Professor Christopher Beedie

Chris is an Honorary Professor and an affiliate of the Cognition & Neuroscience Research Group. His applied work focuses on understanding and enhancing human performance in high-pressure, competitive, or extreme environments. He has worked at the interface of academic/scientific research and real world/applied practice in areas such as sport, business, medicine, and law, and in public, private, and third sectors.

Chris’s area of expertise is the interaction of brain and body in human performance, especially in the context of implicit self-regulatory processes such as emotion and mood. Over and above studying them conceptually, for example how and why they differ, their physiological mechanisms, how they can be measured, and the discrete strategies required to optimise either, he also examines their role in applied settings such as gut instincts (emotions & the body subliminally affecting the brain) or in placebo effects (the brain subliminally affecting the emotions & the body). Having an academic background in physiology and biology alongside psychology and neuroscience, he conducts research from an interdisciplinary and holistic perspective, often using models such as drug use, intense physical demands, or high-risk environments. Current experimental projects include the effects of informational cues on physical performance (with The Institute of Human Sciences at The University of Oxford) and the effects of deceptive information on physiological responses to low oxygen (with the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil). Applied projects include identification of potentially important information contained in emotional cues (gut instincts) in law enforcement and intelligence officers, and the regulation of mood and emotion by individuals in high risk professions.   

Recent publications and work in preparation

• Beedie, C. J. (In Preparation, Oct 2025). Emotional decision making: Recognition and resolution of expert ‘gut instincts’ in high-risk professions. Cognition & Emotion
• Beedie, C. J. (In Preparation, Oct 2025). Distinctions between emotion and mood in theory and practice. Brain Sciences,
• Davis, A. J., Greenhouse-Tucknott, A., Beedie, C., & Cohen, E. (In Review, Sept. 2025). Social support reduces perceptions of fatigue while increasing energy expenditure and outputs during physical activity. Psychological Science.
• Hurst, P., & Beedie, C. (Eds.). (2023). Placebo Effects in Sport and Exercise (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003229001
• Beedie, C. J. (2023). Do I think or do I feel a placebo effect? Placebo effects and emotion in sport. In Hurst, P., & Beedie, C. (Eds.). (2023). Placebo Effects in Sport and Exercise (1st ed.). Routledge.
• Beedie, C. J. (2023). Is it OK to recommend complementary or alternative medicine even though I know it's a placebo? Why the neurobiology of the placebo effect does not legitimise the use of CAM. In Hurst, P., & Beedie, C. (Eds.). (2023). Placebo Effects in Sport and Exercise (1st ed.). Routledge.