Anna Stone

Anna Stone is a senior lecturer in the school of Psychology. She teaches on undergraduate and MSc programmes and her main interests lie in the areas of scientifically unsubstantiated belief, e.g., paranormal belief and anomalistic psychology, and reactions to people with facial disfigurement.

She is interested in why people hold beliefs which have not been scientifically substantiated. These could be religious or political beliefs or belief in the paranormal e.g., alien visitation, telepathy, pre-cognitive dreams, etc. These are very common beliefs but there is insufficient evidence for their existence so it is interesting to investigate the factors underlying these beliefs.

She is also interested in how people to react to individuals with facial disfigurement. Her research looks at emotional responses and how these depend on social desirability motives, and the assumptions we make about the skills and abilities of people with unusual faces.