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Dr Robert Aunger

Associate Professor

United Kingdom

Robert Aunger is Associate Professor in Evolutionary Public Health. He has a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Southern California, a PhD in biological anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and did post-doctoral work in psychology at the University of Chicago and King’s College, Cambridge. He has published books on cultural evolution (with the Free Press and Oxford University Press), the evolution of human behaviour (with Oxford University Press), and ethnographic methods (with Altamira Press), as well as papers on hunter-gather nutrition and belief systems, genetic diversity, the psychology of motivation, the evolution of technology, and global history. He is the lead developer of a novel approach to behaviour change called ‘Behaviour Centred Design’ which has its origins in evolutionary biology, ecological psychology and commercial marketing. For over a decade, he has helped implement research- and large-scale public health projects in water, sanitation, hygiene, nutrition and HIV using this approach in multiple countries on the African and Asian continents, including designing creative materials for mass media and community activation. He has held grants from the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the National Science Foundation, the Hygiene Council and the Department for International Development and has also consulted on behaviour change for the World Bank, UNICEF, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Kimberly Clark, and GoJo Industries.

Affiliations

Department of Disease Control
Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases

Teaching

Co Module Organiser of core module for LSHTM's distance learning, on the Control of Infectious Disease.

Annual lecture on Imperial College and Royal College of Art's Master’s Program in HealthCare and Design on Behaviour Centred Design’

Research

design
behaviour change
evolutionary psychology
in situ data collection methods
hygiene promotion
cultural evolution
Research Area
Behaviour change
Qualitative research

Selected Publications

Behaviour settings theory applied to domestic water use in Nigeria: A new conceptual tool for the study of routine behaviour.
CURTIS, V; DREIBELBIS, R; Buxton, H; Izang, N; Adekunle, D; AUNGER, R;
2019
Social Science and Medicine
Understanding demand for higher quality sanitation in peri-urban Lusaka, Zambia through stated and revealed preference analysis.
Tidwell, JB; TERRIS-PRESTHOLT, F; QUAIFE, M; AUNGER, R;
2019
Social Science & Medicine
The Determinants of Reported Personal and Household Hygiene Behaviour: A Multi-Country Study.
AUNGER, R; GREENLAND, K; Ploubidis, G; SCHMIDT, W; Oxford, J; CURTIS, V;
2016
PloS one
Behaviour Centred Design: towards an applied science of behaviour change.
AUNGER, R; CURTIS, V;
2016
Health psychology review
Effect of a behaviour-change intervention on handwashing with soap in India (SuperAmma): a cluster-randomised trial.
BIRAN, A; SCHMIDT, W-P; Varadharajan, KS; Rajaraman, D; Kumar, R; GREENLAND, K; Gopalan, B; AUNGER, R; CURTIS, V;
2014
The Lancet Global health
Forming a flossing habit: an exploratory study of the psychological determinants of habit formation.
JUDAH, G; Gardner, B; AUNGER, R;
2012
British journal of health psychology
Experimental pretesting of hand-washing interventions in a natural setting.
JUDAH, G; AUNGER, R; SCHMIDT, W-P; Michie, S; Granger, S; CURTIS, V;
2009
American journal of public health
Network psychometric-based identification and structural analysis of a set of evolved human motives
AUNGER, R; Gallyamova, A; Grigoryev, D;
2024
Personality and individual differences
Author Correction: Experimenting to increase the effectiveness of a national campaign on hygiene behavior in Tanzania.
AUNGER, R; Coville, A; Kwezi, L; Mwakitalima, A; Mwambuli, K; Reichert, A; Sansonetti, J;
2024
Scientific reports
Applying the Barker School concept of 'behaviour settings' to virtual contexts.
AUNGER, R; Deterding, S; Zhao, X; Baxter, W;
2024
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
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