Research Team

Principal Investigator
Dr Jessica Ringrose
Professor of the Sociology of Gender and Education
IOE - Education, Practice & Society
University College London
I am a Canadian Feminist sociologist working at the intersections of gender and media studies, education, sociology and philosophy. My recent research has investigated tech facilitated violence, including AI image based sexual abuse (sexualised deepfakes), online misogyny and digital feminist activism across international contexts. I am deeply committed to impactful research and advocacy promoting social equity, youth rights and voice. Working with a range of stakeholders I have co-produced educational guidance and interventions to support high quality sex and relationship education and media literacy in schools. My latest books are Teens, Social Media and Image Based Abuse and Postdigital Intimacies: Relational lives in the networked public-private.

Principal Investigator
Dr Marc Tibber
Lecturer in Clinical Psychology
Clinical, Education & Health Psychology
University College London
Before training in Clinical Psychology I worked as visual neuroscientist, studying visual perception in clinical populations including albinism, migraine, schizophrenia and autism. More recently my work has explored the role of interpersonal and social processes in mental health, and how issues of connection and disconnection affect individuals and communities. I am particularly interested in the role of social media in teen and emerging adult mental health, as well as the role of social media in particular populations and groups, including neurodivergent communities and professional musicians.

Research Assistant
Patrick Muller
I'm a doctoral researcher in Experimental Psychology investigating moral psychology, political violence, behavioural endocrinology, and AI applications in social science. I am also interested in space psychology. Before starting my Ph.D., I completed an bachelor's and a master's degree in analytic philosophy at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and the University of Oxford respectively.
I enjoy identifying low-quality research and finding ways to improve it.

Research Assistant
Annu Dey
I am a Research Assistant at University College London with an MSc in Social Cognition: Research & Applications and a BSc (Hons) in Psychology. My research interests lie at the intersection of social neuroscience, psychology, and sociology, with a focus on human interaction with AI and mixed-methods approaches to understanding varied forms of shared social experience. In prior projects, I have examined performer–audience synchrony, autism, and non-traditional social interactions. I am also interested in how aesthetic and creative experiences influence moral cognition, with a particular focus on inter-brain and behavioural synchrony, self–other blurring, and collaborative decision-making in groups.