Professor Thomas Webb

Research interests

I am a social psychologist, interested in self-regulation and behaviour change. Specifically, I am interested in how people achieve their goals and make changes to their behaviour.

The usual answer is that people need to be motivated. However, even medium-to-large changes in people's intentions seem to have only a small-to-medium effect on their behavior. In short, motivation is not enough and the road to hell is likely paved with good intentions.

As a result, much of my research to date has investigated how the effects of motivation can be boosted by strategies such as monitoring progress, responding with self-compassion to lapses, or forming specific plans - known as "implementation intentions" - that link good opportunities to act with suitable responses to those opportunities.

Current research

I am part of the Leadership Team for Behavioural Research in the UK (BR-UK, funded by the ESRC) and work with a number of organisations to understand behaviour in various contexts.

For example, I am interested in strategies for reducing single use plastics and am part of large multidisciplinary projects that bring together scientists from across the University with stakeholders across Europe. You can read more about our current project (Buddie Pack) here and watch a video about the Many Happy Returns project here.

I work with Purina to support dog owners to keep their pets healthy. You can download a free eBook describing how we are using behavioural science to tackle obesity in pets here and hear me speculate about why the owners of pets may not protect them against fleas here.

Click on the following links to hear me talk about my research on when people take action, self-monitoring, and how to feel happier at the weekend.