How to make healthy and sustainable eating stick

Dr Kimberly More is a Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews specialising in health and social psychology. She received her PhD from Iowa State University in 2020. Her research explores how people’s

Dr Kimberly More is a Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews specialising in health and social psychology. She received her PhD from Iowa State University in 2020. Her research explores how people’s identities, habits, and social environments influence their health and wellbeing. She takes a whole-person approach that considers psychological, social, and community factors. Kimberly is particularly interested in how we can help people move beyond good intentions – like planning to eat more vegetables or exercise more – and turn those intentions into lasting habits. Her work also looks at how community resources, such as local support networks and social infrastructure, can help people sustain healthy behaviours over time. Currently, she is focused on understanding how habits connect with other mental processes like self-control and identity, especially in communities that face higher health challenges.

, habits, and social environments influence their health and wellbeing. She takes a whole-person approach that considers psychological, social, and community factors. Kimberly is particularly interested in how we can help people move beyond good intentions—like planning to eat more vegetables or exercise more—and turn those intentions into lasting habits. Her work also looks at how community resources, such as local support networks and social infrastructure, can help people sustain healthy behaviours over time. Currently, she is focused on understanding how habits connect with other mental processes like self-control and identity, especially in communities that face higher health challenges. 

Professor Alison Phillips is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Iowa State University and director of the Healthy Habit Lab. She received her PhD in social psychology from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 2011, with her dissertation focused on studying the influence of medication-taking habits versus patients’ beliefs about medicines on their subsequent adherence to medications for hypertension. Her research has subsequently focused on habit theory applied to complex health behaviours, such as exercising and dietary behaviours. Additionally, she has developed and tested interventions to help various populations form healthy habits.

Dr Blair Saunders is a Senior Lecturer of Psychology at the University of Dundee, specialising in self-regulation. Blair received his PhD from the University of St Andrews in 2014 and worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto until 2017. His work tries to understand the motivational and strategic processes that people use to change their own behaviour. He uses mixed methods to understand these processes, including in-depth analysis of behavioural, neuroscientific, and survey data.

Professor Esther Papies is a social and health psychologist, and an expert in behaviour change in the domains of health and climate change. She received her PhD in 2008 from Utrecht University. Her research team examines the social and psychological processes in the transition to a healthier, more sustainable and more equitable society. Professor Papies has published extensively on what motivates eating and drinking behaviour, the motivations and barriers for reducing meat and dairy intake, the motivation for climate action among privileged individuals, emotional experiences with climate change, and other topics related to behaviour change and sustainability.