Profile

Hi, my name is Richard. I’m a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Gloucestershire, where I’m also Course Leader for our MSc Health Psychology and Deputy Research Ethics Lead for the School of Education, Health & Science.

My research sits at the intersection of psychology, public health, and environmental behaviour. Much of my work has focused on vaccine confidence and hesitancy, particularly how people seek out, interpret, and trust information when making health decisions under uncertainty. This includes work on vaccination during pregnancy, COVID-19 vaccination, and allergy-related vaccine concerns. More recently, my research has expanded into environmental psychology, exploring climate-change fatalism, response efficacy, and how behavioural science can support meaningful climate and health action.

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I completed my PhD in Epidemiology and Population Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where I was based in the Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health and affiliated with the Vaccine Confidence Project. My doctoral thesis (which you can read here) examined vaccine information-seeking behaviour during pregnancy and was supervised by Dr Pauline Paterson, with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. Before this, I completed an MSc in Psychological Research Methods at the University of Exeter and a BSc in Forensic Psychology at the University of Leeds.

Alongside research, I teach across undergraduate, MSc, and PhD levels, with a particular emphasis on research methods, statistics, and applied quantitative analysis in R. I’m strongly committed to open science, replication, and using real-world data in teaching. Prior to my current role, I’ve worked as a research fellow, research associate, visiting lecturer, assistant lecturer, and psychology laboratory technician, supporting both teaching and research across a range of institutions.

If you have any questions about my work, teaching, or research collaborations (or would just like to say hello!) please feel free to get in touch by email on rclarke8@glos.ac.uk.

List of publications

  1. Clarke, R. M., Hales, L. L., Blundal, P., & Bennett, A. (under review). Measuring climate change response efficacy and fatalism beliefs: Development of the CCREFS. Environmental Psychology Open.
  2. Ratcliffe, E., Gatersleben, B., Gabriel, A., Weber, C., Musselwhite, C., Haddad, H., Grassini, S., Lymeus, F., Clarke, R. M., Barz, C., & Tam, K.-P. (in revision). Research trends in environmental psychology: A bibliometric analysis of peer-reviewed publications, 2004–2024. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
  3. Clarke, R. M., O’Hickey, S. P., Walklet, E., Bradley E., & Mahoney, B. (2025). Managing allergy-related COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: A multi-methods analysis of practitioner notes and referral outcomes. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2025.2561457
  4. Francis, N. A., Becque, T., Willcox, M., Hay, A. D., Lown, M., Clarke, R. M., … & Little, P. (2023). Non-pharmaceutical interventions and risk of COVID-19 infection: survey of UK public from November 2020–May 2021. BMC Public Health, 23(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15209-6
  5. Bell, S.,* Clarke, R. M.,* Ismail, S. A., Ojo-Aromokudu, O., Naqvi, H., Coghill, Y., Donovan, H., Letley, L., Paterson, P., & Mounier-Jack, S. (2022). COVID-19 vaccination beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours among health and social care workers in the UK: a mixed-methods study. PloS One https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260949
  6. Paterson, P., * & Clarke, R. M.* (2021). What vaccine hesitancy can teach us about climate change risk communication. Lancet Planetary Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00027-9
  7. Manika, D., Papgiannidis, S., Bourlakis, M., Clarke, R. M. (2020). Drawing on Subjective Knowledge and Information Receptivity to Examine an Environmental Sustainability Policy: Insights from the UK’s Bag Charge Policy. European Management Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12453
  8. Bell, S.,* Clarke, R. M.,* Mounier-Jack, S., & Paterson, P. (2020). Parents’ and guardians’ views and experiences of accessing routine childhood vaccinations during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: A mixed-methods study in England. PloS One https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244049
  9. Bell, S., Clarke, R. M., Mounier-Jack, S., Walker, J. L., & Paterson, P. (2020). Parents’ and guardians’ views on the acceptability of a future Covid-19 vaccine: a multi-methods study in England. Vaccine https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.10.027
  10. Clarke, R. M., Paterson, P., & Sirota, M. (2019). Do previously held attitudes dictate the extent and influence of vaccine information seeking behaviour during pregnancy? Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2019.1638203
  11. Clarke, R. M., Paterson, P., & Sirota, M. (2019). Determinants of satisfaction with information and additional information-seeking behaviour for the pertussis vaccination given during pregnancy. Vaccine, 37(20), 2712-2720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.04.008
  12. Larson, H. J.,* Clarke, R. M.*, Jarrett, C., Eckersberger, E., Levine, Z., Schulz, W. S., & Paterson, P. (2018). Measuring trust in vaccination: A systematic review. Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2018.1459252
  13. Martin, G. N.,* & Clarke, R. M*, (2017). Are psychology journals anti-replication? A snapshot of editorial practices. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 523. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00523
  14. Watling, R., Clarke, R. M & Rowell, C (2014). Clickers in the classroom: The use of student response systems in teaching psychology. Psychology Teaching Review 20(2).
    *Co-first authorship