Metodi Siromahov
I am a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway and study the psychology of imagined communities (national and large sub-national social groups that are perceived as natural entities) from a cognitive and evolutionary perspective. My wider research interests include the psychology of ideological systems and “irrational” cognitions and behaviour.
Aysha Bellamy
My PhD research is primarily interested in explaining social behaviour from a gene-culture coevolution perspective. I am interested in how our similarity to others affects our decisions to use social-learning strategies, and how social-learning strategies can uphold group beliefs. I use a mixture of economic games and theoretical modelling to investigate the proposed evolutionary roots of our behaviour.
Isaac Halstead
I am a PhD student at Royal Holloway, previously at the University of Kent and St Mary’s University. My current work involves exploring attitudes towards biotechnology, specifically gene editing. I want to identify what psychological factors inform attitudes towards this emerging technology. In addition to this, I also research anti-science attitudes, such as vaccination opposition.
Elitza Ambrus
My research investigates the stability of moral preferences, integrating tools from experimental economics, social and cognitive psychology. I am interested in modelling the psychological factors shaping moral self-judgements, judgement and choices over time and decision contexts.