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Dr Roshan Rai

Job: Senior Lecturer

Faculty: Health and Life Sciences

School/department: School of Applied Social Sciences

Address: De Montfort, University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH.

T: +44 (0)116 257 7737

E: rrai@dmu.ac.uk

W: /hls

 

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Personal profile

Dr Rai’s research is primarily focused on cyberpsychology. This includes research looking at online social interaction, social media and psychological wellbeing, digital wellbeing, as well as how the Internet provides a social space populated by human values, attitudes and ideas.

Dr Rai has also conducted research looking at issues of social cognition, or how people understand and think about the social world. This includes research looking at how social cognition develops through childhood and adolescence.

Research group affiliations

Psychology

Publications and outputs


  • dc.title: How people use Instagram and making social comparisons are associated with psychological wellbeing dc.contributor.author: Rai, Roshan; Cheng, M.; Scullion, Hannah dc.description.abstract: There is a popular notion that social media is a detrimental force in modern society. Previous research has often examined social media from a perspective of dysfunction as opposed to investigating more positive aspects of human functioning. To better investigate positive human functioning, the current research adopts a psychological wellbeing perspective to focus on Instagram, a largely image-based form of social media, and how Instagram might be related to a self-reported ability to flourish (flourishing) and subjective feelings of wellbeing (i.e., feeling positive emotions and negative emotions). A sample of 295 undergraduate students (M age = 20; SD age = 3.34; 265 females and 30 males) completed questionnaire-based measures over an online research platform examining time spent on Instagram, Instagram activities, social comparisons and psychological wellbeing. Self-reported time spent on Instagram a day was not associated with any of the three psychological wellbeing measures. But how people used Instagram was related to psychological wellbeing. Using Instagram to interact with others was positively associated with both flourishing and positive emotions, whilst browsing on Instagram was positively associated with positive emotions. Furthermore, making downward comparisons whilst using Instagram was associated with positive emotions. Conversely, making upward comparisons when using Instagram was negatively associated with flourishing and positive emotions, and positively associated with negative emotions. Overall, the research would suggest that using Instagram is not always associated with detriments to wellbeing. But rather, how people use Instagram can be associated with either higher or lower self-reports of psychological wellbeing. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link

  • dc.title: Materialism and Facebook usage: Could materialistic and non-materialistic values be linked to using Facebook differently? dc.contributor.author: Rai, Roshan; Blocksidge, Jade; Cheng, M. dc.description.abstract: Materialism is a set of human values that places importance on the symbolic value of money or material goods. Furthermore, materialistic values have been associated with Internet usage, and also social media usage. The current research investigates this relationship further by specifically examining whether those with more materialistic values might use social media (Facebook) in different ways to those with less materialistic values. Self-report measures were collected from 108 participants. It was found that the higher the importance (extrinsic importance) attached to materialistic values, the more time spent posting photos, but the less time spent chatting on Facebook messenger and less time posting links. The higher the perceived likelihood (extrinsic likelihood) of achieving materialistic values, the more reported time posting status updates, but the less time spent chatting on Facebook messenger and less time posting links. Conversely, the higher the importance attached to non-materialistic values (intrinsic importance) the more reported time chatting on Facebook messenger, more time spent posting links, but less time spent posting photos. And the higher the reported likelihood of achieving non-materialistic values (intrinsic likelihood) the more reported time chatting on Facebook messenger, more time spent posting links, but less time spent posting status updates. However, neither self-reported time checking Facebook, nor self-reported attention paid to advertising were related to either materialistic or non-materialistic values. Overall, the findings indicate that certain activities on Facebook can be associated with both materialistic and non-materialistic values. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.

  • dc.title: Pink Pearl dc.contributor.author: Scase, M. O.; Rai, Roshan; Farrington, J.; Burr, J.

  • dc.title: Materialistic values, brand knowledge and the mass media: Hours spent on the Internet predicts materialistic values and brand knowledge dc.contributor.author: Rai, Roshan; Chauhan, C.; Cheng, M. dc.description.abstract: Materialism can be seen as the importance people attached to material goods, as well as the belief in the desirable symbolic importance goods have (e.g., to status, human happiness etc.). And the media has often been associated with materialistic values. The current study investigates the relationship between some traditional forms of mass media (television, newspapers and magazines), and a newer form of mass media: the Internet. Using self-report measures, 195 participants indicated how many hours a day they spent watching television, reading newspapers/magazines, and using the Internet. It was found that hours spent using the Internet was positively associated with materialistic values as measured by the Aspiration Index. Using a more concrete task, hours spent using the Internet and materialistic values were significantly predictors of participants’ ability to identify brand logos. This provides evidence that materialistic values, as well as specific knowledge of brands, can be associated to Internet usage. Perhaps surprisingly, however, television viewing was negatively associated with materialistic values. In the current research, the Internet (a newer form of mass media) was more strongly associated with greater materialistic values and the ability to identify brand logos than older forms of mass media. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.

  • dc.title: User Reactions to Failures and Frustrations within Cyber Environments – Systematic Coding of Previous Work (URM Coding) dc.contributor.author: Scase, M. O.; Hadlington, L. J.; Rai, Roshan

  • dc.title: Users Reactions to Failures and Frustrations Within Cyber Environments – Literature Review Update dc.contributor.author: Scase, M. O.; Hadlington, L. J.; Rai, Roshan; Westmacott, M.; Turner, C.

  • dc.title: Egocentrism and cyberbullying: Imaginary audience and personal fable ideation predict cyberbullying and cyber victimisation in adolescents and emerging adults. dc.contributor.author: Rai, Roshan; Smith, Emily; Svirydzenka, N. dc.description.abstract: Egocentrism and cyberbullying: Imaginary audience and personal fable ideation predict cyberbullying and cyber victimisation in adolescents and emerging adults. Objectives: The imaginary audience and personal fable, or the egocentric beliefs in being the centre-of-attention and special respectively, are prominent in adolescence and emerging adulthood. The main focus of this research is to determine whether egocentric beliefs are associated with engaging in cyberbullying behaviour or being a victim of cyberbullying. Furthermore, the research also aimed to determine whether cyberbullying and victim behaviour differed according to age. Design: The study employed a cross-sectional questionnaire-based design, investigating whether cyberbullying behaviour or perceived cyber victimisation could be predicted from the imaginary audience, personal fable, and age. Methods: Fifty-two 14-15 year olds (attending school) and fifty 18-25 year olds (attending University) completed questionnaires measuring cyberbullying and cyber victim behaviour, the personal fable, the imaginary audience, and basic demographic information. Results: Multiple regression analysis showed that imaginary audience (β=.355, t(101)=3.97, p<.001), and age (β=.249, t(101)=2.80, p=.006) positively predicted cyberbullying behaviour. Cyber victim behaviour was positively predicted by the imaginary audience (β=.369, t(101)=3.98, p<.001) and negatively predicted by the personal fable (β=-.238, t(101)=-2.57, p=.012). Independent samples t-tests confirmed that emerging adults cyberbullied more than adolescents (t(100)= -2.32, p=.022; emerging adult mean = 6.58, adolescent mean = 4.50). Conclusions: Those higher in imaginary audience reported higher levels of both cyber victim and cyberbullying behaviour, whilst those higher in personal fable reported being a victim of cyberbullying less. Perhaps surprisingly, emerging adults cyber bullied more than adolescents. Aspects of developmental change, specifically egocentric ideation, could have importance to cyberbullying perpetration and victimisation.

  • dc.title: Turned On, Tuned In, Dropped Out:The Impact of Ever Present Technology on Human Behaviour and Decision Making. dc.contributor.author: Scase, M. O.; Hadlington, L. J.; Rai, Roshan

  • dc.title: Adolescent Egocentrism and the Illusion of Transparency: Are Adolescents as Egocentric as we Might Think? dc.contributor.author: Rai, Roshan; Mitchell, Peter; Kadar, Tasleem; Mackenzie, Laura dc.description.abstract: The illusion of transparency, or people’s tendency to believe their thoughts and feelings as more apparent to others than they actually are, was used to investigate adolescent egocentrism. Contrary to previous research demonstrating heightened adolescent egocentrism, adolescents exhibited similar levels of egocentrism to adults. In experiment 1, 13-14 year-olds and adult participants both truthfully described and lied about a series of pictures. Both adolescent and adult liars indicated that they were more confident that other participants would know when they were lying, than other participants actually indicated. In experiment 2, 13-14 year-olds, 15-16 year-olds and adult participants read to an audience. The illusion of transparency effect manifested itself differently according to gender: Female participants indicating that they looked more nervous than audiences thought, whilst male participants indicating that they were more entertaining than audiences thought. Results were interpreted using simulation theory, and suggested that adolescents might not be as egocentric as previously thought.

  • dc.title: The illusion-of-transparency and episodic memory: are people egocentric or do people think lies are easy to detect? dc.contributor.author: Rai, Roshan; Mitchell, Peter; Faelling, Joanne dc.description.abstract: The illusion-of-transparency seems like an egocentric bias, in which people believe that their inner feelings, thoughts and perspectives are more apparent to others than they actually are. In Experiment 1, participants read out true and false episodic memories to an audience. Participants overestimated the number of people who would think that they were the liar, and they overestimated how many would correctly identify the liar. Experiment 2 found that with lessened task demands, and by using a scale of doubt, participants distinguished lies from truthful statements (albeit with a degree of error). Over the two experiments, results indicated that people have some ability to distinguish lies from truth (in illusion-of-transparency tasks), although people often overestimate this ability, and participants sometimes think their own lies are easier to detect than is really the case. dc.description: Invovled a colloboration with an academic from the University of Notingham, Malaysian Campus.

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Key research outputs

 

Research interests/expertise

Cyberpsychology

Wellbeing

Social Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Areas of teaching

Cyberpsychology

Psychological Well-being (MSc)

Developmental Psychology

 

Conference attendance

Rai, R. & Mitchell, P (2001). The animate-being false belief task. Paper presented at the Psychology Postgraduates Affair Group Conference, Sheffield, U.K.

Rai, R. & Mitchell, P. (2002). The animate-being false belief task. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, 5-8 September, Brighton, U.K.

Rai, R. & Mitchell, P. (2003). The animate-being true and false belief tasks. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, 10-13 September, Coventry, U.K.

Rai, R. & Mitchell, P. (2005). Inference by elimination, syllogistic inference, and the cartoon character inference task. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, 5-8 September, Edinburgh, U.K.

De Lillo, C., Rai, R., & Storer, L. (2006). Spatial working memory capacity for structured and unstructured tapping sequences in children. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, 7-9 September, London, U.K.

De Lillo, C., Rai, R., & Storer, L. (2007). A developmental analysis of spatial working memory capacity for structured and unstructured Corsi sequences. Paper presented at the Experimental Psychology Society Meeting, 4-5 January, London, U.K.

Rai, R. Widdowson, J., & Mitchell, P. (2008). Do people think that it is easy to tell when somebody if lying? The illusion of transparency and episodic memory. Paper presented at the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group, Derby, U.K.

Rai, R., Widdowson, J., & Mitchell, P. (2010). The illusion of transparency: are people egocentric or do people think lies are easy to detect? Paper presented at ASEAN Regional Union of Psychological Societies (3rd Congress), 2-3 October Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Rai, R. & Attrill, A. (2014). Representations of the Self and Personality: Who is more likely to use Video Communication Online? Poster presented at the 16th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction, 22-27 June, Crete, Greece.

Rai, R., Mitchell, M., Herrick, C, & Patel, M. (2015). Human egocentrism: Levels of personal fable and its relationship with the illusion of transparency and the self-serving bias. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Social/Developmental Section Conference, 9-11 September, Manchester U.K.

Rai, R. & Attrill, A. (2015). Egocentrism and computer-mediated-communication: The illusion of transparency and its effects when communicating over instant messaging, video, and face-to-face. Poster presented at the Social Networking in Cyberspace Conference, 3 September, Wolverhampton, U.K.

Rai, R., Kessling, S., & Billing, N. (2016). Egocentrism and psychological well-being: can the personal fable actually benefit adolescents and emerging adults. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, 14-16 September, Belfast, U.K.

Rai, R., Smith, E., & Svirydzenka, N. (2017). Egocentrism and cyberbullying: Imaginary audience and personal fable ideation predict cyberbullying and cyber victimisation in adolescents and emerging adults. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, 13-15 September, Stratford-upon-Avon, U.K.

Rai, R., Blocksidge, J. Cheng, M. (2020). Materialism and Facebook usage: Could materialistic and non-materialistic values be linked to using Facebook differently? Paper presented at the 22nd International Conference on Human-Computer-Interaction, 19-24th July, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Rai, R., Chauhan, C., & Cheng, M. (2021). Materialism and the mass media: Hours spent on the Internet predicts materialistic values and brand knowledge. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Cyberpsychology Section Conference, 6-7th July.

Smith, E., Wilson, A., Scase, M., & Rai, R. (2021). Exploring the perceptions of cyberbullying and cyber aggression in emerging adults. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Cyberpsychology Section Conference, 6-7th July.

Recent research outputs

 

Externally funded research grants information

£35,935 (Co-Investigator) Defence Science Technology Laboratory, MOD. The Effects of Video as a Medium for Live Communication and Interaction, 2014 (PI: A. Attrill, CIs: R. Rai, M. Whitty).

£29,885 (Co-Investigator) Defence Science Technology Laboratory, MOD. Turned On, Tuned In, Dropped Out: The Impact of Ever Present Technology on Human Behaviour and Decision Making, 2017 (PI: M. Scase, CIs: L. Hadlington, R. Rai).

£29960 (Co-Investigator) Defence Science Technology Laboratory, MOD. User Reactions to Failures and Frustrations Within Cyber Environments, 2018 (PI: M. Scase, CIs: L. Hadlington, R. Rai, C. Turner, M. Westmacott).

£41644 (Co-investigator) Defence and Science Technology Laboratory, MOD. User Reactions to Failures and Frustrations Within Cyber Environments - Systematic Coding of Previous Work (URM Coding), 2018 (PI: M. Scase, L. Hadlington, R. Rai).

Editorial Boards/Reviewing Activities

Dr Rai has reviewed grant applications and end of award reports for the Economic and Social Research Council. Dr Rai has peer reviewed articles for journals, such as Current Psychology, the Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, and Computers in Human Behavior.