John McAlaney

Professor John McAlaney

Professor in Psychology

Areas of expertise

  • 3D printing
  • 3D printing and intellectual property
  • amusements
  • ancient telescope
  • animation
  • anthropology
  • assistive technology
  • BAFTA Albert in Education partnership
  • biological signs of stress
  • blockchain
  • blockchain and intellectual property
  • Booker prize
  • brain injury
  • British Archaeology
  • celestial alignment
  • climate change
  • coastal erosion
  • comics
  • cortisol
  • cultural analysis
  • dementia care
  • dementia therapy
  • Diffusion tensor Imaging
  • digital business
  • disabled technology
  • drug analysis
  • e-readers
  • e-reading
  • entrepreneurship
  • fairgrounds
  • female comics
  • feminist theory
  • financial scams
  • flooding
  • forensic analysis
  • fruits and vegetables
  • gender studies
  • geophysics
  • girls and comics
  • gothic comics
  • governance of bodies
  • Greek Archaeology
  • healthy eating
  • hidden voices
  • influencers
  • Innovation
  • Kindle
  • learning innovation
  • legal high
  • Lesion analysis
  • magazines in the digital age
  • marine biologist
  • marine climate change
  • national centre for computer animation
  • NCCA
  • never let me go
  • NPS
  • omega-3 oils and depression
  • organisational image and legitimacy
  • Oscars
  • overfishing
  • parody
  • parody and intellectual property
  • participatory research
  • postnatal depression
  • postnatal depression in men
  • protein intake in older adults
  • Pyramids
  • reading on kindle
  • remains of the day
  • reminiscence therapy
  • resorts
  • robot carers
  • Russian Archaeology
  • scamming
  • seaside
  • social identity
  • social media influencers
  • social work
  • sociology
  • solar panels
  • sport consumption
  • sport fandom
  • sports mega-events
  • stop and search
  • stress diagnosis
  • stress hormone
  • sugar reduction
  • sweet taste
  • tank corrosion
  • tank protection
  • technology in learning
  • technology in teaching
  • urban spaces
  • VFX
  • Vlochos

John’s research focuses on social psychological aspects of behaviour change, and how this is informed by group dynamics and perceptions of peer behaviour.

He has been extensively involved in the development of the social norms approach in the UK, which aims to bring about positive change through challenging misconceptions and negative stereotypes. John is particularly interested in applying this research to areas that involve risk-based decision making.

John also works with colleagues from the Department of Computing on several aspects of socio-technical systems. This includes exploring how social psychology research may be used to better understand the role of human factors in cybercrime, hacktivism and online social protest; as well as how systems may be designed to address the potential psychological factors associated with excessive use of digital technologies (i.e. digital addiction).

John has a range of media experience, including local radio interviews and articles for The Conversation.