Research Activity

We are home to the ESRC Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST), the UK’s hub for behavioural and social science research into security threats.

Our research is also funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as well as government agencies, industry and charitable institutions.

We specialise in the psychologically informed analysis of digital data – including digital visual data (CCTV, body-cam, smartphone videos, face recognition, face morphing); social media data (social network, Twitter and blog data); smartphone and ambient sensor data (digital traces and location data) as well as studies using virtual reality or whole-body motion capture technology in the laboratory.

We are experts in the study of trust, deception, morality, resilience and identity, and explore these as dynamic social processes at the individual, group and organisational level.

We value methodological plurality – and conduct research using both quantitative and qualitative methods. We were early and enthusiastic adopters of open science practices to guide our research work. We are also at the forefront of research exploring the ethics and values in the use of digital data and new computational techniques.

Social Processes staff are members of interdisciplinary research institutes at the forefront of contemporary data-driven research challenges including the Data Science Institute and Security Lancaster. Members of the Social Processes group also play a leading role in several UKRI multi-million pound NetworkPlus initiatives including: SPRITE+ (Security, Privacy, Identity and Trust Engagement); TAS Node in Resilience (Trustworthy Autonomous Systems); RBOC Network Plus (Resilience Beyond Observed Capabilities).