
Professor Marcus Munafo
M.A.(Oxon.), M.Sc., Ph.D.(Soton.)
Current positions
Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor - Research Culture
Senior TeamProfessor of Biological Psychology and MRC Investigator
School of Psychological Science
Contact
Media contact
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Research interests
Professor Munafò’s research focuses on understanding pathways into, and the consequences of, health behaviours and mental health, with a particular focus on tobacco and alcohol use. This work incudes: 1) observational and genetic epidemiology, and the use of a range of methods that enable stronger causal inference from observational data, such as negative control and Mendelian randomization methods; 2) the laboratory study of cognitive and neurobiological mechanistic pathways that underpin exposure-outcome relationships; and 3) the development of novel individual- and population-level interventions that target these mechanisms, including choice architecture interventions. This work has informed ongoing policy debates, such as the introduction of standardised (“plain”) packaging for tobacco products. He also has interests in the role of incentive structures in science, and the extent to which these shape the robustness and reproducibility of scientific research.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Prosocial behaviour in children with conduct problems: Investigating putative cognitive-affective mechanisms and their malleability
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Psychological ScienceDates
01/03/2022 to 28/02/2026
8105 - MRC - Developing a Train-the-Trainer Course for Open Research Practices
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Psychological ScienceDates
01/09/2021 to 31/05/2022
8105 - MRC - Training in Open Research Across the MRC Portfolio-MC_PC_20036
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Psychological ScienceDates
01/01/2021 to 31/03/2021
Developing a Train-the-Trainer Course for Open Research Practices
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Psychological ScienceDates
01/01/2021 to 31/03/2021
8105 MRC IEU - Amy Campbell Studentship consumables - linked to Prog 7
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Psychological ScienceDates
01/10/2020 to 31/03/2023
Thesis supervisions
Investigating causal associations of substance use with mental health and social cognitive performance in adolescence
Supervisors
Investigating glassware as a choice architecture intervention to reduce alcohol consumption
Supervisors
Investigating Emotion Recognition Biases as a Target for Intervention in Anxiety and Depression
Supervisors
Is gamification a suitable tool for increasing participant engagement with cognitive tests?
Supervisors
Behavioural outcomes and neuropathology associated with mild traumatic brain injury
Supervisors
Investigating Offspring Mental Health Outcomes Associated with Maternal Prenatal Alcohol Use
Supervisors
Using Mendelian randomization to investigate causal relationships in evolutionary theories of development and behaviour
Supervisors
Reward Processing and Anhedonia
Supervisors
Smoking and Caffeine Consumption during Pregnancy and Offspring Mental Health
Supervisors
Maternal smoking, alcohol and caffeine use during pregnancy and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) risk in offspring
Supervisors
Publications
Selected publications
01/05/2013Power failure
Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Increasing recognition of happiness in ambiguous facial expressions reduces anger and aggressive behavior
Psychological Science
Association between genetic variants on chromosome 15q25 locus and objective measures of tobacco exposure
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Recent publications
11/03/2022Applying Mendelian randomization to appraise causality in relationships between nutrition and cancer
Cancer Causes and Control
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Computerized Interpretation Bias Training for Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
A robust method for collider bias correction in conditional genome-wide association studies
Nature Communications
Association of milk intake with hay fever, asthma, and lung function
European Journal of Epidemiology
Diversifying the Editorial Board of Nicotine & Tobacco Research
Nicotine and Tobacco Research