Fully Funded 3-year PhD Studentship in the School of Psychology and Sport Science

The Biased Blame Game - Understanding why we blame others for our own mistakes in cooperative settings

Dr Paul Rauwolf

Applications are invited for a fully funded 3-year PhD studentship under the supervision of Dr Paul Rauwolf in the School of Psychology and Sport Science at Bangor University, commencing between October 2025 and January 2026.

Many of society’s most dire problems, such as reducing climate change, require us to cooperate with each other. However, cooperative interactions are often fragile and can easily break down due to misperceptions. Research has shown that individuals particularly struggle to cooperate with others in uncertain environments, where it is difficult to assess who is to blame for the break-down of cooperation. In such cases, individuals tend to biasedly redirect blame away from themselves. This further breaks down cooperation, leading to worse outcomes for everyone involved.

This project seeks to understand when and why we blame others for our own mistakes, even when it negatively impacts us. This project will test participants in behavioural economic, cooperative games to understand why we misattribute blame. We will also find ways to reduce this bias, to help individuals improve their outcomes in uncertain, social environments.

Essential Skills:

• First or upper second class undergraduate degree in psychology, economics, computer science or a cognate subject.
• A strong work ethic and genuine enthusiasm for social decision-making.
• The ability to work both independently and cooperatively.
• The ability to communicate effectively, with evidence of strong scientific writing skills.
• A willingness to learn statistical techniques in R.

Desirable Skills:

• A masters level qualification in psychology, economics, computer science, or a cognate subject.
• Experience designing and running human experiments, either in the lab or online.
• Knowledge of game theory, decision-theory or behavioural economics.
• Experience analysing experimental data, using R or a similar statistical tool. 
• Programming skills. As many of the projects will be written for online participants, knowledge of Qualtrics, HTML or JavaScript would be helpful. 
• Knowledge of, or experience with, online participant pools such as Prolific.
• Some knowledge of computational modelling and predictive analytics, such as cross-validation or evolutionary agent-based models.

Residency requirements: This studentship is primarily aimed at UK students. However, those who are interested, but are from outside of the UK, should contact Paul Rauwolf to discuss the conditions for the funding of international students.

Apply now: All application must be received through our online application system: https://apps.bangor.ac.uk/applicant/ via the above ‘Apply’ button.

Before applying, please contact Dr. Paul Rauwolf (p.rauwolf@bangor.ac.uk) to get instructions for the research proposal.

All applications must include

1. a current CV (2 pages maximum)
2.  a cover letter explaining your motivation (including a description of how you meet the required and desired skill set)
3.  a 3-4 page research proposal
4.  2 academic references
5.  if relevant, proof of English Language Competency (7.0 IELTS minimum).

Closing date: 31^st May 2025

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