Professor Craig Roberts

Professor of Social Psychology

Psychology University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Professor Craig Roberts

Contact details

About me

I have been in the Division of Psychology at Stirling since 2010. I was promoted to Professor in 2015. My research is focused on how odours influence human behaviour.

I serve on the European Science Foundation's College of Expert Reviewers (since 2018) and the UKRI Interdisciplinary Assessment College (since 2023). I was Deputy Chair of the General University Ethics Panel (2022-23), on the University Research Committee (2016-2019), and founded Stirling Crucible in 2014.

I was President of the International Society for Human Ethology between 2018-2021, following a term as Vice-President between 2014 and 2017. I have been serving as a Trustee since 2022.

I originally trained as a zoologist, and my PhD was in in mammalian behavioural ecology at University College London. I did post-docs at the Institute of Zoology and the University of Newcastle. This work included phylogenetic analyses of horn evolution (paper in Behaviour) and carnivore diet (paper in Nature), but principally aimed to understand how odour communicates adaptive information between competitors and mates (papers in e.g. Behavioral Ecology, Nature Genetics), especially in laboratory and harvest mice.

For the past 20 years or so, I have worked exclusively on humans, based in Newcastle, Liverpool and (since 2010) the University of Stirling.

My research has been funded by UK Research Councils (ESRC, BBSRC), research charities (the Royal Society, the British Academy, the Wellcome Trust, the Leverhulme Trust) and industrial partners (Unilever R&D, Boots UK Ltd). I held a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship between 2013 and 2014.

Current Research My research principally addresses three related but independent research areas:

Olfactory perception and communication. My research challenges the conventional view that olfaction is unimportant in humans, and instead can be an influential mechanism for cueing adaptive social behaviour. I have recently been awarded a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award (£3.5M, 2024-2032) to investigate the role of odor communication in mothers and newborn infants and how this knowledge can be used to improve breastfeeding success.

Mate choice. What factors (including odour) determine partner choice? What are the benefits of choice, and what are the costs of not securing an ideal choice? I have made leading contributions, especially in trade-offs between ‘good’ and ‘complementary’ genes (e.g. major histocompatibility complex, MHC) and effects of hormonal fluctuation and hormonal contraception.

Applying evolutionary insights. Stimulated by potential applications of my own work in these areas, I have played a leading role in establishing and promoting the new field of applied evolutionary psychology.

PhD study: I am interested in supervising students in any of the above areas - please contact me by email. I currently have projects available in exploring the influence of odours in bonding within couples and on emotional contagion by odour.

Education

BSc (First Class) Agricultural Zoology
University of Leeds

PhD - Mechanics and Function of Territorial Behaviour in Klipspringer
University College London

Certificate in Professional Studies
University of Liverpool

Event / Presentation

Lead Organiser, Royal Society Theo Murphy International Scientific Meeting

https://royalsociety.org/…l-communication/
Competitively selected theme on Human Chemical Communication, and Guest Editor for special issue in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

Other Academic Activities

Vice-President, International Society for Human Ethology

President, International Society for Human Ethology

http://ishe.org/

Trustee, International Society for Human Ethology
https://ishe.org/

Professional membership

College of Expert Reviewers, European Science Foundation

Member, UKRI Interdisciplinary Assessment College

University Contribution

Academic Lead, Stirling Crucible

Deputy Chair, General University Ethics Panel

Research programmes

Research centres/groups

Research themes