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):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation
  • SDG 13 - Climate Action
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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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