Integrating Human Behaviour and Psychology

Integrating Human Behaviour and Psychology Rethinking Epidemic Models: Integrating Human Behaviour and Psychology (2027) Human behaviour during epidemics is shaped by social identities that influence risk perceptions, trust, and actions, challenging traditional epidemic models. This PhD will integrate psychological theory into agent-based models (ABMs) of disease spread, behaviour, and feedback. The PGR will review evidence on epidemic-relevant identities, norms, and influence patterns, and use UK, Dutch, and US data to create identity-based agent profiles. Working with an interdisciplinary team, they will translate these insights into computational rules while ensuring fidelity to social and health psychology. What you get For 3 years, you will receive a tax-free stipend at a standard rate of £21,805 per year and your fees will be waived (at the UK rate). In addition, to an annual Research and Training Support Grant of £900 Type of award Postgraduate Research PhD project Human behaviour during epidemics reflects our nature as socially embedded decision-makers who interpret health risks through multiple, often competing, social identities. Traditional epidemic models offer mathematical precision but fail when confronted with this reality: people do not follow mathematical rules, they navigate health decisions as group members whose identities shape how they interpret risk, trust information, and act. In this project, the PhD student will translate psychological constructs into mathematical/dynamical rules driving comprehensive agent-based models (ABMs) incorporating disease transmission, behaviour and feedback loops. They will systematically review and extract the psychological building blocks required for the agent-based models built by others in this Leverhulme Trust funded research team. Their first task will be to conduct a comprehensive literature review identifying epidemic-relevant social identities, their associated norms, contextual salience triggers, and within- versus across-group influence patterns. Working with datasets from the UK, Netherlands, and USA, the PhD student will produce the identity profiles—archetypal agent configurations capturing key behavioural heterogeneity—that form the foundation of the modelling platform. In the second phase, the PhD student will collaborate with others to translate these psychological constructs into formal computational rules suitable for agent-based modelling. The PhD student will ensure that formalisations remain faithful to the underlying psychological theory—a translational role that is central to the project's interdisciplinary ambition. Jointly supervised by John Drury (social psychology, Sussex) and Marijn Stok (health psychology, Utrecht), the student will benefit from complementary expertise spanning the social identity approach, health behaviour research, and real-world policy advisory experience from COVID-19. Eligibility Eligible candidates will normally have a first or an upper sec