Dr Joe Stubbersfield is a senior lecturer in Psychology. He holds a BSc in Psychology from the University of Manchester, an MSc in Evolutionary Psychology from the University of Liverpool, and a joint Psychology and Anthropology PhD from the University of Durham. He has held previous posts at the University of St Andrews, the University of Durham and Heriot-Watt University before joining the University of Winchester in 2021. 

He is the co-Programme Leader for the BSc Psychology Programme, Volunteer Research Assistant coordinator for Psychology, and module leader for Volunteering for Psychology (year 3), and Pschology Placement (year 3). His other teaching includes social psychology at Foundation Year, Year 2, and MSc, and supervising final year undergraduate and postgraduate student projects on a variety of topics related to social psychology.

He is the leader of the Social and Organisational Psychology Research Group. He is the current editor of the Cultural Evolution Collection for Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, and a lead designer of a free, online learning module on the Cultural Evolution of Narratives for the Cultural Evolution Society.

My research examines the psychology of cultural dynamics and cultural evolution, focusing on how cognitive biases influence both the content and propagation of information, in particular health misinformation, conspiracy theories, urban legends and other contemporary folklore. 

My research draws on the fields of social and evolutionary psychology, cognitive anthropology, cultural evolution and social learning theory.

Supervision of research students

Dr Joe Stubbersfield welcomes enquiries about research supervision; his areas of supervision include: cognitive biases, social and cultural tranmsision of information, psychological factors involved in narratives, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and urban legends. 

• The social transmission and cultural evolution of narratives
• The role of cognitive biases in the content and propagation of misinformation, conspiracy theories and urban legends

Journal articles

Acerbi, A., & Stubbersfield, J. M. (2023). Large language models show human-like content biases in transmission chain experiments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(44), e2313790120.

Scrivner, C., & Stubbersfield, J.M.(2023). Curious about threats: morbid curiosity and interest in conspiracy theories in US adults. British Journal of Psychology. 

Youngblood, M., Stubbersfield, J. M., Morin, O., Glassman, R., & Acerbi, A. (2023). Negativity bias in the spread of voter fraud conspiracy theory tweets during the 2020 US election. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), 1-11. 

Stubbersfield, J.M. (2022). Content biases in three phases of cultural transmission: A review. Culture and Evolution, 19(1), 41-60.

Matthews, L., Nowak, S., Gidengil, C., Chen, C., Stubbersfield, J., Tehrani, J., & Parker, A. (2022). Belief correlations with parental vaccine hesitancy: results from a national survey. American Anthropologist. 1-16. 

Stubbersfield, J. M., Dean, L. G., Sheikh, S., Laland, K. N., & Cross, C. P. (2019). Social transmission favours the ‘morally good’ over the ‘merely arousing’. Palgrave Communications, 5(1), 70.

Stubbersfield, J., Tehrani, J., & Flynn, E. (2018). Faking the News: Intentional Guided Variation Reflects Cognitive Biases in Transmission Chains without Recall. Cultural Science Journal, 10(1), 54–65.

Jiménez, A.V., Stubbersfield, J.M, & Tehrani, J.J. (2018). An experimental investigation into the transmission of antivax attitudes using a fictional health controversy. Social Science & Medicine, 215, 23-27.

Stubbersfield, J., Flynn, E., & Tehrani, J. (2017). Cognitive Evolution and the Transmission of Popular Narratives: A Literature Review and Application to Urban Legends. Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture, 1(1), 121-136

Stubbersfield, J. M., Tehrani, J.J., & Flynn, E.G. (2017). Chicken Tumours and a Fishy Revenge: Evidence for Emotional Content Bias in the Cumulative Recall of Urban Legends. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 17 (1-2), 12-26

Stubbersfield, J. M., Tehrani, J. J. & Flynn, E. G. (2015). Serial killers, spiders and cybersex: Social and survival information bias in the transmission of urban legends. British Journal of Psychology, 106 (2), 288-307

Stubbersfield, J., & Tehrani, J. (2013). Expect the Unexpected? Testing for Minimally Counterintuitive (MCI) Bias in the Transmission of Contemporary Legends: A Computational Phylogenetic Approach. Social Science Computer Review, 31(1), 90-102

Book Chapters

Stubbersfield, J. (2024). Content-based learning biases. In T. Shackelford (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Religious Psychology and Behavior https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38971-9_134-1 

Stubbersfield, J.M. (2023). Conspiracy Theories: A Cultural Evolution Theory Approach. In J.J. Tehrani, J. Kendal, & R. Kendal (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Evolution (online edn, C72S1–C72P225). Oxford Academic. 

Magazine, Newspaper and Online

Stubbersfield. J. (2024) Morbid Curiosity and Conspiracy Theories, interview for Choose to be Curious podcast

Stubbersfield. J. (2023). How morbid curiosity can lead people to conspiracy theories. The Conversation.

Stubbersfield, J. (2021). Candyman: the urban legends behind the movie and why we find them irresistible. The Conversation. 

Stubbersfield, J. (2020). Conspiracy theories: Tasty burgers for the mind. Konect Magazine. 

Stubbersfield, J. (2018). Faces in the Mirror: The Urban Legend of Bloody Mary. Folklore Thursday.

Stubbersfield, J. (2018). Contemporary folklore reflects old psychology. Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture Blog.

Stubbersfield, J. (2014). This is why some urban legends go viral. The Conversation

Book Reviews

Stubbersfield, J.M. (2019). [Review of the book The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve, by S. Stewart-Williams]. Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture. 3(1), 147-150.

@JStubbersfield