Yiyun Shou

Yiyun Shou

Lead Scientist (Health and Lifestyle),

yiyun.shou@nus.edu.sg

Dr Yiyun Shou joined IPUR in 2022 as Lead Scientist in the domain of Health and Lifestyle. She also holds a joint appointment as Assistant Professor at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.  Before joining IPUR, Dr Shou was a Senior Research Fellow at the Australia National University and was a recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Her research concerns understanding human’s judgement and behaviors under risk and uncertainty; measurement of dispositions relating to risk-taking; understanding cross-cultural measurement issues; and development of statistical methods. Her current research focuses on attitudes toward risk and uncertainty in health and medical settings, and communication of health risks in the Asian context.

published papers

  1. Mewton, P., Dawel, A., Miller, E. J., Shou, Y., & Christensen, B. K. (2024). Meta-analysis of face perception in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Evidence for differential impairment in emotion face perception. Schizophrenia Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbae130
  2. Sakki, H., St Clair, M. C., Shou, Y., & Allen, J. L. (2024). Punishment and reward sensitivity in risk-taking as potential mechanisms explaining the relationships between childhood callous-unemotional traits and adolescent substance use in a longitudinal cohort study sample. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-024-01255-0
  3. Deng, J. et al. (2024) ‘Core features of callous–unemotional traits: A cross-cultural comparison of youth in four countries’, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry [Preprint]. doi:10.1007/s00787-023-02357-8.
  4. Batterham, P.J. et al. (2024) ‘Covid-19 infection associated with poorer mental health in a representative population sample’, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 177, p. 111588. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2023.111588.
  5. Shou, Y. et al. (2024) ‘Psychological mechanisms of the development of suicidal ideation: Longitudinal Cohort Study’, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 54(3), pp. 593–605. doi:10.1111/sltb.13060.
  6. Batterham, P.J. et al. (2024) ‘Testing a syndemics perspective on the effects of multiple adversities on depression and anxiety symptoms in a representative population sample’, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology [Preprint]. doi:10.1007/s00127-024-02638-w.
  7. Murray, K. et al. (2024) ‘Cognitive reappraisal moderates the protective effect of body satisfaction on Mental Health and wellbeing in adults: A prospective study during COVID-19 lockdown’, Journal of Affective Disorders, 351, pp. 268–277. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.253.
  8. Chia, A. et al. (2024) ‘Complexity of consumer acceptance to alternative protein foods in a multiethnic Asian population: A comparison of plant-based meat alternatives, cultured meat, and insect-based products’, Food Quality and Preference, 114, p. 105102. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2024.105102.
  9. Sivanathan, D., Bizumic, B. and Shou, Y. (2024) ‘The unified narcissism scale-revised: Testing incremental validity and shortening the measure’, Journal of Personality Assessment, pp. 1–14. doi:10.1080/00223891.2024.2346768.
  10. Mende, M. et al. (2024) ‘People, peace, prosperity, and the planet: A journey toward sustainable development in consumer research’, Journal of Consumer Research, 51(1), pp. 91–103. doi:10.1093/jcr/ucad068.
  11. Shou, Y. et al. (2024) ‘Measuring risk tolerance among Japanese adults and cross-national comparison of its role in covid-19 attitudes’, European Journal of Psychological Assessment [Preprint]. doi:10.1027/1015-5759/a000831.
  12. Shou, Y., Kuru, O., et al. (2024) ‘Mis- and disinformation’, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science [Preprint]. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199389407.013.521.
  13. Farrer, L.M. et al. (2023) ‘The factors associated with telehealth use and avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic: Longitudinal survey’, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25. doi:10.2196/43798.
  14. Shou, Y. et al. (2023) ‘Understanding Australian government risk communication early in the COVID-19 pandemic: Sociodemographics, risk attitudes and media consumption’, Journal of Health Communication, 28(4), pp. 254–263. doi:10.1080/10810730.2023.2197403.
  15. Shou, Y. et al. (2023) Data from an International Multi-Centre Study of Statistics and Mathematics Anxieties and Related Variables in University Students (the SMARVUS Dataset).
  16. Song, F. et al. (2023) ‘Moral judgments under uncertainty: Risk, ambiguity and commission bias’, Current Psychology, 43(11), pp. 9793–9804. doi:10.1007/s12144-023-05050-w.
  17. Tan, N. et al. (2023) ‘A bayesian model of the jumping-to-conclusions bias and its relationship to psychopathology’, Cognition and Emotion, 38(3), pp. 315–331. doi:10.1080/02699931.2023.2287091.
  18. Smithson, M., & Shou, Y. (2023). Flexible CDF-quantile distributions on the closed unit interval, with software and applications. Communications in Statistics - Theory and Methods, 53(11), 3876–3898. https://doi.org/10.1080/03610926.2023.2166352
  19. Tan, N., Shou, Y., Chen, J., & Christensen, B. (2022) Specificity of the Jumping-to-Conclusion Bias in Social Anxiety: An Account using the Bayesian Computational Modelling Approach.
  20. Shou, Y. et al. (2022) ‘From west to east: Recent advances in psychometrics and psychological instruments in Asia’, Chen Frontiers Research Topics [Preprint]. doi:10.3389/978-2-88974-563-0.
  21. Batterham, P.J. et al. (2022) ‘Patterns and predictors of alcohol use during the early stages of the covid‐19 pandemic in Australia: Longitudinal Cohort Study’, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 46(7), pp. 1248–1257. doi:10.1111/acer.14858.
  22. Zhang, X., Deng, J., Shou, Y., & Wang, M.-C. (2022). Longitudinal network structure of child psychopathy across development in Chinese Community Children. Current Psychology, 42(32), 28119–28129. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03799-0
  23. Banfield, M. et al. (2022) ‘Awareness and perceived helpfulness of mental health peer workers in a representative sample of the Australian Public’, Psychiatry Research Communications, 2(2), p. 100042. doi:10.1016/j.psycom.2022.100042.
  24. Shou, Y., Olney, J. and Wang, M.-C. (2022) ‘Cross-cultural assessment and comparisons of risk tolerance across domains’, Current Psychology, 42(18), pp. 15368–15380. doi:10.1007/s12144-022-02843-3.
  25. Smithson, M., Shou, Y., Dawel, A., Calear, A. L., Farrer, L., & Cherbuin, N. (2022). The psychological benefits of an uncertain world: Hope and optimism in the face of existential threat. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.749093
  26. Batterham, P. J., Calear, A. L., Shou, Y., Farrer, L. M., Gulliver, A., McCallum, S. M., & Dawel, A. (2022). Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Suicidal Ideation in a representative Australian population sample–longitudinal cohort study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 300, 385–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.01.022
  27. Shou, Y., Smithson, M., et al. (2022) ‘Risk tolerance and changes in coronavirus disease (COVID) related health behaviors: A longitudinal study.’, Health Psychology, 41(8), pp. 507–518. doi:10.1037/hea0001197.
  28. Shou, Y., De Silva, H.S. and Olney, J. (2022) ‘Attitudes toward ambiguous situations resemble the domain-specificity of attitudes toward risk’, Personality and Individual Differences, 195, p. 111667. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2022.111667.

ongoing projects

 
  1. "Understanding and measuring risk attitudes in Singapore" Understanding how people respond to uncertainty and risk as well as the causes and consequences of their responses is essential for managing and coping with uncertainty and risk, both individually and collectively. This project aims to understand risk attitudes across life domains among Singaporeans, and to develop a measurement tool of assessing risk attitudes for Singaporeans. This project will also investigate how risk attitudes relate to behaviours and mental health among Singaporeans.
  2. "Understanding health and medical decisions under uncertainty" Health and medical decision under uncertainty can be complex in real life. This project aims to systematically investigate the risk and benefit considerations and priorities in medical and health decisions. It also explores how risks and benefits of medical and health decisions can be best communicated. This project will provide a novel framework to understand the nature of decision-making in laypeople’s everyday health and medical settings.
  3. "Improving informed consent in clinical trial participation in Southeast Asia" What are the barriers of informed consent in Singapore, as well as other countries in Southeast Asia? What can we do to ease the burden of everyone in this process? This project aims to unpack these important issues by understanding perspectives from regulators, researchers, clinicians, and patients. Through the in-depth understanding of the experiences and challenges in informed consent faced by different groups, we aim to gain insights on the solutions to improve informed consent in the region.
  4. "Improving consent and decision-making in time-sensitive healthcare settings" Communicating risk in urgent medical situations is challenging and informed decisions can be difficult under time pressure. This project aims to understand Singaporeans’ experiences of decision-making and consent in time-sensitive medical settings. This project aims to bridge gaps between patients, healthcare providers, researchers, and regulators to promote effective risk communication in time-sensitive healthcare settings
  5. "Promoting risk communication and community engagement in clinical and public health research" The public’s trust and engagement in clinical research is essential for reducing costs of clinical research as well as improving short-term and long-term public health outcomes. We aim aims to identify and address the “perception gaps” between clinicians/researchers and the public, and to promote the public’s engagement are critical to improve communication in clinical settings and to facilitate recruitment in clinical research.
  6. "Risk propensity and substance use" Substance use and disorders pose significant global public health challenges, leading to considerable health burdens and societal consequences. Risk propensity has been identified as a critical factor influencing substance use behaviours. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the associations between risk propensity and substance use as well as disorders using a meta-analysis. Additionally, it aims to investigate potential factors that can alter the associations to further examine potential mechanisms underlying the link between risk propensity and substance use.
  7. "World Risk Poll and Mental Health Services" Quality mental health services are pivotal in addressing mental health issues worldwide. Despite this importance, many countries face challenges in providing accessible, high-quality mental health care. This project aims to analyse the Lloyd's Register Foundation World Risk Poll 2021, and data sourced from databases such as WHO and OECD to understand the relationship between mental health services and the public's worry about mental health issues.