SARG's Ellen McGrane recently spoke with @afsguk.bsky.social about her research into gambling advertising during live sports. The interview explores the whistle-to-whistle ban, self-regulation, and the challenges of data collection and natural experiments in gambling research. #AddictionResearch
Really looking forward to this - the conference and the city! Hope to see lots of colleagues there
He's gone early
Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom www.nature.com/articles/s41... - new paper with Clinton Haarlem, Cliodhna Hynes and colleagues
Different species see the world as fast as they need to...
The association between gambling frequency and risk of harm: Analysis using health survey data from England and Scotland
Love this!
Please get him off LinkedIn...
Columnists are engaged in a doomed, never-ceasing quest to find something that makes them angry enough to become interesting to others.
💯 Loads of excellent advice in this post #AcademicWriting #AcademicChatter
How should public health respond to the rise of alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks? New publication in the @bmj.com from @jholmessheff.bsky.social @niamhfitzgerald.bsky.social Inge Kersbergen and Nathan Critchlow. Really insightful, great work guys 🌟
www.bmj.com/content/392/...
I would say I’m looking for skills / methods that are aligned with the project, including evidence that they can write these up to publication standard. No specific number of publications needed - quality more important than quantity. Grantwriting experience useful but not essential
Rethinking drug use and addiction 😍
A philosopher advocates for a more humane and context-informed approach
Superb review by Cassandra Boness of Hanna Pickard's important book, provocatively titled: "What would you do alone in a cage with nothing but cocaine?"
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Competitively priced for loo roll, but not soft or absorbent enough.
The perfect punctuation mark to my choice for who had the worst year on @quietriotpod.bsky.social.
Excellent article, reminding all of us of pioneering early work in gambling research - and reminding us how much there is still to do. www.sciencenews.org/article/bob-.... Roll on 2026….
@uofgussp.bsky.social @uofgsocsci.bsky.social
The sun rising over the London skyline this morning, only it’s a very cloudy sky and the sun is visible only as an orange streak of fire that coincidentally seems to be emanating from the spire on the top of St Paul’s dome
Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower
Your festive edition and TV guide is here 🎄
Feast your eyes on a tumultuous schedule, not unlike the year itself. Plus brilliant writing from all of your favourite columnists at The New World. Enjoy!
🗞️ Grab a copy at your local newsstand or subscribe
🔗 buff.ly/NWZsnYW
An image of Predator (1987)
🎶he sees you when you're sleeping
he knows when you're awake
his vision's based on movement
and the heat signature you make🎶
✨ SARG Internship opportunity ✨ We're currently looking for a part-time Quantitative Research Intern to undertake a three-month research project mapping the type of advice that alcohol treatment and recovery services give to clients on the use of alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks. Find out more 👇
It’s Strava Year in Sport time! Quite a big decline since last year, mainly attributable to a busy summer. But not bad for a geriatric.
strava.app.link/QL4vEzY9YYb
Kubrick’s final film isn’t just set at Christmas. It’s a subversive critique of class, desire and the fantasies we buy into during the festive season.
🧵1/ Many, but far from all health professionals working with gambling harm called for an industry funded levy to support their work. Now the legislation is in place, the money isn’t, and their services are in crisis
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
This plot shows the number of users in the Study 1 sample that self-described as 'addicted' to Instagram versus those who were 'at risk' of clinical addiction. The ratios for the addiction symptom scale are 9:371 and for the perceived addiction 69: 311, suggesting a much greater proportion of users self-perceive as addicted than are actually addicted to Instagram
Excited to see these studies (finally) published in Scientific Reports! 🚨
S1: More social media users perceived themselves as addicted than met clinical addiction criteria.
S2: Increasing perceived addiction hurt perceived control over use and increased self-blame for overuse.
Thread below... 🧵
Oliver Burkeman on the value of pursuing what interests you, cultivating a sensitivity to your own personal response to topics, and using it as a filter on what to attend to
https://ckarchive.com/b/92uzhnh695dods3roomrdfzod7d33hwh9nk2g
"to follow the lead of interestingness is to accept that […]
Survey administration schedule across the 12-week study period. Participants completed biweekly surveys (orange) every two weeks, with US participants additionally completing daily surveys (blue) for the first 30 days. Cognitive tests (green) were administered during biweekly surveys at weeks 1, 5, and 9. Gray circles indicate days with no scheduled surveys. Retention percentages show the proportion of baseline participants (N=1978) who were still active at each measurement week (defined as having completed either a daily or biweekly survey at any time after that week)
Diurnal play across Xbox, Nintendo, Steam.
Sample of daily gaming patterns and mental wellbeing for three representative participants. Stacked bars represent total daily playtime across platforms. Orange line shows biweekly mental wellbeing scores (short WEMWBS) measured at six study waves. Participants were selected from those closest to the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of total playtime, prioritizing those with the most varied multi-platform gaming behavior. Participant IDs: p9009984081 (25th percentile), p8809196928 (50th percentile), p7162729307 (75th percentile)
We released a pretty cool dataset/preprint today looking at video game play, cognition, time-use and a ton of self-reported psych measures at osf.io/preprints/ps... with @nballou.bsky.social @matti.vuorre.com @thomashakman.bsky.social @rpsychologist.com and @shuhbillskee.bsky.social RRs coming soon
A morbidly inclined sheep, who likes to hang around in graveyards, detests parties and owns original pressings of the entire classic run of Leonard Cohen LPs from 1967-1974.
THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent sheep I have met on walks.
You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.
Utility of Substance-Free Alternatives in Treating and Preventing Harmful Substance Use: A Narrative Review of the Translational Research Spectrum
This is an important literature review on a crucial topic in the prevention and treatment of addictions.
1/2
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
SARG Director @jholmessheff.bsky.social was part of an expert panel that supported the development of 'A Healthier Future: A long-term vision to tackle alcohol harm in the UK', a significant new report published by the Institute of Alcohol Studies @ias.org.uk this week. @fohsheffield.bsky.social
🌍 Alcohol causes 2.6 million premature deaths each year, yet remains the world’s favourite drug. 🍺
A major Lancet Public Health study shows most countries are far off WHO’s 2030 target to cut drinking by 20%.
🧵 THREAD
#PublicHealth #Addiction #AlcoholPolicy #GlobalHealth
And what’s your take on the viewpoint in that article?
