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Afrodita Marcu
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What would you like us to know about you?I am a Research Fellow in cancer care (RA II) and a Social Psychologist by training. In the past 10 years I have worked on various projects dealing with risk perception, risk communication, and behaviour change in relation to health (e.g. Lyme disease, pandemic flu vaccination, the risks and benefits of red meat, early diagnosis of breast cancer). I have been working on cancer for the past two years and a half: exploring socio-economic differences in how women seek help for breast cancer symptoms; exploring the experience of being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer; co-designing an app to help cancer patients manage cancer-related fatigue. I am interested in risk communication, message framing, and in bringing a social / health psychology perspective to the design of an intervention aimed at increasing physical activity. I am particularly interested in how people from lower socio-economic backgrounds (who have been shown to have poorer cancer outcomes) might be motivated to engage in preventive behaviours. I am skilled in qualitative research methods, I have extensive experience of collecting and analysing qualitative data, including conducting a systematic review and qualitative synthesis. Although I don't do much running myself, I enjoy reading about running (e.g. "Born to Run" by Chris McDougall, "Running with the Kenyans" and "The Way of the Runner" by Adharanand Finn, "Eat & Run" by Scott Jurek). I have also read a number of popular science books about diet (sugar), health, and cancer (e.g. "Pure, White, and Deadly"; "The Emperor of All Maladies") and human evolution ("The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease" by Daniel Lieberman). I enjoy hiking and usually spend my holidays hiking in the Alps or the Canary Islands.