Joe Simons, PhD

I'm a computationally-informed social psychologist. 

My core skillset is using experiments and quantitative analyses to probe the causes of consequential behaviours. For the past decade I've worked in a computational research institute, collaborating with colleagues from machine learning, natural language processing, and software engineering. I am excited at how these digital techniques can help us better understand underlying psychological processes.

I study attitudes, identity and societal relationships.

I am particularly interested in our opinions, self-images, and how these inform consequential behaviours. I'm especially interested in outcomes around societal relationships and cohesion. My research in this area is informed by a desire to do work which can achieve beneficial social impact. 

I lead interdisciplinary research teams.

While interdisciplinary collaboration can be challenging, that is where there is potential for the greatest insights. I direct interdisciplinary research projects combining computational and behaural methods. At a more institutional level, I manage a mixed research group of social-behavioural and computational scientists and run a cross-cutting co-ordination office aiming to foster connections between the social sciences and technology development.