Amy Orben is a British experimental psychologist who is a group leader at the

MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit The Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit is a branch of the UK Medical Research Council, based in Cambridge, England. The CBSU is a centre for cognitive neuroscience, with a mission to improve human health by understanding and enhancing cognition ...

. Her research considers how digital technologies impact adolescent mental health. Orben was awarded the

British Neuroscience Association The British Neuroscience Association (BNA) is a scientific society with around 2,500 members. Starting out as an informal gathering of scientists meeting at the Black Horse Public House in London to discuss brain-related topics (the 'London Black ...

Researcher Credibility Prize in 2021 and the inaugural Medical Research Council Impact Prize in 2023.

Early life and education

Orben was an undergraduate student at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

where she studied natural sciences. She moved to

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

for graduate studies, where she specialised in experimental psychology. During her doctoral research, she was a visiting researcher at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

and

Eindhoven University of Technology The Eindhoven University of Technology (), Abbreviation, abbr. TU/e, is a public university, public technical university in the Netherlands, situated in Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its Bachelor of Science, BS ...

. After completing her doctorate Orben was made a Cambridge Research Fellow at Emmanuel College.

Research and career

As a PhD student, Orben questioned the methods applied by

Jean Twenge Jean Marie Twenge (born August 24, 1971) is an American psychologist researching generational differences, including work values, life goals, and social attitudes. She is a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, author, consultan ...

and others who had arrived at claims about the negative effects of technology and social media use. In 2021, Orben was appointed a programme leader at the

. Her research considers novel methodologies to understand how screen time and use of social media impacts psychological well-being in adolescents. Post-millennial mental health (in particular stress, depression and anxiety) is reportedly worse than in previous generations, which is often attributed to social media. Orben showed that this wasn't the entire story: statistically speaking, eating a potato every day had a worse impact on well-being. She argued that social media can be helpful in times of anxiety and loneliness. Orben believes that significant quantities of high quality data about how children engage with technology could be provided by technology giants such as Google and Facebook. Orben has criticised several of the methodologies currently being used, which largely rely on self-report methods and generate incorrect results. She is also an advocate for open science, and created ''ReproducibiliTea'', an international journal club for researchers to discuss improving science.

Awards and honours

* 2017 We Are The City Techwomen50 Award * 2019

British Psychological Society The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. History It was founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London (UCL) as ''The Psychological Society'', the org ...

Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research * 2020

Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science The Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) is a professional organization created in response to the replication crisis in social psychology. It was founded at its inaugural meeting that took place June 6-8th, 2016 at Center f ...

Mission Award for ReproducibiliTea * 2021

Researcher Credibility Prize * 2021 Nominee for the Association for Child and Adolescent Digital Innovation Award * 2023 Medical Research Council Impact Prize

Selected publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orben, Amy British women psychologists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Cambridge Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford