Dr Micheal De Barra
Senior Lecturer in Psychology
Quad North 129
- Email: micheal.debarra@brunel.ac.uk
- Tel: +44 (0)1895 265359
Summary
My research is concerned with health and behaviour, and it often takes an evolutionary approach. I have examined how infectious disease shaped cognitive evolution, how behaviour alters infection risk, and how maladaptive ideas about health and healing spread and persist. I have a particular interest in the social and cognitive processes that drive overtreatment (the use of ineffective medical therapies).
Newest selected publications
Andersson, PA., Vartanova, I., Västfjäll, D., Tinghög, G., Strimling, P., Wu, J., et al. (2024) 'Anger and disgust shape judgments of social sanctions across cultures, especially in high individual autonomy societies'. Scientific Reports, 14 (1). pp. 1 - 12. ISSN: 2045-2322 Open Access Link
Andrighetto, G., Szekely, A., Guido, A., Gelfand, M., Abernathy, J., Arikan, G., et al. (2024) 'Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries'. Nature Communications, 15 (1). pp. 1 - 11. ISSN: 2041-1723 Open Access Link
de Barra, M., Hakimy, K. and de Bruin, M. (2023) 'Signalling need for care: A neglected functional role of medical treatment'. Evolution Medicine and Public Health, 11 (1). pp. 363 - 378. ISSN: 2050-6201 Open Access Link
Brown, RCH. and de Barra, M. (2023) 'A Taxonomy of Non-honesty in Public Health Communication'. Public Health Ethics, 15 (1). pp. 86 - 101. ISSN: 1754-9973 Open Access Link
de Barra, M. and Brown, R. (2023) 'Public health communication should be more transparent'. Nature Human Behaviour, 7 (5). pp. 662 - 664. ISSN: 2397-3374 Open Access Link