Dr Suzanna Forwood

Suzanna Forwood For media enquiries please contact the Press Team
Director of the Research Centre for Better Living
Faculty:
Faculty of Science and Engineering
School:
Psychology, Sport and Sensory Science
Location:
Cambridge
Areas of Expertise:
Societies and Groups

Suzanna is Director of the Research Centre for Better Living, and cognitive psychologist interested in food choice, the factors that determine food choice and the tools available to improve the healthiness of food choices.

[email protected]

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Background

Suzanna joined ARU in 2015, after four years working at the Behaviour and Health Research Unit, University of Cambridge, with Prof Theresa Marteau. She is a member of the ARU Centre for Societies and Groups.

Prior to that, she worked as a College Lecturer at Newnham College Cambridge, and was a Trevelyan Junior Research Fellow at Selwyn College, Cambridge, researching computational models of cognitive function. She completed her PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience at Cambridge University with Prof Timothy Bussey.

Spoken Languages
  • English
  • French
Research interests
  • Physiological, psychological, and social determinants of food choice
  • Socio-demographic differences in food choice
  • Population level interventions for shifting food choice
  • Using online testing to assess food choice
Teaching
  • Becoming a Researcher (Level 4)
  • Quantitative Research Methods (Level 7)
  • Consumer Analysis (Level 7)
Qualifications
  • PhD - Cambridge
  • BA (Hons) Physiology & Psychology - Cambridge
Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange
  • Scientific consultant for www.Cauldron.sc
  • Ad hoc reviewer for Appetite, PLOS ONE, IJBNPA
Selected recent publications

Forwood, S. E. (2025) Solving the diet problem: meals as food choice heuristics for behaviour change', Current Opinion in Food Science, 101317. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cofs.2025.101317

Terry, J., Ross, R. M., Nagy, T., Salgado, M., Garrido-Vásquez, P., Sarfo, J. O., . . . 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. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5334/jopd.80

Zizzo, D. J., Parravano, M., Nakamura, R., Forwood, S. and Suhrcke, M. (2021) 'The impact of taxation and signposting on diet: an online field study with breakfast cereals and soft drinks', Experimental Economics, 24, pp. 1294-1324. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-020-09698-0

Gao, Z., Bunten, A., Porter, L., Sanders, J. G., Sallis, A., Payne Riches, S., . . . Forwood, S. (2021) 'A randomised experiment of health, cost and social norm message frames to encourage acceptance of swaps in a simulation online supermarket', PLOS ONE, 16(2), e0246455. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246455

Preston, C., Drydakis, N., Hughes, S., Forwood, S. E. and Meads, C. (2019) 'What Are the Structural Barriers to Planning for Later Life? A Scoping Review of the Literature', Social Inclusion, 7(3), pp. 17-26. Available at: https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v7i3.1883

Smith, A. D., Fildes, A., Forwood, S. E., Cooke, L. and Llewellyn, C. H. (2017) 'The individual environment, not the family is the most important influence on preferences for common non-alcoholic beverages in adolescence, Scientific Reports, 7, 16822. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17020-x

Medic, N., Ziauddeen, H., Forwood, S. E., Davies, K., Ahern, A. L., Jebb, S. A., . . . Fletcher, P. (2016) 'The presence of real food usurps hypothetical health value judgment in overweight people', eNeuro, 3(2), ENEURO.0025-16.2016. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0025-16.2016

Forwood, S. E., Ahern, A. L., Marteau, T. M. and Jebb, S. A. (2015) 'Offering within-category food swaps to reduce energy density of food purchases: a study using an experimental online supermarket', International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 12(85). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-015-0241-1

Forwood, S. E., Ahern, A. L., Hollands, G. J., Ng, Y. -L. and Marteau, T. M. (2015) 'Priming healthy eating. You can't prime all the people all of the time', Appetite, 89, pp. 93-102. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.01.018

Forwood, S. E., Walker, A. D., Hollands, G. J. and Marteau, T. M. (2013) 'Choosing between an Apple and a Chocolate Bar: the Impact of Health and Taste Labels', PLOS ONE, 8(10), e77500. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077500

Recent presentations and conferences

Attendee at British Feeding and Drinking Group (BFDG) and Society of Study of Ingestive Behaviour (SSIB).

Media experience

Media Spokesperson for the British Psychological Society, mostly live chat radio (e.g. BBC Radio Cambridgeshire (Dotty McLeod), BBC Radio Scotland (Drive Time) and pre-recorded science radio shows (Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry, BBC Radio 4).

Food Matters Live podcasts.