LIFE BEFORE I belong to a privileged generation. Not that I was raised in affluence; far from it. Born in 1958, to a mother who worked...

Summary Since the advent of the covid-19 era in early 2020, many countries across the world have deployed behavioural science...

The state’s strategic deployment of fear, shame and peer pressure – or ‘affect, ‘ego’ and ‘norms’ in the language of behavioural science...

The United Kingdom has witnessed the lifting of almost all mask mandates, thereby allowing people to choose whether or not to cover their...

The last few weeks have witnessed an outpouring of vitriolic abuse and imposition of prejudicial policies directed against a group of...

Throughout last year I, and many other psychological specialists, urged the British Psychological Society(BPS) to address our widespread...

Regular users of social media will be aware that there are polarised opinions about how the UK, and many other countries, have responded...

A middle-aged woman, walking along a pavement in the afternoon sunshine, sees a young family approaching and instantly becomes stricken...

After six months of evasion and obfuscation, the British Psychological Society (BPS) has made its position clear: it sees nothing...

For 16 months, the British people have been pounded with a multi-faceted Government communication campaign to imprint on our minds the...

It is increasingly recognised that the Government’s coronavirus communications campaign has relied heavily on covert psychological...

I would like to provide an update on progress (or lack of it) of our efforts to seek the view of the British Psychological Society (BPS)...

At a coronavirus press conference on the 22nd of February the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, shared his ‘roadmap’ outlining the UK’s...

As described in a previous blogpost, there are major ethical concerns arising from the use of covert psychological strategies within the...

In December 2020, accompanied by expressions of unbridled elation from politicians and the mainstream media, the UK began the roll out of...

In an earlier blogpost, I described how psychologists working in the Government's 'Behavioural Insight Team' had recommended the use of...

In a previous blogpost, I described how psychologists working in the Government's 'Behavioural Insight Team' had recommended the use of...

For the last two weeks, we have witnessed a media frenzy of rejoicing in response to the preliminary drug-company announcements about the...

Throughout the year we have been fed an unrelenting diet of fear-enhancing messages and associated imagery about the novel coronavirus,...

Introduction The British public’s widespread compliance with the Government’s draconian diktats has arguably been the most remarkable...