Alexandros Primikiris (he/him)

I am a doctoral researcher in Advanced Quantitative Methods at the University of Exeter, funded by the ESRC South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP). My PhD examines the group-to-person generalisability problem in the psychological and social sciences.

Through the application of novel statistical approaches, my work aims to promote more accurate and transparent research practices across the social sciences, thereby contributing to the broader open-science movement that seeks to increase credibility in the behavioural sciences.

Specifically, my PhD project builds on the idea that researchers tend to theorise at the person level yet analyse data at the group level, creating the group-to-person generalisability problem (or ecological fallacy), where group-level effects often fail to represent individual behaviour. I assess the extent of this problem by investigating whether group-level effects published in top journals generalise to a population majority, while also developing practical tools to help researchers of all statistical abilities recognise and address this issue.

My academic background includes research in experimental psychology, moral psychology and psychopharmacology, in relation to addiction, cognition, and the therapeutic potential of psychoactive substances. During my MSc at Exeter, I ran my own lab as part of my research apprenticeship project, investigating the role of alexithymia and mindfulness in explaining positive outcomes in psychedelic-assisted therapies for substance use disorders.

Research Experience:

For three years, I worked as a Research Assistant in the Moral Mind/Brain Lab, where I helped develop the Moral Sense Task (MST), an innovative experimental tool using animated trolley dilemmas to measure moral cognition. I led workshops training staff and students in creating experimental animations, and adapted the task for use in EEG studies. My contributions were recognised with a Student Employee of the Year Award (Innovation, Runner-up), and I remain a member of the lab.

I have been part of the Moral Mind/Brain Lab EEG Lab (under Dr Joseph Sweetman) and have assisted in EEG data collection for the BAM study on ketamine’s effects on gambling addiction under Dr Alexander Shaw and Prof Celia Morgan. Additionally, I was part of the Exeter Psychedelic Research Colloquium, volunteering at the Philosophy of Psychedelics Conference at Exeter. I have also worked on research exploring the genetic and epigenetic influences of epilepsy, analysing large-scale datasets such as ALSPAC and the GWAS Catalogue to better understand the biological mechanisms underlying epilepsy, under Dr Doretta Caramaschi.

Alongside my doctoral research, I currently lecture undergraduate students in Social Science and Research Methods.

Don't hesistate to reach out, I am always happy to have a chat!