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Ph.D Candidate
I am currently a Ph.D candidate in the School of Psychology at the University of St Andrews supervised by Prof. David Perrett and funded by the EPSRC. The social perception of facial trustworthiness and decisions to trust in economic games are biased by facial cues such as attractiveness and self-similarity. There is also considerable individual variation in trust predicted by socioeconomic, psychological and physiological factors such as poverty, religion or amount of administered oxytocin hormone. My PhD research is aimed at determining whether and how human facial characteristics bias interactions of trust and reciprocity and how individual differences may interact with this.
Other interests: Psychology of Religion, Evolution of Language, Decision and Games Theory
Publications
M.R. Stirrat and D.I. Perrett. "Valid facial cues to cooperation and trust: The human skull and trustworthiness" (In Preparation: Manuscript availabe on request).
Cornwell R, Law Smith M, Boothroyd L, Moore F, Davis H, Stirrat M, Tiddeman B, Perrett D. Reproductive strategy, sexual development and attraction to facial characteristics Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 361 (1476) , 2143 - 2154 (2006) (Epub 03 Nov 2006) doi: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1936
Law Smith M, Perrett D, Jones B, Cornwell R, Moore F, Feinberg D, Boothroyd L, Durrani S, Stirrat M, Whiten S, Pitman R, Hillier S. Facial appearance is a cue to oestrogen levels in women Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 273 (1583) , 135 - 140 (2006) (Epub 01 Nov 2005) doi: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3296
Jones B, Perrett D, Little A, Boothroyd L, Cornwell R, Feinberg D, Tiddeman B, Whiten S, Pitman R, Hillier S, Burt D, Stirrat M, Law Smith M, Moore F. Menstrual cycle, pregnancy and oral contraceptive use alter attraction to apparent health in faces Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 272 (1561) , 347 - 354 (2005) (Epub 17 Feb 2005) doi: 10.1098/rspb.2004.2962
Tiddeman B, Stirrat M, Perrett D. Towards Realism in Facial Image Transformation: Results of a Wavelet MRF Method Computer Graphics Forum 24 (3) , 449 - 456 (2005) doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8659.2005.00870.x
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Conferences
Stirrat, M. R., and D. I. Perrett. "Male Dominance and Female Facial Attractiveness Modulate Behaviours in Trust Games." Paper presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Kyoto, Japan, June 4-8, 2008.
Stirrat, M. R., Jamie F. Lawson, Martin A. Sharp, Emad A. S. Al Dujali, Ian D. Stephen, and D. I. Perrett. "Fear of Punishment: Testosterone Elicits Trustworthiness in Trust Games." Paper presented at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, May 30-June 3, 2007.
Stirrat, M. R., Olga Zubko, Jamie F. Lawson, M. J. Law Smith, D. I. Perrett, B. Jones, and L. M. DeBruine. "Health Appearance Influences Trust Judgments." Paper presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, University of Pennsylvania, June 7-11th, 2006.
Tiddeman, B. P., M.R. Stirrat , and D. I. Perrett. "Towards Realism in Facial Image Prototyping: Results of a Wavelet MRF Method." Paper presented at the Theory and Practice of Computer Graphics, University of Kent , Canterbury , United Kingdom , 15th to 17th June 2005.
RE Cornwell, B. C. Jones, L.G. Boothroyd, D.R. Feinberg, M.J. Law Smith, F.R. Moore, L.M. DeBruine, M.R. Stirrat , R.M. Pitman, S. Whiten, and D. I. Perrett. "Hormones and Preferences for Pheromones and Facial Characteristics." Hormones and Behaviour 46, no. 1 (2004): 129.
RE Cornwell, LG Boothroyd, LM DeBruine, DR Feinberg, BC Jones, FR Moore, MJ Law Smith, MR Stirrat, RM Pitman, S Whiten, DI Perrett. "Developmental influences on mate choice in young adults." Human Behavior and Evolution Society in Berlin, Germany. July 2004.
DR Feinberg, BC Jones, LM DeBruine, AC Little, RE Cornwell, LG Boothroyd, MR Stirrat, DI Perrett. "Women’s pitch of voice and facial-metric masculinity correlate: implications for reproductive strategy." Human Behavior and Evolution Society in Berlin, Germany. July 2004.
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Posters
M.R. Stirrat and D.I. Perrett. "‘Robust' male facial width predicts exploitation of trust" Fourth Meeting of the Evolution and Human Behaviour Association, University of St Andrews. April 6-8, 2009. (pdf)
M.R. Stirrat and D.I. Perrett. "Dominance and dinner dates: Who pays the bill?" 20th Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Kyoto, Japan, June 4-8, 2008.
M.R. Stirrat and D.I. Perrett. "Sex, Trust and Participant Role." School of Psychology, University of St Andrews. December 13, 2007.
M.R. Stirrat and D.I. Perrett. "Health appearance influences trust judgments." School of Psychology, University of St Andrews. December 15, 2006.
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Public Engagement
March 20 2009: Public Lecture – "The Faces We Trust: How the way we look influences relationships." St Andrews Extension Programmes, Open Association 2008-9.
March 18 2009: Brain day interactive and practical workshop with local Fife school pupils – "Trust in the Brain"
March 25 to April 5, 2008: Edinburgh International Science Festival – Wonderama, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh : Face Morph
- This event was aimed at children aged 9+. Our exhibit demonstrated face averaging and 3D manipulation techniques alongside our usual morphing exhibit. I also worked with visitors explaining both the exhibit and the more detailed expositions of software and psychological research in accompanying posters.
March 8, 2008: Science Discovery Day – St Andrews Science Festival, University of St Andrews , Physics Building , St Andrews
2007-2008: NHS Tayside – Ageing & smoking software, installed on computers in 15 schools in Tayside area
October 2004 to February 2005: Wellcome Trust: Future Face – Exhibition at the Science Museum , London
- Curated by Sandra Kemp, Director of Research at the Royal College of Art, Future Face was a multidisciplinary exhibition that integrates art, science and medicine. More than 125,000 visitors attended.
- Collaborating with FifeX Ltd I was heavily involved with adapting face morphing software for our part of this exhibition and writing texts to explain the techniques used in psychological research of social attributions to faces.
July 5-8, 2004: The Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition, Exhibit 10: Should we judge a book by its cover?
- This event was designed to bring science to the public, with over 4,000 visitors over a 4-day period. 16 Exhibitors are selected from applications submitted from over 60 Universities across the UK . We demonstrated techniques of facial morphing as used in psychological research.
- I adapted our exhibition software for the event and worked with visitors explaining and directing use of the exhibit. I also had a major role in the logistics of transportation and maintenance of hardware.
Museum Exhibits 2004 to present: Face Morpher
- I have adapted face morphing software for various exhibits in various locations to communicate knowledge about the perception of faces to the public. These include: Sensations, Dundee; Camera Obscura, Edinburgh ; Glasgow Science Centre; London Science Museum , and Nickelodeon.
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Grants
2009 – Templeton Foundation, The Science of Generosity, University of Notre Dame
- Initial application made. Awaiting invitation to second round of application.
2008 – Brain Travel Grant (£800)
- Support to attend the 20th Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Kyoto, Japan, June 4-8, 2008.
2006-2009 – EPSRC funded Ph.D place (3 years)
- Models and social perception of facial trustworthiness.
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Education
2006-present – University of St Andrews, St Andrews
- PhD (Psychology): Facial cues to trust and trustworthiness.
2001-2002 – University of Sussex, Brighton
- (PGDip) Adaptive and Evolutionary Systems
- Courses include: Programming Techniques (C/C++), Formal Computational Skills, Neural Networks, Artificial Life, Animal and Machine Intelligence, Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Adaptive Systems, and Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour.
1997 – 2001 – University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
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MA Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence (1 st Class Hons.)
- Courses include: AI Programming in JAVA, Knowledge Representation and Inference, Cognitive Modelling, Artificial Intelligence Research Methodologies, Learning from Data, Computational Modelling of Linguistic Processes, Techniques in Natural Language Processing (1 & 2), Origins & Evolution of Language, Syntactic Theory, Semantics: Inference & Information, Phonological Theory, Advanced Phonology: Optimality Theory, Advanced Phonology: Prosody.
- My final year dissertation explored the computational modelling and theory of the evolution of Language and languages.
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Employment
2002-2006 – University of St Andrews, St Andrews
- Research Associate:
- Computer modelling of facial attributions: age, health and others.
- Programming for exhibition software (see Public Engagement)
2002-2006 – Open University (Scotland)
- Associate Lecturer: T396 – Artificial Intelligence for Technology.
1997-2001 – University of Edinburgh Computing Services, Edinburgh
- Computer Lab Supervisor (part-time)
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