How economic pressure changes behaviour, and what that costs people’s health.
I study financial harm, from gambling to the cost-of-living, and turn everyday financial behaviour into early evidence of risk. My research has changed UK gambling law and briefed parliament, government departments, and regulators.
Recent
See all updates →- 2027
Grant
Awarded an ERC Starting Grant for ECHO
A five-year programme studying how economic conditions shape behaviour and health across generations.
- 2026
Grant
Awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship
Building the UK's first national infrastructure for measuring and predicting gambling harm.
- 2025
Publication
Two paradoxes in women's well-being
Science Advances, with C. Kaiser, E. Quispe-Torreblanca, and J. De Neve.
- 2025
Publication
Inequality-related status consumption is linked to impaired health
With Y. Ye, L. Walasek, and G. Brown.
- 2024–present
Advisory
Appointed to the DCMS College of Experts
One of 58 scientists on a national panel advising UK government on evidence and policy.
What I work on
Financial harm & vulnerability
How everyday financial behaviour, from gambling to credit and spending, reveals and predicts harm at population scale, long before it reaches a clinical threshold.
Economic conditions & health
How financial pressure shapes behaviour, and how that behaviour becomes measurable health outcomes across a lifetime, and across generations.
Status, norms & behaviour
The evolutionary and social psychology underneath both: why inequality changes what people buy, risk, and value.
Current grants
Starting Grant · European Research Council · €1.5m · 2027–2032
How Economic Pressure Changes Behaviour and Health
Linking banking, retail, clinical, and genealogical records to trace how economic conditions shape behaviour and health across a lifetime, and across generations.
Future Leaders Fellowship · UKRI · £2.4m · 2026–2030
Gambling Harm in the Digital Age
Building the UK’s first national, population-scale evidence system for gambling harm, with the Gambling Commission, the FCA, and seven major UK banks.