Dr Steve Sharman is a Reader in Psychology in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from University of East London (UEL), an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from University College London (UCL) and a PhD in Experimental Neuropsychology from the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining Loughborough, he has held academic posts at King’s College London, the University of East London, and the University of Lincoln.
Dr Sharman is internationally recognised for his research on gambling and behavioural addictions, with a specific focus on the influence of product design in the development and maintenance of gambling disorder. He has also worked on projects investigating the social and economic costs of gambling, and the relationship between gambling and significant harms such as suicide and homelessness. As an Experimental Psychologist, he is interested in the relationship between individual susceptibility, product design, and environment in addictive behaviours. As a secondary research area, Steve is also interested in the psychology of football supporters, and the relationship between fandom and addiction.
Steve has secured over £1.5 million in academic fellowship funding, has served in a number of editorial roles, and on national and international advisory groups. He was a member of the recently disbanded Advisory Board for Safer Gambling, and group of academic experts appointed to advise the Gambling Commission. He is also a Derby County supporter, and watches a lot of non-league football.
Dr Sharman’s research programme is primarily focused on the interaction between individual susceptibility, product design, and environmental factors in the development and maintenance of gambling disorder, using virtual reality. He is also working closely with NHS gambling clinics to incorporate virtual reality based treatment modules into existing CBT treatment programmes to improve the efficacy of gambling treatment.
Steve is also lead investigator on a large scale project that is utilising a large treatment database to retrospectively calculate the social and economic cost of disordered gambling in the UK. He is also works on projects relating to assessment of primary care in screening for gambling harm, and gambling related suicide.
Steve takes a lead role in the integration of Lived Experience into gambling research. He created the Lived Experience Research Hub (LERH), a website that links researchers with Lived Experience experts, the Lived Experience Access Fund (LEAF), a fund dedicated to removing barriers to access for those with Lived Experience, and the Minimum Standards Framework, a set of guiding principles for working with Lived Experience. He is also co-lead of the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling (AFSG) Outreach Committee, and lead of the Society for the Study of Addiction Lived Experience working group.
Steve is a member of the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling (AFSG). The AFSG is a group of academic researchers dedicated to advancing the research needed to effectively prevent, reduce, and address gambling harm. The purpose of the AFSG is to act as a coordinated body to assert the importance of rigorous, independent research to prevent, reduce, and address gambling harm in the UK. Steve is co-lead of the Outreach Committee.
Steve is also a trustee for the Society for the Study of Addiction where he leads the Lived Experience panel and is a member of the Conflict of Interest review panel.
Steve is also co-founder and co-Executive Chair of the Current Advances in Gambling Research conference (CAGR). CAGR is a large, independently funded, international gambling conference that attracts delegates from across the world. First hosted in London, the conference has since been held in Swansea, Amsterdam, and Glasgow, and this year will be in Helsinki. At CAGR we have also introduced a low and middle income country bursary (LMIC) that enables researchers from outside the global north to attend.