Professor Dr. Ian Stephen

Biography

Ian Stephen is an Honorary Associate Professor at Macquarie University. He has completed his PhD in Psychology at the University of St Andrews, focusing on skin color and perceived health of human faces, alongside an MPhil from the University of Cambridge in Biological Anthropology, and a BSc (Hons) in Human Sciences from University College London. His research interests center around person perception, particularly the physiological and psychological mechanisms that underpin how observers extract information about others from their physical appearance, including face and body attributes. He is actively involved in research addressing body size misperception which can contribute to eating disorders. His teaching focuses on research methods in psychology and evolutionary psychology. He supervises a number of research students, exploring diverse topics related to body image, social perception, and evolutionary behavioral psychology, and has published numerous articles in leading journals on these subjects. He has been involved in significant research outputs and projects over the years, collaborating with various researchers on studies related to perception, body dissatisfaction, and health perceptions. Ian's work has been widely recognized and reported in media across various platforms, emphasizing the societal implications of his findings in body image and health.

Research Interests