Dr Brian Pickering

Research groups

Research interests

• My focus is on how human agents interact with technology, especially the online world, to achieve their goals. Most of the work I do is informed by Actor Network Theory and tussle analysis, but also the social psychology of group interactions. This also involves the development of agency and increased self-efficacy.
• Trust: The social science construct of trust as an ongoing negotiation between trustor (who is willing to expose themselves to vulnerability) and the trustee (who must demonstrate their trustworthiness through their actions) is an underlying theme to much of the work I am involved in. I do not conflate trust with a cognitive assessment of cost versus benefit since there is definitely both a social and an emotional component. With regard to technology, trust is an "organising principle" for much technology-mediated interaction. It also relates to constructs like self-efficacy and agency in technology adoption.
• Cyberpsychology: I bring together many years of experience with computer technologies (especially speech- and language-enabled applications) with a broader psychological perspective. I'm interested primarily in the Internet as a tool to be adapted for user needs, rather than an independent environment, and therefore uncovering the social and network processes which help individuals engage.
• Technology Acceptance and Adoption: As part of application and technology evaluation, I am interested in how potential adopters and users create narratives with technology embedded as a predictor of technology acceptance rather than more traditional models (like TAM, UTAUT and DoI)
• Ethics: Like trust, all of my work has strong overtones of what is right for the individual, the community and the environment. Ethics is very different from data protection, though the two are often conflated. My focus is on allowing everyone an equal opportunity for self-expression and agency. I am member of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) and was also heavily involved with the COVID-19 initiative, including the legal and ethical issues on data sharing.

Current research

My focus is on how human agents interact with technology, especially the online world, to achieve their goals. Most of the work I do is informed by Actor Network Theory and tussle analysis, but also the social psychology of group interactions. This also involves the development of agency and increased self-efficacy.

Trust: The social science construct of trust as an ongoing negotiation between trustor (who is willing to expose themselves to vulnerability) and the trustee (who must demonstrate their trustworthiness through their actions) is an underlying theme to much of the work I am involved in. I do not conflate trust with a cognitive assessment of cost versus benefit since there is definitely both a social and an emotional component. With regard to technology, trust is an "organising principle" for much technology-mediated interaction. It also relates to constructs like self-efficacy and agency in technology adoption.

Cyberpsychology: I bring together many years of experience with computer technologies (especially speech- and language-enabled applications) with a broader psychological perspective. I'm interested primarily in the Internet as a tool to be adapted for user needs, rather than an independent environment, and therefore uncovering the social and network processes which help individuals engage.

Technology Acceptance and Adoption: As part of application and technology evaluation, I am interested in how potential adopters and users create narratives with technology embedded as a predictor of technology acceptance rather than more traditional models (like TAM, UTAUT and DoI)

Ethics: Like trust, all of my work has strong overtones of what is right for the individual, the community and the environment. Ethics is very different from data protection, though the two are often conflated. My focus is on allowing everyone an equal opportunity for self-expression and agency. I am member of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) and was also heavily involved with the COVID-19 initiative, including the legal and ethical issues on data sharing.

Qualitative Research Methods: Although I'm perfectly comfortable with quantitative research methods, with a background in speech and language, I am aware and appreciative of the power in language. Not least because of pragmatics, I am especially drawn to qualitative research methods to provide more than a simple quantification of a behaviour or a cohort.

Research projects