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Yiyun Shou

Yiyun Shou

Lead Scientist (Health and Lifestyle),

yiyun.shou@nus.edu.sg
Mental Health

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. Zhu, G., Shou, Y., & Smithson, M. (2025). An investigation of the convergent validity and test–retest reliability of three uncertainty preference measures. Behavior Research Methods, 57(8). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-025-02729-9
  2. Shou, Y., Gulliver, A., Farrer, L. M., Dawel, A., Newman, E., & Smithson, M. (2025). An Experimental Investigation of Treatment Decisions under Ambiguity and Conflict. Medical Decision Making. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989x251346853
  3. Wang, C., Yeo, J. E., & Shou, Y. (2025). Association between risk propensity and substance use: A multilevel meta-analysis. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 271, 112640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2025.112640
  4. Monaghan, C., Shou, Y., Mewton, P., Quayle, A., & Dawel, A. (2025). The Expression Regulation Scale (ERS): Validation of Three Emotion Domains for Expressive Norms with Close and Distant Others in Private and Public Situations. Assessment. https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911251333664
  5. Shou, Y., Lee, L. H., Yeo, J. E., & Smithson, M. (2025). Communicating certainty via verbal probability phrases: comparing health contexts with no context. BMC Primary Care, 26(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-024-02687-9
  6. 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
  7. Shou, Y., Smith, D., Ng, J. X., Battersby, M., Chen, C., & Fong, N. P. (2024). Assessing Disease Self-Management in Multi-Ethnic Patients with Chronic Conditions and Evaluating Psychometric Properties of the Partners in Health Scale. Social Science & Medicine, 363, 117490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117490
  8. Shou, Y., Yeo, J. E., Pang, A. S., Paterson, D. L., & Mo, Y. (2024). Informed consent and risk communication challenges in antimicrobial clinical trials: a scoping review. BMJ Open, 14(11), e082096. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-082096
  9. 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
  10. Shou, Y., Kuru, O., Newman, E., & Smithson, M. (2024). Mis- and disinformation. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389407.013.521
  11. Shou, Y., Liu, F., Takemura, K., & Olney, J. (2024). Measuring risk tolerance among Japanese adults and Cross-National comparison of its role in COVID-19 attitudes. European Journal of Psychological Assessment. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000831
  12. Sivanathan, D., Bizumic, B., & Shou, Y. (2024). The Unified Narcissism Scale-Revised: Testing incremental validity and shortening the measure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2024.2346768
  13. Chia, A., Shou, Y., Wong, N. M. Y., Cameron-Smith, D., Sim, X., Van Dam, R. M., & Chong, M. F. (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, 105102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2024.105102
  14. Murray, K., Dawel, A., Batterham, P. J., Gulliver, A., Farrer, L. M., Harris, R. M. R., Shou, Y., & Calear, A. L. (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, 268–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.253
  15. Batterham, P. J., Dawel, A., Murray, K., Shou, Y., Gulliver, A., Cherbuin, N., & Farrer, L. M. (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, 59(11), 2009–2017. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-024-02638-w
  16. Shou, Y., Gulliver, A., Farrer, L. M., Dawel, A., Burns, R., Calear, A. L., Cherbuin, N., & Batterham, P. J. (2024). Psychological mechanisms of the development of suicidal ideation: Longitudinal cohort study. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 54(3), 593–605. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.13060
  17. Deng, J., Shou, Y., Wang, M., Allen, J. L., Gao, Y., & Hawes, D. J. (2024). Core features of callous–unemotional traits: a cross-cultural comparison of youth in four countries. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 33(8), 2681–2693. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-023-02357-8
  18. Batterham, P. J., Dawel, A., Shou, Y., Gulliver, A., Cherbuin, N., Calear, A. L., Farrer, L. M., & Monaghan, C. (2024). COVID-19 infection associated with poorer mental health in a representative population sample. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 177, 111588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2023.111588
  19. Tan, N., Shou, Y., Chen, J., & Christensen, B. K. (2023). A Bayesian model of the jumping-to-conclusions bias and its relationship to psychopathology. Cognition & Emotion, 38(3), 315–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2023.2287091
  20. Cao, X., Somerville, M. P., Shou, Y., Xue, Z., & Allen, J. L. (2023). Callous-unemotional traits and child response to teacher rewards, discipline, and instructional methods in Chinese preschools: a classroom observation study. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, 52(3), 339–352. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-023-01137-x
  21. Song, F., Shou, Y., Olney, J., & Yeung, F. S. H. (2023). Moral judgments under uncertainty: risk, ambiguity and commission bias. Current Psychology, 43(11), 9793–9804. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05050-w
  22. Shou, Y., Olney, J., & Wang, M. (2022). Cross-cultural assessment and comparisons of risk tolerance across domains. Current Psychology, 42(18), 15368–15380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02843-3
  23. Shou, Y., Terry, J., Ross, R. M., Nagy, T., Salgado, M., Garrido-Vásquez, P., Sarfo, J. O., Cooper, S., Buttner, A. C., Lima, T. J. S., Öztürk, İ., Akay, N., Santos, F. H., Artemenko, C., Copping, L. T., Elsherif, M. M., Milovanović, I., Cribbie, R. A., Drushlyak, M. G., Swainston, K., ... Field, A. P. (2023). Data from an international multi-centre study of statistics and mathematics anxieties and related variables in university students (the SMARVUS Dataset). Journal of Open Psychology Data, 11(1), 8. https://doi.org/10.5334/jopd.80
  24. Shou, Y., Farrer, L. M., Gulliver, A., Newman, E., Batterham, P. J., & Smithson, M. (2023). Understanding Australian government risk communication early in the COVID-19 pandemic: sociodemographics, risk attitudes and media consumption. Journal of Health Communication, 28(4), 254–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2023.2197403
  25. Farrer, L. M., Batterham, P. J., Gulliver, A., Morse, A., Calear, A. L., McCallum, S., Banfield, M., Shou, Y., Newman, E., & Dawel, A. (2023). The factors associated with telehealth use and avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic: Longitudinal survey. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25, e43798. https://doi.org/10.2196/43798
  26. Smithson, M., & Shou, Y. (2023). Flexible CDF-quantile distributions on the closed unit interval, with software and applications. Communication in Statistics – Theory and Methods, 53(11), 3876–3898. https://doi.org/10.1080/03610926.2023.2166352
  27. 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. Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Cognitive Modelling (ICCM 2022).
  28. Zhang, X., Deng, J., Shou, Y., & Wang, M. (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
  29. Shou, Y., De Silva, H. S., & Olney, J. (2022). Attitudes toward ambiguous situations resemble the domain-specificity of attitudes toward risk. Personality and Individual Differences, 195, 111667. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111667
  30. Shou, Y., Smithson, M., Gulliver, A., Murray, K., Banfield, M., Harris, R. M. R., McCallum, S. M., Farrer, L. M., Calear, A. L., & Batterham, P. J. (2022). Risk tolerance and changes in coronavirus disease (COVID) related health behaviors: A longitudinal study. Health Psychology, 41(8), 507–518. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0001197
  31. Banfield, M., Shou, Y., Morse, A. R., Gulliver, A., Calear, A. L., McCallum, S., Farrer, L., Dawel, A., & Batterham, P. J. (2022). Awareness and perceived helpfulness of mental health peer workers in a representative sample of the Australian public. Psychiatry Research Communications, 2(2), 100042. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psycom.2022.100042
  32. Batterham, P. J., Shou, Y., Farrer, L. M., Murray, K., Morse, A. R., Gulliver, A., Slade, T., Newton, N. C., & Calear, A. L. (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), 1248–1257. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.14858
  33. Shou, Y., et al. (2022). From West to East: Recent advances in psychometrics and psychological instruments in Asia. In Chen Frontiers Research Topics. https://doi.org/10.3389/978-2-88974-563-0
  34. 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

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.

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