctor of Philosophy, The impact of intragroup interaction on intergroup relations, University of Exeter
Award Date: 3 Nov 2008
Social and organisational psychology, Master in Science, University of Exeter
Award Date: 1 Jun 2005
Psychology, Bachelor of Science, University of Exeter
Award Date: 1 Jun 2004
External positions
Chief Editor, British Journal of Social Psychology
Keywords
- psychology
- Social identity
- Radicalization
- Social change
- Social Media Analytics
- Social Psychology
- online harms
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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AI for Collective Intelligence (AI4CI) – A UKRI AI Research Hub for Real Data
Smith, L. G. E. (PI), Pryer, T. (CoI), Smith, T. (CoI) & Chen, C. (Researcher CoI)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/02/24 → 31/01/29
Project: Research council
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Using Values to Increase Intellectual Humility among Political Partisans
Maio, G. (PI), Smith, L. G. E. (CoI) & Wolf, L. (CoI)
1/10/23 → 30/09/25
Project: Other
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Reactions to Intragroup Threat - Phase 2
Smith, L. G. E. (PI) & Dennis, A. (Researcher)
26/08/23 → 25/06/25
Project: Central government, health and local authorities
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Networks and Radicalisation - University Innovation Concept
Brown, O. (PI), Fincham Haines, T. (CoI) & Smith, L. G. E. (CoI)
National Police Chiefs' Council
16/10/23 → 31/05/24
Project: Central government, health and local authorities
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Investigating Reactions to Intragroup and Intergroup Threats
Smith, L. G. E. (PI)
8/10/22 → 14/07/23
Project: Central government, health and local authorities
Research output
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A randomised feasibility trial comparing group and individual format Groups for Health interventions for loneliness in people who experience psychosis
Hogg, L., Smith, L. G. E., Haslam, C., Coxhill, L., Kurz, T., Hobden, G. & Morrison, A., 29 Jan 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Psychology and Psychotherapy Theory, Research and Practice.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile21 Downloads (Pure) -
Inter-brain synchrony is associated with greater shared identity within naturalistic conversational pairs
Hinvest, N. S., Ashwin, C., Hijazy, M., Carter, F., Scarampi, C., Stothart, G. & Smith, L. G. E., 28 Feb 2025, In: British Journal of Psychology. 116, 1, p. 170-182Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access7 Downloads (Pure) -
Lemons to lemonade: Identity integration in researchers with lived experience of psychosis
Hogg, L. I., Branitsky, A., Morrison, A. P., Kurz, T. & Smith, L. G. E., 4 Feb 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Psychology and Psychotherapy Theory, Research and Practice.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Motivations to Engage in Collective Action: A Latent Profile Analysis of Refugee Supporters
Yip, L., Thomas, E. F., Bliuc, A.-M., Boza, M., Kende, A., Lizzio-Wilson, M., Reese, G. & Smith, L. G. E., 31 Jan 2025, In: British Journal of Social Psychology. 64, 1, e12786.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access5 Citations (SciVal) -
The potential and challenges of AI for collective intelligence
Riedl, C., Cremer, D. D., Lucarelli, G., Antoine-Souklaye, E., Bullock, S., Ajmeri, N., Batty, M., Black, M., Cartlidge, J., Challen, R., Chen, C., Chen, J., Condell, J., Danon, L., Dennett, A., Heppenstall, A., Marshall, P., Morgan, P., O’Kane, A. & Smith, L. G. & 4 others, , 17 Feb 2025, In: Collective Intelligence. 4, 1Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access
Datasets
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Dataset for article entitled "An empirical evaluation of methodologies used for emotion recognition via EEG signals"
Hinvest, N. (Creator), Ashwin, C. (Creator), Carter, F. (Creator), Hook, J. (Creator), Smith, L. G. E. (Creator) & Stothart, G. (Creator), University of Bath, 30 Jan 2022
DOI: 10.15125/BATH-00899
Dataset