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Staff profile

Overview

Dr Niklas Ihssen

Associate Professor

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Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology

Biography

Research

My research is guided by the “big” question of what motivates human behaviour. I am particularly interested in how rewards, temptations, and desires influence our behaviours and our experience, how these processes are implemented in the neural architecture of the human brain, and how they sometime lead to addiction. I am studying both basic reward processes related to food, drugs (alcohol) and sex, as well as social rewards, as found, for instance, on social media. I have also worked and published on related concepts, such as reward cue reactivity, reward learning, self-regulation and values. To study motivated behaviour and the “motivated brain”, I am using a multi-method approach, including controlled behavioural experiments, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and real-life behavioural sampling via ecological momentary assessment. 

Currently, my research questions revolve around two areas:

(i) Reward and Social Media

In this strand of my research I am examining to what extent social media use is motivated by seeking (social) rewards and whether social media, such Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, elicit compulsive or excessive use behaviours or may even lead to “social media addiction”.  Much of this research has been undertaken in collaboration with my previous PhD student Michael Wadsley whose project “Applying Neurocognitive Reward Models to Explore Excessive Social Media Usage” was funded by the ESRC through a NINE-DTP studentship.

For some publications related to this research, see:

Wadsley, M., & Ihssen, N. (2023). Restricting social networking site use for one week produces varied effects on mood but does not increase explicit or implicit desires to use SNSs: Findings from an ecological momentary assessment study. PLoS ONE, 18(11), e0293467.

Ihssen, N., & Wadsley, M. (2021). A Reward and Incentive-Sensitization Perspective on Compulsive Use of Social Networking Sites - Wanting but not Liking Predicts Checking Frequency and Problematic Use Behavior. Addictive Behaviors, 116, Article 106808. 

For a critical discussion of the concept “social media addiction”, see my article "Why a social media detox may not be as good for you as you think – new research" in The Conversation or the coverage of this research in the Time magazine.

(ii) Interactions between Reward/Motivation and Emotions

I am currently interested in finding out how the experience of positive emotions influences our desires and our engagement with rewards, such as food or alcohol, and vice versa. For instance, in her NINE-DTP (ESRC)-funded project "The Science of Celebration: Why Do Positive Outcomes Lead to More Reward-Seeking?", my PhD student Lucy Edgar is investigating how inducing positive emotions in the laboratory can increase the rate of snacking.

Information for students wanting to pursue a PhD or Master’s by Research (MRes)

I am always looking for new postgraduate research students working with me. If you are interested in any of the above (or related) areas, please email!

Publications

Journal Article

Supervision students

Lucy Edgar