In a world of gamified dating, are there any winners? Dating apps can help people to widen their dating circles, but with another potential match just one swipe away, will anyone ever be satisfied with their current mate? Can you get addicted to dating apps? Are they used to find ‘The One’ or to provide a quick ego boost? I was invited to this panel discussion about online dating apps for Science at Life in Newcastle. It was part of...

January 25th & 26th 2019. Südpol Lucerne, Switzerland. aha is a new science festival in Lucerne, Switzerland. The board of trustees have 20 interesting questions on a broad range of topics that they have invited experts to answer. I was invited to answer the question “how do dating platforms decide whom I date?” Luzern, Südpol Aha Festival © Franca Pedrazzetti www.pedrazzetti.com Luzern, Südpol Aha Festival ©...

Are we getting close? A debate on intimacy in the digital age. January 17th. 6pm. Paccar Theatre in the Science Gallery, Dublin. How do we find intimacy in the 21st century? Can technology help us to fundamentally fulfil our desire for connection, or are we ultimately re-programming ourselves for future loneliness? The panel consisted of myself, Dr Jamie Saris, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Maynooth University, Dr. Kris Gowen, sexuality...

I was invited to give a talk and take part in a panel discussion at the EU Cyber Summit in the Helix, DCU, on October 24th. Why do we fall for scams: Lessons from cyberpsychology I shared some lessons from cyberpsychology on why we fall for online scams. Scammers manipulate basic human motivations, they utilise powerful principles of persuasion, and they take advantage of the fact that computer mediated communication changes how we communicate,...

As part of the Science Gallery exhibition titled Fake, they partnered with the Irish Film Institute to curate a number of films around the theme of Fake. One of the chosen fils was Catfish. The film is credited with originating the term ‘catfishing’, which has seeped into the cultural vernacular, to denote fake social networking presences created for deceptive and mischievous purposes. I was asked to give an introduction to the film from a...