Professor Richard Eiser BA, PhD

Address
Department of Psychology
The University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2TP, UK
Tel: (+44) 0114 222 6622
Fax: (+44) 0114 276 6515
Email J.R.Eiser@sheffield.ac.uk
Room: 1.14

Qualifications

BA in Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology. (Oxford) PhD in Social Psychology. (London School of Economics and Political Science)

Research Interests

My research covers a number of theoretical and applied topics within the general field of attitudes, judgement and social cognitions.

Attitude
My early work was concerned with categorization processes in relation to judgement of others' attitudes and attitude measurement (see J.R. Eiser & W. Stroebe, Categorization and Social Judgement, London: Academic Press, 1972).

Addictive behaviours
I then moved into research into smoking and addictive behaviours, focusing mainly on the antecedents and consequences of individuals regarding themselves as addicted, and well as differing perceptions of risk.

Risk Perceptions
My interest in risk perception then broadened with a series of projects concerned with local residents' attitudes towards (plans for) nuclear power stations, as well as other potential health and environmental risks such as mobile phones and contaminated land. Recently I reviewed research on public perception of risk for the Foresight directorate.

Collaboration
Along with this I have been developing, in collaboration with Russell Fazio of Ohio State University, a perspective on attitude formation around the idea that, insofar as attitudes guide approach and avoidance, false negative beliefs or prejudices may persist because they are less likely to be corrected by experience. Our work involves a combination of experiments and connectionist simulations.

Connectionism
I also see connectionism as offering a complementary perspective to traditionally 'rationalistic' theories of attitudes and decision-making, around the idea that preferences and affective reactions may often be 'automatic' responses to learnt associations between multiple cues, and that attitudes may function as 'attractors' with a dynamical system (see J.R. Eiser, Attitudes, chaos and the connectionist mind, Oxford: Blackwell, 1994).

Grants

ESRC "Attitudes as attractors: A connectionist approach." JR. Eiser, Dr. G. Haddock. 5/2000-7/2002

Health and Safety Executive "Discriminating danger: Exploring a decision approach to the profiling of risk." 10/2000-12/2002.

NHS "Elicitation of Individuals´ Knowledge in Probabilistic Form." A. O´Hagan, JR. Eiser and others. 10/2003-9/2006.

EPSRC "Sustainable Urban Brownfield Regeneration – Integrated Management" D. Lerner, J. Henneberry, JR. Eiser and others. 10/2002-9/2007. (www.subrim.org.uk)

NICE "The relative societal value of health gains to different beneficiaries." P. Dolan, JR. Eiser & others. 10/2004-9/2007.

Cancer Research UK. "Smoking by young people in the Balkans." 10/2005-9/2007.

EU "Creating a Setting for Investment." C. Swanwick, J. Henneberry, JRE & others. 10/2005-9/2008.

Activities and Distinctions

• MRC Health Services and Public Health Research Special Training Fellowship Panel, 1997-2001.
• Cancer Research UK Population and Behavioural Sciences Committee, 2002-2005.
• ESRC Strategic Research Board, 2002-2006.
• BPS International Committee, 2005-Present.
• UK representative on International Union of Psychological Societies, 2005-Present
• International Council of Scientific Unions, Planning Group for Research on Natural and Human-Induced Environmental Hazards and Disasters, 2006-Present (sole psychologist and one of only two members from UK).

Invited Talks

• Public Perception of Risk and the Issue of Trust. Scottish Executive, Edinburgh, November 2005.
• Public Perception of Risk and Trust in Experts. European Commission Conference on Safety and Security of Energy Infrastructures in a Comparative View. Brussels, November 2005.
• Public Perception of Risk. Foresight Directorate, London, December 2004.

Key Publications

EISER, J.R. (2004).
Foresight Directorate: Office of Science and Technology.
Public perception of risk: A review of theory and research.

FAZIO, R. H., EISER, J. R., and SHOOK, N. J. (2004).
Attitude formation through exploration: Valence asymmetries.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 293-311.

EISER, J. R., FAZIO, R. H., STAFFORD, T., and PRESCOTT, T. J. (2003).
Connectionist simulation of attitude learning: Asymmetries in the acquisition of positive and negative evaluations.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1221-1235.

EISER, J.R., MILES, S. and FREWER, L.J. (2002).
Trust, perceived risk and attitudes toward food technologies.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 2423- 2433.

EISER, J.R., EISER, C., RIAZI, A., TAYLOR, D.J., HAMMERSLEY, S., and TOOKE, J.E. (2001).
Screening for diabetic retinopathy is well received by patients and may improve self-management intentions.
Diabetic Medicine. 18, 835-841.

EISER, J. R., PAHL, S. and PRINS, Y. R. A. (2001).
Optimism, pessimism, and the direction of self-other comparisons.
Journal of Experimental Social Psycholog., 37, 77-84.

View a full list of Richard Eiser's publications.

Postgraduate Students

• Christopher Jones - PhD Research Student
• Lambros Lazuras - PhD Research Student

Research Assistants

• Tom Stafford - Creating a Setting for Investment