Postgraduate Student Profile
Gillian Pepper
Email:
g.pepper@ncl.ac.uk
Website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/postgrad/students/GillianPepper.htm
Address:
Centre for Behaviour and Evolution
Institute of Neuroscience
Henry Wellcome Building
Newcastle University
NE2 4HH
Project
Investigating the psychological impact of socioeconomic inequality
I am interested in the psychological impacts of socioeconomic inequality. Greater inequality has been found to be associated with a range of health and social problems from obesity to homicide rates. However, socioeconomic inequality is also highly negatively correlated with life expectancy. I want to answer two main questions: 1) what are the psychological and behavioural mechanisms behind the correlations between inequality, life expectancy and health and social problems? 2) Which behaviours are triggered by socioeconomic inequality and which are a response to differential life expectancy? I propose to do this using a combination of psychological experiments, ethological investigations and analysis of demographic data.
Background
After studying as an undergraduate at the University of Liverpool, I went on to gain experience in science policy and communication. I did work experience with the BBC Specialist Factual Unit and with BBC Focus Magazine. I wrote an article, Changing the Face of Our Lives, which was published in the Bulletin of the British Neuroscience Association, as part of their National Brain-Science Writing Prize. I worked for Newton’s Apple as a policy and project manager and later as their Director. I then worked for 2 years as a communications manager at the Department of Health while I completed my MSc in Evolutionary Psychology at Brunel University.
Publications
Pepper, G.V. & Roberts, S.C. 2006. Rates of Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy and dietary characteristics across populations. Proc. R. Soc., B 273 2675-2679.
