Dr Bryony Payne — Birkbeck, University of London

Overview

Biography

Dr Bryony Payne is interested in self-representation, how we understand and infer the mental states of others, and how group membership shapes both of these processes, ultimately seeking to uncover the psychological mechanisms that enable — or impede — mutual understanding across societal divides.

Dr Bryony Payne joined Birkbeck, University of London as a Postdoctoral Researcher in 2025, where they investigate whether – and how – workplace friendships with diverse others can reduce wider societal tensions. As a cognitive psychologist, their work uses dyadic analyses and social network analyses to examine how intergroup friendships formed in the workplace shape people’s representations of, attitudes toward, and behaviours toward outgroup members (e.g., people of a different race, sexuality, or neurotype).

Prior to this, Dr Bryony Payne spent four years at King’s College London in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, working on two major research programmes with Dr Caroline Catmur and Professor Geoff Bird (University of Oxford). First, as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on a John Templeton–funded project, where they investigated how cultural evolution shapes human understanding — specifically, how adults model others’ thoughts and feelings, why these capacities break down for out-group members, and how they can be restored. Later, they worked on a King’s Together–funded project Minds in the Machine, which aimed to improve mental state inference in artificial intelligence and to enhance understanding between people with different life experiences, including those with and without histories of childhood adversity.

Dr Bryony Payne completed their PhD at University College London in 2021, examining how people represent the self through their own voice, and the roles of ownership, agency, and self-bias in how people process identity-relevant auditory information.

Qualifications

PhD in Psychology, University College London, 2021
MSc in Neuroscience & Linguistics (Distinction), University College London, 2018
MA in Endangered Languages and Cultures (Distinction), SOAS, University of London, 2016
BA (Hons) in Linguistics (First Class), University of Brighton, 2014

Honours and awards

Young Researcher and Innovator Conference Grant (€1600), COST - European Cooperation in Science and Technology, November 2025
Open Research Awards, 2024 , King's College London, November 2025
Early Career Research Award (£2500), King's College London, November 2025
King’s Education Award, 2024, King's College London, November 2024
Super Supervisor, 2024, King's College London, November 2024

Research

Research interests

Mental representation, e.g. How we mentally represent ourselves and others; what information shapes these representations; how they can be changed or updated; and how we use them to understand, predict, and interact with other people.
Mental state inference and theory of mind
Outgroup perception and categorisation, e.g. How we perceive others as members of an in-group or an out-group, and how this shapes our ability and propensity to understand them, or potentially dehumanise them
Cultural evolution and social learning
Interactions between cognitive and social mechanisms, e.g. How cognitive processes and social contexts jointly contribute to mutual understanding, social cohesion, and the reduction of misunderstanding between people.
Intergroup contact and stereotype change

Research overview

Dr Bryony Payne's research investigates how people mentally represent both themselves and others; how this affects people's understanding of people's intentions, values, and beliefs and how social group boundaries shape this process. Much of their work explores why misunderstandings arise between people with different backgrounds or life experiences — and how these gaps can be bridged.

Their current research at Birkbeck examines whether diverse friendships formed in the workplace can reduce wider societal tensions. Particularly, they are investigating how meaningful intergroup friendships can influence attitudes, tolerance, and support for the rights of out-group members. This work connects closely with the intergroup contact research, focusing on how positive interactions with one out-group member may generalise beyond the initial interaction to other groups in society.

Prior to joining Birkbeck, they held postdoctoral roles at King’s College London researching how cultural evolution (i.e. what people learn socially from others) shapes adults’ models of others’ minds, particularly when interacting with out-group members. Latterly, as part of Minds in the Machine, they examined how artificial agents might better infer human mental states and how people with differing life experiences — such as those with and without childhood trauma — can more accurately understand one another.

Dr Bryony Payne's doctoral research at UCL investigated self-representation through the voice, examining how ownership, agency, and self-bias shape the processing of identity-relevant auditory information.

They use behavioural experimental (quantitative) methods, more recently with dyadic designs and social network analyses. They collaborate nationally and internationally with researchers working on intergroup relations, cognitive modelling, cultural evolution, and social learning, with the overarching aim of improving mutual understanding and reducing societal polarisation.

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

At Birkbeck, Dr Bryony Payne supervises MSc students in the Business School on the MSc Organisational Psychology and MSc Human Resource Management degrees.

Further, they supervise BSc students on Psychology and Neuroscience degrees at King's College London in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience.

Teaching

While they am not teaching in 2025-2026, they have previously taught on the following modules at University College London:

Development of social cognition
Neuroanatomy
Neurolinguistics
Research methods (i.e. experimental design and advanced statistics)
Designing & running online behavioural studies

Publications

External Repositories

ORCID

Business and community

Outreach

Payne, B. (2024, September 26). Bridging the gap: Why we misunderstand people who differ from ourselves. Inspire the Mind. https://www.inspirethemind.org/post/bridging-the-gap-why-we-misunderstand-people-who-differ-from-ourselves

Payne, B., & Kazamia, E. (2024, September 11). We’re Bad at Understanding Our Political Opponents. Nautilus Magazine: Psychology. Retrieved from https://nautil.us/were-bad-at-understanding-our-political-opponents-856730/

Payne, B.*, & Catmur, C. (2024, August 28). People think they are much better at understanding others than they actually are: New research. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/people-think-they-are-much-better-at-understanding-others-than-they-actually-are-new-research-236273

Interview with the Experimental Psychology Society (2020)
https://eps.ac.uk/eps-poster-prize-interview-bryony-payne/

Researcher spotlight interview with Gorilla Behavioural Experiment Builder (2019) https://gorilla.sc/spotlights/bryony-payne