
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
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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
Integrative Epidemiology Unit
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Psychological ScienceDates
01/04/2023 to 31/03/2028
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
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
20/01/2023Acceptability of integrating smoking cessation treatment into routine care for people with mental illness
Health Expectations
Association between inflammation and cognition
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
Associations between health behaviours, fertility and reproductive outcomes
BMC Medicine
Bounding the average causal effect in Mendelian randomisation studies with multiple proposed instruments
Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology
Childhood Maltreatment and Mental Health Problems
American Journal of Psychiatry