Affiliation:
University of Sussex, United Kingdom
Short bio:
Claudia Hammond is an award-winning broadcaster, author and psychology lecturer. In her work she shares the ways that psychological and medical research can help us in our everyday lives, whether through radio, TV, podcasts, public events or books.
Claudia is the presenter of several podcasts and radio shows including All in the Mind on BBC Radio 4 which covers psychology, neuroscience & mental health and the weekly global health show Health Check on BBC World Service. She is Visiting Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Sussex. Claudia gives talks on psychology around the world and often chairs public events on psychology, medicine and science. She writes a regular column on medical myths for BBC Future.
Title:
Kindness and public engagement
Abstract:
Kindness benefits both the recipient and the giver, but can sometimes be viewed as a weakness rather than as a strength. In this Start of the Art lecture Claudia Hammond will outline her work on engaging the public with the subject of kindness through a radio and podcast series, a book and the world’s largest public science project on the topic The Kindness Test. This is the latest of a series of mass participation surveys Claudia has worked on with teams of psychologists in order to engage the public in a topic and improve the understanding of how research is conducted, while also collecting mass data. This talk will also explore how another method of public engagement, BBC Radio’s All in the Mind Awards, have given members of the public with mental health issues the opportunity to recognise the kindness shown to them by those individuals or professionals who supported them.