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Piers Fleming's Research Projects

Overview

I am a Psychologist at the University of East Anglia (UEA) who is interested in the Psychology of Risk including judgments, perceptions and behaviour. I am particularly focussed upon digital / online / Cyber Risks. I have used a range of approaches including individual differences, surveys, psycho-biological approaches and incentivised economic games (where decisions have financial consequences). I am also particularly interested in psychological aspects of Risk Assessment. I have a wider interest in psychological processes involved with risk judgments across a broad range of hazards including gambling, climate change, social work decisions and health & medicines. See here for a full list of publications.

See below (or click on the links) for more detail.

Cyber Risks

I am interested in risk-taking and regulation across different types of digital media. Digital risks are often unclear or unknown. They are not visceral in the way that physical risks are. To date I have carried out work in three main areas:

  1. I have carried out work looking at unlawful file-sharing (aka digital piracy) with the Centre for Creativity, Regulation, Enterprise and Technology (CREATe) investigating risk and decision making with digital media. See here for a scoping review , here for a meta-analysis and here for an examination of risk, benefit and emotion in file-sharing.
  2. I have looked at risk around online privacy and people's understanding of that risk - see here for a paper looking at repeated question effects on privacy disclosures and see here for a paper looking at the role of cultural differences in understanding the relationship between valuing personal data and protecting personal data.
  3. I have preliminary work looking at marginal internet users understanding of cyber-safety. This project with the Norwich Good Economy Commission aims to safely reduce psychological barriers to digital inclusion. See Project website here.

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment and the identification of hazards is a very important step in protecting people. However, there is considerable variability in hazard identification. I am interested in what psychological factors might influence risk assessment. See here.

Thanks to:

The Nuffield Foundation

Delivery Innovation Team (aka Digital Inclusion Team)

Research Councils UK

Norwich Good Economy Commission