Dr Beth Bell

Dr Beth T. Bell – Mental Health and Education in the Digital Age

by Expert

Lecturer in Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education

University of York

Connect:

Email her directly at: 

beth.bell@york.ac.uk

Follow:
X-twitter
Main CyberPsychology Expertise:

Mental Health and Education in the Digital Age

Consultant Expertise:
  • Dr Bell’s research expertise lies in youth wellbeing and mental health in the digital age.
  • More specifically, she adopts a mixed-methods interdisciplinary approach to understanding the risks and opportunities afforded by digital media and technologies in relation to youth wellbeing and mental health.
  • A second strand of her research involves the co-design, development and evaluation of psychological interventions delivered in educational and technological settings.
Media Articles
The dark side of Strava: What happens when users lose control

Applications can have unintended consequences that reach beyond what they were originally created for. 

In this article Dr Bell contributes to a discussion on the downsides of applications like Strava, saying that using these apps can make ‘these people feel demotivated and stops them from engaging in physical activity.’

Click here to access original article

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

Return to the Experts Page
Other Experts
Dr Linda Kaye 2

Dr Linda K Kaye – Social Inclusion and Wellbeing

by Expert

Reader in Psychology

@ Edge Hill University, United Kingdom

Connect:

Email her directly at: Linda.kaye@edgehill.ac.uk

Follow:

Open Science Framework

Google Scholar

Professional Profile @ Edge Hill University, UK

Twitter Youtube
Main CyberPsychology Expertise:

How we can use online settings to promote social inclusion and well-being

Other Specialisations:

How “social” is social media?

How social media relates to well-being.

Are emoji emotional?

Consultant Expertise:

Also known as ‘The Cyber Doctor’, Dr Kaye is available as a consultant to industry and a speaker. 

Find out more about her on her website The Cyber Doctor.

Books Published
Issues and Debates in CyberPsychology

Released in January 2022

You can read a sample of the book, including the introduction and the beginning of Chapter 2. 

Read a sample

This comprehensive and accessibly written book brings together in one place for the first time the wealth of debates within cyberpsychology. What is the difference between screen time and screen use, and why has one been pathologised while the other has not? Is social media really bad for well-being?

This book considers these issues and more, in depth, with clear, informed resolutions and conclusions no longer being mediated by jargon-filled articles or misrepresentative media headlines. 

In this video, Dr Kaye introduces her book.

You can watch the remainder of her chapter videos directly on her website page

Book Chapters - written as a contributor

You can find a list of book chapters that Dr Kaye has contributed to or published here.

Media Articles
Maintaining connections during remote or hybrid working

In socially distanced times, connected games emerge as key social spaces

In this article Dr Kaye showcases how Digital games can help people stay connected when not physically together.

Click here to access original article

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

Move over zoom – voice memos are the real way to stay in touch

This article covers how voice memos and voice notes can support the feeling of being connected. 

Click here to access original article

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

The Zoom Boom: how video-calling became a blessing – and a curse

This article is about the role of video calls / conferencing – including the benefits and the drawbacks for employees.

Click here to access original article

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

The Real Social Benefits of Video Games

This article highlights key social benefits of Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) gaming.

Click here to access original article

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

Understanding employee well-being during remote or distributed working

Why WhatsApp might actually be good for your mental health

This article talks about how WhatsApp may help support group bonds and promote good well-being.

Click here to access original article

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

How to handle tech stress (and communicate effectively) while working from home

This article is on how to handle “tech stress” when working from home.

Click here to access original article

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

Mindful Appy is a company that Dr Kaye partners with. They seek to understand mood from the emoji people use as a way of gauging well-being / sentiment.

Form Score is a charity that Dr Kaye partners with. She is on the Advisory Board for the development of the FormScore App. This is a mental health disclosure app for use in businesses to support workplace well-being. Business leaders can use a dashboard to gauge team well-being.

CyberSecurity during remote working

Fake Dragon’s Den Scams: Why are we falling for them? – Which?

Criminals are exploiting trusted global websites to post fake celebrity endorsements for cryptocurrency, in one of the most prolific internet scams Which? has seen. Personality profiles may be part of understanding risks of susceptibility to scams.

Read more about it in the Which? article here

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

How your personality could increase your fraud risk – and what to look out for

This article covers how your personality could increase your fraud risk – and what to look out for Which? speaks to a cyber psychologist to understand three popular personality types and how scammers can target them.

Click here to access original article

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

Urgent need for new way to discuss business risk

This article highlights psychological insights into the cognitive biases behind susceptibility to cyber-risks is needed from new research revealing that 90% of IT decision makers claim their business would be willing to compromise on cybersecurity in favor of digital transformation, productivity, or other goals.

Click here to access original article

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

Employee Security Training is Vital to Remote Success

Trend Micro commissioned Dr Linda Kaye, Cyberpsychology Academic at Edge Hill University, to profile four employee personas based on their cybersecurity behaviors: fearful, conscientious, ignorant and daredevil. Personalised cybersecurity training is useful.

Read the article in situ

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

Personalised working

When the job hunts you

This article is on the potential future of jobs – specifically CyberPsychometrics: how to use online data to (more accurately) understand someone’s personality in HR/recruitment processes.

Big tech’s data gathering mission bore fruit in the advancement of psychometric assessment testing in the recruitment process. This has become widely-known as ‘auto-generated psychometric profiling’ (AGPP). We are no longer reliant on time- and resource-heavy processes of organising recruitment assessment days and having to administer and analyse psychometric tests (which we recognised were often subject to social desirability). Instead, we can understand a potential candidate’s personality via their data from ‘big tech’, which allows us a much more efficient and accurate means of garnering their psychological profile to support the ‘matching and suitability’ process for a given job opportunity

Click here to access original article

Or download a PDF of the article from the media website page.

Talks, Conferences and Podcasts
What your emoji says about you (22 Nov 2017)

Why do we use emoji? What do other people think about us when we use emoji? These are some of the questions this talk addresses by drawing on the research which has been done on the psychology of emoji.

Psyched To Be With You Podcast with Chris Leech (26 Sept 2021)

The fifth episode of “Psyched to be with you” the Talkshow part of Blind Psyche. All things social psychology, emojis in research, TedX talks, PR and Dr Kaye’s upcoming book! This bumper edition episode with Dr Linda Kaye!

Collection of invited talks

You can find a list of talks that Dr Kaye has presented at on her website. Each talk includes downloadable slides and links to any video or audio recordings.

Click here to access
Research Articles
Published Journal Articles

All of Dr Kaye’s published journal articles are listed on her website. 

Click here to access
Featured Articles

These are key questions people often want to know about. Each piece of research includes:

  • a link to the published paper
  • a link to the pre-print which is publicly available on OSF
  • and an audio summary.
Click here to access

Other Work

Digital Marketing

An area of ongoing interest to Dr Kaye is how CyberPsychology can underpin effective (digital) marketing. This may include: 

  • Social media and well-being- how different types of social media use may relate to digital marketers’ well-being; implications for workplace and workload policies surrounding social media use when part of job descriptions
  • Psychology of communication- efficacy and effectiveness of different modalities of media on audience receptivity, engagement, memory, attitudes towards target product/service, subsequent behaviour
  • Psychology of persuasion/influence- putting in practice key principles of persuasion; susceptibility, likelihood of receptivity/influence, attention and cognitive processing
  • Social psychology of social media- creating social norms online, the influence of social norms, promoting collective identity, building rapport, how language functions on social inclusion & community
Return to the Experts Page
Other Experts
John_Blythe

Dr John Blythe – Human Aspects of Cyber Security

by Expert

Director of Cyber Workforce Psychology

@ Immersive Labs

Dr Blythe also holds a Honorary Research Fellowship with the Dawes Centre for Future Crime at UCL. 

Follow:

Google Scholar

Linkedin X-twitter
Connect:

You can connect with John via Twitter or LinkedIn.

Main CyberPsychology Expertise:

The Psychology of Cyber Security

Other Specialisations

Behaviour Change

Consultant Expertise:
  • He has worked across industry, government and academia.
  • Has previously worked as a Behavioural Scientist Lead at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport working on cybersecurity policy
  • Is a committee member of the CyberPsychology section of the BPS
  • Is an Expert Fellow of SPRITE+ Hub https://spritehub.org/
Videos and Podcasts
Human aspect of cybersecurity in organisations (July 2020)
Click here to watch the video on the CybSafe site.

The interview covers:

  • John’s background and his journey into working in cyber security.
  • The increased focus on the human aspect of cyber security in the past 10 years
  • The implications of punishment in organisations
  • Personalisation of behaviour change interventions encouraging security behaviours
  • How do we encourage people to care about what happens to their data.
The Internet of Things and Consumer (15 Aug 2018)

John was interviewed by the American Psychological Association about cyberpsychology and the Internet of Things. He covers:

  • Why crime harvest is likely to occur with smart home tech
  • Why regulation and other interventions are needed to address security issues
  • How best to support consumers buying smart products

You can read the White Papers associated with this webinar here and here. 

Workplace Technology Research
2021

Remote Working Pre- and Post-COVID-19: An Analysis of New Threats and Risks to Security and Privacy

This paper explores the impact of COVID-19 on the security risks of remote working.

Click here to access original article
2020

Phishing Your Staff: A Double-Edged Sword?

Naming and shaming. Taking away IT assets. Compulsory training. Lots of companies are doing it, but should they? This paper explores the impact of punishment on staff wellbeing and productivity.

Click here to access original article
2019

Human Cyber Risk Management by Security Awareness Professionals: Carrots or Sticks to Drive Behaviour Change?

Organisations employ “carrots” (rewards) and “sticks” (sanctions) to reduce risky behaviour. The findings revealed that organisations use a variety of rewards and sanctions within their campaigns, with sanctions being used across 90% of the organisations. Our findings suggest the need for a greater consideration of the human element of cyber security.

Click here to access original article
2018

Costly but effective: Comparing the factors that influence employee anti-malware behaviours.

We test what influences staff security behaviour and find that focussing on helping people to cope with security threats is more effective than scaring them.

Click here to access original article

Other Technology Research

2020

The impact of IoT security labelling on consumer product choice and willingness to pay

We test how different types of product labelling affect consumer choice and security decisions.

Click here to access original article
October 2019

A systematic review of crime facilitated by the consumer Internet of Things

This review suggests that the consumer IoT presents substantial new opportunities for offending and intervention is needed now to prevent an IoT crime harvest.

Click here to access original article
2017

The role of trust in eHealth websites: The enduring power of impartiality

We explore how people trust health websites and find that impartiality is a stable factor that influences whether people trust information online and then act upon it.

Click here to access original article
Return to the Experts Page
Other Experts
Jing-Reilly-300x300

Jing Reilly – Marketing

by Expert

CyberPsychology & Marketing Consulting

Follow:
Linkedin X-twitter Instagram
Connect:
Go to Jing's Website
Main CyberPsychology Expertise:

Psychology of:

  • Digital Marketing
  • Social Media
  • Content Marketing
  • Online Branding
Consultant Expertise:

B2B marketer with over a decade of experience working for international high-tech companies including Facebook and IBM.

Research Articles
Read Jing's articles
Return to the Experts Page
Other Experts
Hybrid working and Realm based Transition Time

When hybrid working blurs the boundaries between work and life realms

by Work-Home Boundary Blurring

It is well understood that we exhibit different personas for different life roles. Each role we occupy requires differing personalities to manage, different expectations, different demands and different puzzles to solve.

The traditional transition time between home and work (and back again) gave us the time and mental space to subconsciously shift ourselves between these two life realms & personas. It was also used to think through the obstacles, tasks and responsibilities that needed dealing with, giving time and space to think through possible solutions. 

Working from home limits that ability. A number of workers are also using that commute time to start work earlier and finish later. Rather than the perception that working longer hours makes a person more productive, research shows that doing so makes no to little difference from a daily productivity perspective.

Working longer hours, just makes us more tired and less productive. It therefore just means we take longer to get things done and reduce our overall work-life balance.

Additionally, the removal of the reflection and thinking time in the day reduces the ability for problem-solving and perspective-taking.

Hints and Tips:

If you are not commuting to work, rather than sit down at your desk and start working around the same time you would otherwise have left for the office. Use the time to do a ‘mock transition’ between your home and work responsibilities. 

Try doing the same activity you would have done if you were driving, bussing, walking or cycling to work. e.g.

  • go for a walk around the block
  • sit in a comfy chair and read a book or listen to music
  • engage in a hobby

Your brain and subconscious require time to transition between one life realm and another. It also needs downtime and creative/divergent thinking time. Creative thinking can only happen when you stop thinking analytically. That is why we have the best ideas when we are not thinking about the problem at hand and doing something else less mentally taxing like going for a walk, taking a shower, cooking dinner etc. 

Related Articles
Metaverse

Can Meta Save Itself?

by The Metaverse

Opinion Piece (Updated 8 Nov 22)

Meta (principally led by MZ) has been making a lot of noise this past year around what they are planning for their Metaverse creation. We touched on a recent interview with Joe Rogan and summarised a few of their plans early in September. However, the question that is currently being bandied about is whether or not MZ has been spending too much time with his tech contemporaries and potentially losing touch with the general public? 

The BBC published an article highlighting the downward spiral of Meta’s shares since February, and its first quarterly revenue decline in July – with no new users being added in the US and Europe. Similarly, The Spectator showcased how failings in both tactical and strategic moves have chipped away at users and investors confidence in the company and their ability to innovate. MZ has shifted his focus away from the daily running of the company and seemingly putting all his energy into building the Meta version of the Metaverse. All this shifting is potentially resulting in a loss of core business focus and ultimately leading to a downsizing of business costs through large-scale staff layoffs, as reported in the Wall Street Journal on 6th Nov 22. The WSJ interviews (see the top of the WSJ article) with a few tech founders seems to indicate that they view the metaverse as a gaming platform that is unlikely to enter into the realm of the general public or business world. They believe the money MZ is investing in his version of the metaverse build is akin to the expenses one would pour into a ‘pet project’ and not a great business decision.

Every company has a lifecycle, and unless they are able to innovate regularly, and in the right areas, a company will either gradually (or very swiftly) find themselves on a rather sticky wicket. Although there are many potential benefits to the metaverse for businesses – it often takes a more ubiquitous use of new technology on a personal level, before it starts to infiltrate the professional realm. 

Is Meta investing too much focus and resources in metaverse technology? There is always risk in developing new technology, and much hype has already been generated by this new potential as having a high future return on investments. Is the metaverse something that will enhance consumers lives to the degree that they will buy into it? Or, are consumers starting to see some of the negative mental health consequences of too little time spent face-to-face with others and too much time with virtual others – and potentially, therefore pulling back on past and current levels of tech use? 

You can read a PDF of the articles by clicking on these links to the BBC article PDF or Spectator article PDF.

Related Articles
JR & MZ

MZ and Meta’s vision for their Metaverse creation

by The Metaverse

There is a lot of speculation about what ‘the Metaverse’ will be. Although we have some idea of what it may look like, there are some variations on the theme based on the vision of the developing tech giant. 

For Meta, this metaverse future ideal is controlled via MZ, who recently revealed his vision for the future of the human-digital-connection. 

Joe Rogan recently interviewed Mark Zuckerberg on his vision for the Metaverse. You can watch this interview at the Daily Motion here. 

The Times ran a great summary of this interview of MZ’s vision in a recent write-up of the interview*. This includes: 

  • launching a new VR headset – increasing non-verbal avatar expressions and feelings of ‘presence’ with others in VR
  • a future that includes AR glasses where people interact with the physical world via digital overlays
  • normalising holograms that can be beamed into a geographically distant office 
  • more realistic avatars
  • directly competing with passive TV ‘screen time’ allowing people to actively virtually socialise with others

Although there are a lot of upsides to hologram (Star Wars-like) usage. There are some potential downsides that need to be considered. These could be (but are not limited to):

  • personal and company security
  • potential issues around hologram based cyberbullying or cyberstalking
  • the ability to harvest real-life data

The potential of the metaverse is both interesting and intimidating. The race is on for big tech companies to be the first to develop this future. 

* if you can’t access the original interview, you can read a PDF of the article here. 

You can also view an explanation of MZ’s view of the Metaverse as well as an interview with him and Tim Ferriss.

Related Articles
Issues and Debates Article Header

Issues and Debates in CyberPsychology – Dr Linda Kaye

by Book ReviewsCyberPsychology

Released in January 2022, Issues and Debates in CyberPsychology takes a look at the current debates in CyberPsychology from an academic perspective. In her book, Dr Kaye gives a thorough overview of the concepts and discusses the current narratives around CyberPsychology. 

If you are new to CyberPsychology, or thinking about the discipline as a career choice, this book is more than a must-have for your bookshelf, it is a must-read as a great entry-point into a deeper understanding.

You can download a sample of the book that includes the introduction and the first few pages of Chapter 2. You can also watch Dr Kaye introduce her book in this quick YouTube video. 

Watch the remainder of her chapter videos directly on her website page

You can also watch a video of a recent interview Dr Kaye did with Chris from ‘Psyched’ talking about her new book.

About Linda Kaye:

Dr Linda Kaye specialises in gaming and online behaviour. She is a founding member of the British Psychology Society CyberPsychology Section. She is also a TEDx Speaker and Educator.

You can watch her TEDx talk on ‘What Your Emoji Says About You’ within her expert profile and you can follow her on Twitter.

Related Articles
Google's Triple Threat

Search and select – big tech nudges

by AI's Echo Chamber

In July 2019, Robert Epstein (PhD) testified before congress in relation to research he has been conducting since 2012 on Google – specifically on their power to suppress content, and manipulate thoughts and behaviour of those who use the search engine.

This PDF is an updated and expanded version of his testimonial, where he lays out the results of his research and suggestions not to disband the search engine or to make it a public entity, but rather to ‘encourage’ the tech giant to share its index with other entities (i.e. or it to become a public commons) while still retaining ownership and control thereof. Google already does this, to some degree, but Dr Epstein argues that making it available to all will encourage greater competition without weakening the infrastructure of the work already done. 

A previously released article from Bloomberg Businessweek (from page 37 of the PDF) provides a shorter summary of his arguments.

Although a lot of the research is around the search Engines ability to influence USA elections, a few highlights of his main points are worth noting:

  • ‘The rise of the internet has given these companies unprecedented power to control public policy, to swing elections, to brainwash our children, to censor content, to track our every move, to tear societies apart, to alter the human mind, and even to reengineer humanity’ – to reiterate this point, he links to a 2018 The Verge article on a leaked 2016 Google video to top execs highlighting their desire to resequence human behaviour to better align with Google’s values. 
  • ‘Google’s corporate culture revolves around the idea that we’re here to create a better world, where “better” is defined by the prevailing company values. If you doubt that, check out the leaked PowerPoint presentation, “The Good Censor“… the algorithms determine what more than three billion people around the world can or cannot see.’
  • ‘If you have been using the internet for a decade or more, Google has collected an equivalent of about 3 million pages of inormation about you…Google services are not free. We pay for them with our freedom’
  • An existing body of research suggests that these new, often invisible, ways of changing people’s thinking and behaviour are likely to have a much bigger impact on children than on adults. And who is more attached to new tech devices than anyone else? Our children, who are often unattended when they are immersed in social media or playing games or communicating with other people on their computers or mobile devices? 
  • ‘In January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about the possible rise of a “technological elite” that could control public policy without people’s awareness…The elite now exists and they have more power than you think. Democracy as originally conceived cannot survive Big Tech as currently empowered. It is up to our leaders – and to every one of us as individuals – to determine where we go from there. 

For more on Dr Epstein’s work: 

Related Articles
Tech Habits at Home

How do your tech habits compare to the average UK person?

by Personal Tech Use

When I first tell people what I do, they seem to have an interesting need to launch into a series of guilt-like confessions about their technology use, probably because we all feel some level of guilt over the amount of time we spend in front of our screens – because, somehow, we know doing so has changed and affected us. 

So, to get you to think about a few ways you use technology, here are a few questions for you to answer and compare with the average UK user. 

80% of people report having their mobile phone with them for all by 2 hours of the working day.

Most of us tend to check our phones just before we go to sleep at night and again first thing in the morning – even before going to the toilet.

On average, we check our phones around 100 times a day (you can double this number for 16 – 24-year-olds)). That is equal to about every 10 mins. This has increased by 20% since the beginning of Lockdown 1.

Most people leave notifications on and check them within 30 secs of receipt – regardless of the source.

People use the internet for an average of 4h 25m every day.

We spend around 2h 25m on social media, on average, every day.

That is more time than what we spend eating and drinking. 

Related Articles