Personal profile
Research interests
I am a socio-cognitive and behavioural science researcher with an interest in the psychology of communication, particularly how people process social and linguistic information when making decisions. My research background is in experimental psychology.
My current research focuses on understanding the roots of misinformed beliefs and the importance of empathy and building trust when communicating about facts and evidence. I have developed interventions to help with conversations addressing misconceptions and misinformations about different health and socio-political topics, for example vaccination. I also study how healty equity initiatives that are community-led and use creative, participatory methods can build and leverage trust.
Education/Academic qualification
PhD Psychology, University of Essex
1 Oct 2016 → 15 Jan 2020
Award Date: 15 Jan 2020
MSc Psychology, University of Essex
Award Date: 1 Nov 2016
External positions
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Essex
16 Nov 2020 → 15 Nov 2021
Lecturer, University of Essex
1 Oct 2019 → 30 Jun 2020
Research Groups and Themes
- TeDCog
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Research output
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Impact of a community-led intervention on the uptake of childhood vaccines in Liverpool: a protocol for a synthetic control evaluation
Amin, M. S., Zhang, X., Green, M. A., Holford, D., Hemingway, C., Ismail, A., Moran, J., Doyle, V., Taylor, C., Taegtmeyer, M. & Hungerford, D., 21 Jan 2026, In: BMJ Open. 16, 1, 10 p., e111500.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Open Access -
Measuring outcomes of training in Empathetic Refutational Interviewing (ERI) for vaccine communication: Development and validation of the ERI Skills Inventory (ERISI)
Karlsson, L. C., Holford, D., Anderson, E., Verger, P., Gagneur, A., Gould, V. C., Cheng, R., Engmann, D., Soveri, A. & Lewandowsky, S., 12 Jan 2026, In: Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics. 22, 1, 11 p., 2607884.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Open Access -
Patient and public involvement, engagement, and participation in practice: co-production of a creative health approach and theory of change through the ReCITE consortium-building project in Liverpool
Holford, D., Hemingway, C., Ozano, K., Ismail, A., Glover, S., Maclennan, S., Lewis, D., Morris, M., Heneghan, M., Jolly, A., Ekpo, V. I., Essale, N., Madroumi, R., ReCITE Consortium, Tolhurst, R. & Taegtmeyer, M., 26 Feb 2026, In: Research Involvement and Engagement. 12, 1, 16 p., 26.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Open Access
Projects
- 1 Active
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Building Research by Communities to Address Inequities Through Expression(led by LSTM)
Holford, D. (Principal Investigator)
1/02/24 → 31/01/27
Project: Research
Datasets
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Reducing social media engagement with affectively polarised content via inoculation
Smith, F. (Creator), Simchon, A. (Creator), Holford, D. (Creator) & Lewandowsky, S. (Creator), Zenodo, 2023
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8343729, https://zenodo.org/record/8343729
Dataset