Martha Newson
Biographic Data
| ID | 275702 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Martha Newson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Martha |
| FAMILY NAME | Newson |
| SIGNATURE | NEWSON M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7700-9562 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 28 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Beyond the Black Box: Programmable AI and Explainable Text Analysis for Trustworthy Social Intelligence
Life demands safe, reliable, and explainable artificial intelligence (AI) grounded in scientific reasoning and guided by human oversight. We present a neuro-symbolic programmable AI algorithm that transforms neural outputs into interpretable logic-patterned narratives via symbolic pattern lifting and lowering. It is designed for social scientists and enables reproducible Human + AI text analysis across sources such as social media, interviews, an…
Sauna culture improves physical and mental wellbeing in the UK through social connection and ritual
Sauna culture is experiencing rapid global growth, yet beyond physical health benefits, remains largely understudied within academic research. We investigate both its physical and mental health benefits in the UK using the Social Cure model in conjunction with a ritual lens to understand how feelings of connection grow via sauna. Across three studies (N = 1,907), we explored the role of social identities in shaping wellbeing outcomes among sauna …
Effects of synchronous chanting and identity fusion on perceived ingroup formidability, outgroup threat, and parochial altruism among soccer fans
Scoring Second Chances: Addressing Women's Unique Challenges and Opportunities in a Football‐Based Prison Programme
Sport‐based prison interventions may particularly benefit women, a vulnerable population within the penal system. However, evidence of their impact is mainly based on men's experiences. This study qualitatively examines the experiences of 11 women enrolled on the Twinning Project, a football‐based prison programme designed to reduce recidivism and enhance employability. Thematic analysis of semi‐structured interviews revealed positive outcomes fo…
Sports‐Based Interventions Fostering Positive Identity Formation in Prison: Insights From the Twinning Project
For the formerly incarcerated, transitioning from criminal to law‐abiding identities is particularly challenging, especially for those from highly stigmatised groups who are often excluded from mainstream social networks. The Twinning Project, an intervention pairing prisons with local sports clubs, provides people in prison with opportunities to form connections within a community that promotes healthy lifestyles and pro‐social values while offe…
Recreational Drug use at Sports Events in the US and UK
Recreational drug use among sports fans has received relatively little scholarly attention. Nonetheless, understanding this landscape is crucial to better understand fan behaviors and attitudes, as well as to support fan communities through effective harm reduction and educational initiatives. Addressing this gap, we surveyed fans in the US (football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey) and the UK (soccer, rugby, cricket) to assess the prevalence, …
Sport-based interventions and health in prisons: The impact of Twinning Project on prisoner wellbeing and attitudes
Social isolation and lack of support networks are key factors contributing to mental health problems among incarcerated people, which, in turn, are associated with an increased risk of reoffending. Enabling prisoners to form positive group relations and social identities is one approach to address the cycle of ill health and incarceration. We examine the impact of a football-based intervention, the Twinning Project, on prisoners' wellbeing and so…
Fusing concept to theory: Identity Fusion's Potential Role in Crime Research
Developing theories, evidence, and methods that could help to reduce crime is foundational to crime research. Here we present an interdisciplinary framework that can shed light on old theories and open up promising avenues for novel research into diverse criminogenic areas including violence, desistance, turning points, individual and family risk factors, and reintegration. This framework relates to 'identity fusion'- a powerful form of group bon…
Anti-social behavior and soccer identities: Different continents, same mindset
Although most soccer fans support their teams peacefully, anti-social fan behavior continues to appear across the globe. We tested the roles of identity fusion and membership to an extreme fan group (ultras) in explaining fan disorder in two understudied contexts: Indonesia (Study 1) and Australia (Study 2). Incidents of violence and antisocial behavior were rarely reported among general Indonesian (9%) or Australian fans (6%) but were significan…
A soccer-based intervention improves incarcerated individuals' behaviour and public acceptance through group bonding
As incarceration rates rise globally, the need to reduce re-offending grows increasingly urgent. We investigate whether positive group bonds can improve behaviours among incarcerated people via a unique soccer-based prison intervention, the Twinning Project. We analyse effects of participation compared to a control group (study 1, n = 676, n = 1,874 control cases) and longitudinal patterns of social cohesion underlying these effects (study 2, n =…
We need community’: Bridging the path to desistance from crime with community football
Recidivism costs society, communities, families and individuals. Sport is heralded as an accessible way to engage and incentivise people convicted of crime to change their lifestyles. One high‐profile intervention designed to reduce reoffending rates is the Twinning Project, which invites people serving custodial and community sentences to participate in a football‐based programme to gain accredited qualifications with a major football club in th…
Social alignment matters: Following pandemic guidelines is associated with better wellbeing
These findings provide an important counterpart to the idea that pandemic containment measures such as physical distancing negatively impacted wellbeing unequivocally. Despite the overall burden of the pandemic on psychosocial wellbeing, social alignment with others can still contribute to positive wellbeing. The pandemic has manifested our propensity to adapt to challenges, particularly highlighting how social alignment can forge resilience
Future orientation is associated with less lockdown rule breaking, even during large illegal gatherings
Critical questions for large societies revolve around whose behaviors anticipate future repercussions - be they socio-legal or health-based - and whose do not. We used an evolutionary Life History Framework with a sample of UK-based, self-defined “active” ravers (n = 506) to better understand attendance of, and behavior at, mass events where chances of infection were high during the COVID-19 pandemic. During periods of the COVID-19 lockdown in th…
Facing the pandemic with trust in science
How essential is trust in science to prevent the spread of COVID-19? People who trust in science are reportedly more likely to comply with official guidelines, implying that higher levels of adherence could be achieved by improving trust in science. However, analysis of a global dataset ( n = 4341) suggests otherwise. Trust in science had a small, indirect effect on adherence to the rules. Nonetheless, it predicted people’s approval of prevention…
Go Wild, Not Weird
Reliance on convenience samples for psychological experiments has led to the oversampling of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) populations (Henrich et al. 2010a). Our analysis of academic articles from six leading psychology journals revealed a significantly lower but still very high percentage of studies from European and English-speaking nations (92%), compared to a decade ago (95%), largely due to more studies fro…
High and highly bonded: Fused football fans who use cocaine are most likely to be aggressive toward rivals
Football mirrors wider society, be it in social issues or drug use. The widespread availability of cheap but high purity cocaine may be associated with fan aggression, especially among fans who are highly bonded to their clubs and fellow fans
Digital contact does not promote wellbeing, but face-to-face contact does: A cross-national survey during the Covid-19 pandemic
With restricted face-to-face interactions, COVID-19 lockdowns and distancing measures tested the capability of computer-mediated communication to foster social contact and wellbeing. In a multinational sample ( n = 6436), we investigated how different modes of contact related to wellbeing during the pandemic. Computer-mediated communication was more common than face-to-face, and its use was influenced by COVID-19 death rates, more so than state s…
Social influence matters: We follow pandemic guidelines most when our close circle does
Why do we adopt new rules, such as social distancing? Although human sciences research stresses the key role of social influence in behaviour change, most COVID-19 campaigns emphasize the disease's medical threat. In a global data set (n = 6,675), we investigated how social influences predict people's adherence to distancing rules during the pandemic. Bayesian regression analyses controlling for stringency of local measures showed that people dis…
Tribalism’, identity fusion and football fandom in Australia: The case of Western Sydney
Processes of group formation and social identity are key to understanding human behaviour in social domains. In football, ‘ultras’ groups are currently considered the most visible style of fandom across the football world. By binding individuals together, these groups create new social identities that make them an ideal context for understanding how people behave within group contexts. This paper employs identity fusion theory to analyse a one-ye…
Ritual, identity fusion, and the inauguration of president Trump: A pseudo-experiment of ritual modes theory
The US Presidential Inauguration is a symbolic event which arouses significant emotional responses among diverse groups, and is of considerable significance to Americans’ personal and social identities. We argue that the inauguration qualifies as an Imagistic Ritual. Such ritual experiences are thought to produce identity fusion: a visceral sense of oneness with the group. The 2017 Inauguration of President Trump was a unique opportunity to exami…
Football, fan violence, and identity fusion
Football violence has been a global problem for decades. A new way to approach the phenomenon comes from the theory of identity fusion, an extreme form of social bonding implicated in personally costly pro-group behaviours. Using British and Brazilian fan cultures to illustrate, this article discusses the ways in which identity fusion can help understandings of football violence. While hooliganism in the UK and the phenomenon of torcidas organiza…
Brazil's football warriors: Social bonding and inter-group violence
Winning at any cost: Identity fusion, group essence, and maximizing ingroup advantage
From verbal abuse to physical intimidation of opponents, some ingroup members seek to maximize their group’s competitive edge regardless of personal repercussions. What motivates such extreme commitment? Based on identity fusion theory, we argue that strongly fused persons seek ingroup victory at any cost when they believe that a competition’s outcome affects the group’s essence. Two studies, conducted across four countries and in two sports cont…
The evolution of extreme cooperation via shared dysphoric experiences
Willingness to lay down one’s life for a group of non-kin, well documented historically and ethnographically, represents an evolutionary puzzle. Building on research in social psychology, we develop a mathematical model showing how conditioning cooperation on previous shared experience can allow individually costly pro-group behavior to evolve. The model generates a series of predictions that we then test empirically in a range of special sample …
Digital contact does not promote wellbeing, but face-to-face contact does: A cross-national survey during the Covid-19 pandemic
With restricted face-to-face interactions, COVID-19 lockdowns and distancing measures tested the capability of computer-mediated communication to foster social contact and wellbeing. In a multinational sample ( n = 6436), we investigated how different modes of contact related to wellbeing during the pandemic. Computer-mediated communication was more common than face-to-face, and its use was influenced by COVID-19 death rates, more so than state s…
Tribalism’, identity fusion and football fandom in Australia: The case of Western Sydney
Processes of group formation and social identity are key to understanding human behaviour in social domains. In football, ‘ultras’ groups are currently considered the most visible style of fandom across the football world. By binding individuals together, these groups create new social identities that make them an ideal context for understanding how people behave within group contexts. This paper employs identity fusion theory to analyse a one-ye…
Football, fan violence, and identity fusion
Football violence has been a global problem for decades. A new way to approach the phenomenon comes from the theory of identity fusion, an extreme form of social bonding implicated in personally costly pro-group behaviours. Using British and Brazilian fan cultures to illustrate, this article discusses the ways in which identity fusion can help understandings of football violence. While hooliganism in the UK and the phenomenon of torcidas organiza…
Social influence matters: We follow pandemic guidelines most when our close circle does
Why do we adopt new rules, such as social distancing? Although human sciences research stresses the key role of social influence in behaviour change, most COVID-19 campaigns emphasize the disease's medical threat. In a global data set (n = 6,675), we investigated how social influences predict people's adherence to distancing rules during the pandemic. Bayesian regression analyses controlling for stringency of local measures showed that people dis…
Sport-based interventions and health in prisons: The impact of Twinning Project on prisoner wellbeing and attitudes
Social isolation and lack of support networks are key factors contributing to mental health problems among incarcerated people, which, in turn, are associated with an increased risk of reoffending. Enabling prisoners to form positive group relations and social identities is one approach to address the cycle of ill health and incarceration. We examine the impact of a football-based intervention, the Twinning Project, on prisoners' wellbeing and so…
A soccer-based intervention improves incarcerated individuals' behaviour and public acceptance through group bonding
As incarceration rates rise globally, the need to reduce re-offending grows increasingly urgent. We investigate whether positive group bonds can improve behaviours among incarcerated people via a unique soccer-based prison intervention, the Twinning Project. We analyse effects of participation compared to a control group (study 1, n = 676, n = 1,874 control cases) and longitudinal patterns of social cohesion underlying these effects (study 2, n =…
We need community’: Bridging the path to desistance from crime with community football
Recidivism costs society, communities, families and individuals. Sport is heralded as an accessible way to engage and incentivise people convicted of crime to change their lifestyles. One high‐profile intervention designed to reduce reoffending rates is the Twinning Project, which invites people serving custodial and community sentences to participate in a football‐based programme to gain accredited qualifications with a major football club in th…
Scoring Second Chances: Addressing Women's Unique Challenges and Opportunities in a Football‐Based Prison Programme
Sport‐based prison interventions may particularly benefit women, a vulnerable population within the penal system. However, evidence of their impact is mainly based on men's experiences. This study qualitatively examines the experiences of 11 women enrolled on the Twinning Project, a football‐based prison programme designed to reduce recidivism and enhance employability. Thematic analysis of semi‐structured interviews revealed positive outcomes fo…
The evolution of extreme cooperation via shared dysphoric experiences
Willingness to lay down one’s life for a group of non-kin, well documented historically and ethnographically, represents an evolutionary puzzle. Building on research in social psychology, we develop a mathematical model showing how conditioning cooperation on previous shared experience can allow individually costly pro-group behavior to evolve. The model generates a series of predictions that we then test empirically in a range of special sample …
Brazil's football warriors: Social bonding and inter-group violence
Winning at any cost: Identity fusion, group essence, and maximizing ingroup advantage
From verbal abuse to physical intimidation of opponents, some ingroup members seek to maximize their group’s competitive edge regardless of personal repercussions. What motivates such extreme commitment? Based on identity fusion theory, we argue that strongly fused persons seek ingroup victory at any cost when they believe that a competition’s outcome affects the group’s essence. Two studies, conducted across four countries and in two sports cont…
Ritual, identity fusion, and the inauguration of president Trump: A pseudo-experiment of ritual modes theory
The US Presidential Inauguration is a symbolic event which arouses significant emotional responses among diverse groups, and is of considerable significance to Americans’ personal and social identities. We argue that the inauguration qualifies as an Imagistic Ritual. Such ritual experiences are thought to produce identity fusion: a visceral sense of oneness with the group. The 2017 Inauguration of President Trump was a unique opportunity to exami…
Football, fan violence, and identity fusion
Football violence has been a global problem for decades. A new way to approach the phenomenon comes from the theory of identity fusion, an extreme form of social bonding implicated in personally costly pro-group behaviours. Using British and Brazilian fan cultures to illustrate, this article discusses the ways in which identity fusion can help understandings of football violence. While hooliganism in the UK and the phenomenon of torcidas organiza…
Tribalism’, identity fusion and football fandom in Australia: The case of Western Sydney
Processes of group formation and social identity are key to understanding human behaviour in social domains. In football, ‘ultras’ groups are currently considered the most visible style of fandom across the football world. By binding individuals together, these groups create new social identities that make them an ideal context for understanding how people behave within group contexts. This paper employs identity fusion theory to analyse a one-ye…
Facing the pandemic with trust in science
How essential is trust in science to prevent the spread of COVID-19? People who trust in science are reportedly more likely to comply with official guidelines, implying that higher levels of adherence could be achieved by improving trust in science. However, analysis of a global dataset ( n = 4341) suggests otherwise. Trust in science had a small, indirect effect on adherence to the rules. Nonetheless, it predicted people’s approval of prevention…
Go Wild, Not Weird
Reliance on convenience samples for psychological experiments has led to the oversampling of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) populations (Henrich et al. 2010a). Our analysis of academic articles from six leading psychology journals revealed a significantly lower but still very high percentage of studies from European and English-speaking nations (92%), compared to a decade ago (95%), largely due to more studies fro…
High and highly bonded: Fused football fans who use cocaine are most likely to be aggressive toward rivals
Football mirrors wider society, be it in social issues or drug use. The widespread availability of cheap but high purity cocaine may be associated with fan aggression, especially among fans who are highly bonded to their clubs and fellow fans
Digital contact does not promote wellbeing, but face-to-face contact does: A cross-national survey during the Covid-19 pandemic
With restricted face-to-face interactions, COVID-19 lockdowns and distancing measures tested the capability of computer-mediated communication to foster social contact and wellbeing. In a multinational sample ( n = 6436), we investigated how different modes of contact related to wellbeing during the pandemic. Computer-mediated communication was more common than face-to-face, and its use was influenced by COVID-19 death rates, more so than state s…
Social influence matters: We follow pandemic guidelines most when our close circle does
Why do we adopt new rules, such as social distancing? Although human sciences research stresses the key role of social influence in behaviour change, most COVID-19 campaigns emphasize the disease's medical threat. In a global data set (n = 6,675), we investigated how social influences predict people's adherence to distancing rules during the pandemic. Bayesian regression analyses controlling for stringency of local measures showed that people dis…
Social alignment matters: Following pandemic guidelines is associated with better wellbeing
These findings provide an important counterpart to the idea that pandemic containment measures such as physical distancing negatively impacted wellbeing unequivocally. Despite the overall burden of the pandemic on psychosocial wellbeing, social alignment with others can still contribute to positive wellbeing. The pandemic has manifested our propensity to adapt to challenges, particularly highlighting how social alignment can forge resilience
Future orientation is associated with less lockdown rule breaking, even during large illegal gatherings
Critical questions for large societies revolve around whose behaviors anticipate future repercussions - be they socio-legal or health-based - and whose do not. We used an evolutionary Life History Framework with a sample of UK-based, self-defined “active” ravers (n = 506) to better understand attendance of, and behavior at, mass events where chances of infection were high during the COVID-19 pandemic. During periods of the COVID-19 lockdown in th…
We need community’: Bridging the path to desistance from crime with community football
Recidivism costs society, communities, families and individuals. Sport is heralded as an accessible way to engage and incentivise people convicted of crime to change their lifestyles. One high‐profile intervention designed to reduce reoffending rates is the Twinning Project, which invites people serving custodial and community sentences to participate in a football‐based programme to gain accredited qualifications with a major football club in th…
Anti-social behavior and soccer identities: Different continents, same mindset
Although most soccer fans support their teams peacefully, anti-social fan behavior continues to appear across the globe. We tested the roles of identity fusion and membership to an extreme fan group (ultras) in explaining fan disorder in two understudied contexts: Indonesia (Study 1) and Australia (Study 2). Incidents of violence and antisocial behavior were rarely reported among general Indonesian (9%) or Australian fans (6%) but were significan…
A soccer-based intervention improves incarcerated individuals' behaviour and public acceptance through group bonding
As incarceration rates rise globally, the need to reduce re-offending grows increasingly urgent. We investigate whether positive group bonds can improve behaviours among incarcerated people via a unique soccer-based prison intervention, the Twinning Project. We analyse effects of participation compared to a control group (study 1, n = 676, n = 1,874 control cases) and longitudinal patterns of social cohesion underlying these effects (study 2, n =…
Effects of synchronous chanting and identity fusion on perceived ingroup formidability, outgroup threat, and parochial altruism among soccer fans
Scoring Second Chances: Addressing Women's Unique Challenges and Opportunities in a Football‐Based Prison Programme
Sport‐based prison interventions may particularly benefit women, a vulnerable population within the penal system. However, evidence of their impact is mainly based on men's experiences. This study qualitatively examines the experiences of 11 women enrolled on the Twinning Project, a football‐based prison programme designed to reduce recidivism and enhance employability. Thematic analysis of semi‐structured interviews revealed positive outcomes fo…
Sports‐Based Interventions Fostering Positive Identity Formation in Prison: Insights From the Twinning Project
For the formerly incarcerated, transitioning from criminal to law‐abiding identities is particularly challenging, especially for those from highly stigmatised groups who are often excluded from mainstream social networks. The Twinning Project, an intervention pairing prisons with local sports clubs, provides people in prison with opportunities to form connections within a community that promotes healthy lifestyles and pro‐social values while offe…
Recreational Drug use at Sports Events in the US and UK
Recreational drug use among sports fans has received relatively little scholarly attention. Nonetheless, understanding this landscape is crucial to better understand fan behaviors and attitudes, as well as to support fan communities through effective harm reduction and educational initiatives. Addressing this gap, we surveyed fans in the US (football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey) and the UK (soccer, rugby, cricket) to assess the prevalence, …
Sport-based interventions and health in prisons: The impact of Twinning Project on prisoner wellbeing and attitudes
Social isolation and lack of support networks are key factors contributing to mental health problems among incarcerated people, which, in turn, are associated with an increased risk of reoffending. Enabling prisoners to form positive group relations and social identities is one approach to address the cycle of ill health and incarceration. We examine the impact of a football-based intervention, the Twinning Project, on prisoners' wellbeing and so…
Fusing concept to theory: Identity Fusion's Potential Role in Crime Research
Developing theories, evidence, and methods that could help to reduce crime is foundational to crime research. Here we present an interdisciplinary framework that can shed light on old theories and open up promising avenues for novel research into diverse criminogenic areas including violence, desistance, turning points, individual and family risk factors, and reintegration. This framework relates to 'identity fusion'- a powerful form of group bon…
Beyond the Black Box: Programmable AI and Explainable Text Analysis for Trustworthy Social Intelligence
Life demands safe, reliable, and explainable artificial intelligence (AI) grounded in scientific reasoning and guided by human oversight. We present a neuro-symbolic programmable AI algorithm that transforms neural outputs into interpretable logic-patterned narratives via symbolic pattern lifting and lowering. It is designed for social scientists and enables reproducible Human + AI text analysis across sources such as social media, interviews, an…
Sauna culture improves physical and mental wellbeing in the UK through social connection and ritual
Sauna culture is experiencing rapid global growth, yet beyond physical health benefits, remains largely understudied within academic research. We investigate both its physical and mental health benefits in the UK using the Social Cure model in conjunction with a ritual lens to understand how feelings of connection grow via sauna. Across three studies (N = 1,907), we explored the role of social identities in shaping wellbeing outcomes among sauna …
Psychology (19 works) · Political science (15 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Law (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Criminology (8 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (8 works) · Social group (8 works) · Social identity theory (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works)