
Dr Jay Davies
BSc, MSc, PhD
Expertise
Current positions
Research Associate
School of Psychological Science
Contact
Press and media
Many of our academics speak to the media as experts in their field of research. If you are a journalist, please contact the University’s Media and PR Team:
Research interests
My research explores how the environments we inhabit shape human behaviour, health and wellbeing. I am particularly interested in how natural compared to urban environments, and the significant variation within these two categories, influence our cognition, emotional states, and social interactions.
Through controlled laboratory experiments, online behavioural studies, or more naturalistic paradigms, I take a multimodal approach to measuring behaviour and experience, combining physiological, behavioural, and self-report measures to capture the complexity of human responses to environments. Drawing from psychology, empirical aesthetics, and neuroscience, my research aims to generate evidence that could inform the design of environments that support psychological and social wellbeing.
Publications
Recent publications
22/04/2026Visual context of nature and urban environments and their ability to distract from a task at hand - the role of visual features, visual discomfort, fascination and aesthetic preferences
Global Environmental Psychology
Rethinking the nature vs. urban environment dichotomy
Journal of Environmental Psychology
Putting the sensory individual at the centre of architectural design
Architectural Science Review
Thesis
Cities, Green, and In-Between
Supervisors
Award date
18/03/2025


