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Staff Profile

Dr Billie Moffat-Knox

Lecturer & Director of Student Experience

  • Address: Dr Billie Moffat-Knox
    School of Psychology

    Dame Margaret Barbour Building
    Wallace Street
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE2 4DR
Background

Roles

  • I am a lecturer in the School of Psychology and Director of Student Experience for the Psychology BSc and Cognitive Science BSc programmes.
  • Beyond research and teaching, I am deeply engaged in social justice initiatives. I am Chair of Rainbow, Newcastle University's LGBTQ+ Staff Network, and represent the LGBTQ+ community on the University's EDI Consultative Group and Gender Equality Group. I also sit on the Race Equality Group as an LGBTQ+ representative and ally.


Qualifications

  • PhD (It's nice to be nice; investigating the warm glow mechanism of prosocial behaviour and its relationship with prosocial reputations), Inst. of Neuroscience, Newcastle University
  • Master of Research in Evolution & Human Behaviour, Newcastle University
  • Master of Science in Evolutionary Anthropology, Durham University
  • Bachelor of Science in Psychology (Hons), Newcastle University
Teaching
  • Module Leader - PSY1018 : Psychological Enquiry 1: Academic Skills and Historical Perspectives - An introduction to Psychology
  • Co-Module Lead - PSY3057: Decision Making and Cooperation: Understanding Our Choices
  • Supervision - PSY3097: Empirical Project


Research

My research focuses on understanding the psychological and evolutionary foundations of human cooperation and prosocial behaviour. I am interested in cooperative behaviours such as blood donation, and how functional explanations, such as reputational concerns, interact with psychological mechanisms, such as warm glow and other social emotions. Drawing on perspectives from evolutionary biology, behavioural economics, and social psychology, my work seeks to explain why people choose to help others and contribute to the collective good.


More recently, my research is also situated within health and sexuality psychology, examining the role of sex education in promoting sexual safety and wellbeing. A central focus of my work is the development of inclusive, psychometrically robust measures of sexual safety that better capture diverse experiences, identities, and practices. This research draws on themes of health behaviour, social, political, and cultural influences on sexuality, and equity in sexual health.

Publications