Robin Watson's Outputs (8)

Investigating the effects of social information on spite in an online game (2024)
Journal Article
Watson, R., Morgan, T., Kendal, R., Van de Vyver, J., & Kendal, J. (2024). Investigating the effects of social information on spite in an online game. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 6, Article e26. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2024.18

While humans are highly cooperative, they can also behave spitefully. Yet spite remains understudied. Spite can be normatively driven and while previous experiments have found some evidence that cooperation and punishment may spread via social learni... Read More about Investigating the effects of social information on spite in an online game.

Adaptive Social Learning: Social Learning Strategies and their Applications (2023)
Book Chapter
Kendal, R., & Watson, R. (2023). Adaptive Social Learning: Social Learning Strategies and their Applications. In J. J. Tehrani, J. Kendal, & R. Kendal (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Evolution. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198869252.013.14

Although social learning is intuitively useful, researchers from several fields have, over the last 30 years, increasingly recognized that it is not inherently adaptive. Individuals certainly can gain fitness benefits by learning from others as they... Read More about Adaptive Social Learning: Social Learning Strategies and their Applications.

Can uptake of childhood influenza immunisation through schools and GP practices be increased through behaviourally-informed invitation letters and reminders: two pragmatic randomized controlled trials (2023)
Journal Article
Howell-Jones, R., Gold, N., Bowen, S., Bunten, A., Tan, K., Saei, A., Jones, S., MacDonald, P., Watson, R., Bennett, K. F., & Chadborn, T. (2023). Can uptake of childhood influenza immunisation through schools and GP practices be increased through behaviourally-informed invitation letters and reminders: two pragmatic randomized controlled trials. BMC Public Health, 23(1), Article 143. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14439-4

The UK is rolling out a national childhood influenza immunisation programme for children, delivered through primary care and schools. Behaviourally-informed letters and reminders have been successful at increasing uptake of other public health interv... Read More about Can uptake of childhood influenza immunisation through schools and GP practices be increased through behaviourally-informed invitation letters and reminders: two pragmatic randomized controlled trials.

Provision of social-norms feedback to general practices whose antibiotic prescribing is increasing: a national randomized controlled trial (2021)
Journal Article
Gold, N., Ratajczak, M., Sallis, A., Saei, A., Watson, R., van Schaik, P., Bowen, S., & Chadborn, T. (2022). Provision of social-norms feedback to general practices whose antibiotic prescribing is increasing: a national randomized controlled trial. Journal of Public Health, 30, 2351-2358. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-021-01645-4

Aim: The Chief Medical Officer of England writes an annual social-norms-feedback letter to the highest antibiotic-prescribing GP practices. We investigated whether sending a social-norms-feedback letter to practices whose prescribing was increasing w... Read More about Provision of social-norms feedback to general practices whose antibiotic prescribing is increasing: a national randomized controlled trial.

Social learning strategies and cooperative behaviour: Evidence of payoff bias, but not prestige or conformity, in a social dilemma game (2021)
Journal Article
Watson, R., Morgan, T. J., Kendal, R. L., Van de Vyver, J., & Kendal, J. (2021). Social learning strategies and cooperative behaviour: Evidence of payoff bias, but not prestige or conformity, in a social dilemma game. Games, 12(4), Article 89. https://doi.org/10.3390/g12040089

Human cooperation, occurring without reciprocation and between unrelated individuals in large populations, represents an evolutionary puzzle. One potential explanation is that cooperative behaviour may be transmitted between individuals via social le... Read More about Social learning strategies and cooperative behaviour: Evidence of payoff bias, but not prestige or conformity, in a social dilemma game.

Increasing uptake of NHS Health Checks: a randomised controlled trial using GP computer prompts (2021)
Journal Article
Gold, N., Tan, K., Sherlock, J., Watson, R., & Chadborn, T. (2021). Increasing uptake of NHS Health Checks: a randomised controlled trial using GP computer prompts. British Journal of General Practice, 71(710), Article e693. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp.2020.0887

Background Public Health England wants to increase the uptake of the NHS Health Check (NHSHC), a cardiovascular disease prevention programme. Most invitations are sent by letter, but opportunistic invitations may be issued and verbal invitations have... Read More about Increasing uptake of NHS Health Checks: a randomised controlled trial using GP computer prompts.

A randomized controlled trial to test the effect of simplified guidance with visuals on comprehension of COVID-19 guidelines and intention to stay home if symptomatic (2021)
Journal Article
Gold, N., Watson, R., Weston, D., Greaves, F., & Amlôt, R. (2021). A randomized controlled trial to test the effect of simplified guidance with visuals on comprehension of COVID-19 guidelines and intention to stay home if symptomatic. BMC Public Health, 21(1), Article 892. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10787-9

Background In the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative that people understand and comply with self-isolation guidelines. We tested whether a simplified version of the guidelines and a simplified version with visual aids would affect comprehension and... Read More about A randomized controlled trial to test the effect of simplified guidance with visuals on comprehension of COVID-19 guidelines and intention to stay home if symptomatic.

Effect of alcohol label designs with different pictorial representations of alcohol content and health warnings on knowledge and understanding of Low Risk Drinking Guidelines: A randomized controlled trial (2020)
Journal Article
Gold, N., Egan, M., Londakova, K., Mottershaw, A., Harper, H., Burton, R., Henn, C., Smolar, M., Walmsley, M., Arambepola, R., Watson, R., Bowen, S., & Greaves, F. (2021). Effect of alcohol label designs with different pictorial representations of alcohol content and health warnings on knowledge and understanding of Low Risk Drinking Guidelines: A randomized controlled trial. Addiction, 116(6), 1443-1459. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15327

Background and aims: The UK Low Risk Drinking Guidelines (LRDG) recommend not regularly drinking more than 14 units of alcohol per week. We tested the effect of different pictorial representations of alcohol content, some with a health warning, on kn... Read More about Effect of alcohol label designs with different pictorial representations of alcohol content and health warnings on knowledge and understanding of Low Risk Drinking Guidelines: A randomized controlled trial.