Prof Richard Wiseman is based at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, and has gained an international reputation for research into quirky areas of psychology, including deception, humour, luck and the paranormal.

Prof Wiseman has written The Luck Factor – a best selling book exploring the lives and minds of lucky people. His latest book, Quirkology, explores the curious science of everyday life, including the psychology of lying, love, and laughter.

A passionate advocate for science, Prof Wiseman is well known for his media appearances, high-profile talks, live performances, and large-scale studies. Over 1 million people have taken part in his mass participation experiments, and his YouTube channel has received over 5 million views. Prof Wiseman also regularly acts as a creative consultant for print, broadcast and new media.

Use the head at the top of the page to discover more about Prof Wiseman's work, and visit the Quirkology site for his online experiments and YouTube videos.

For over twenty years, psychologist Richard Wiseman has examined the quirky science of everyday life. In Quirkology, he navigates the oddities of human behavior, explaining the tell-tale signs that give away a liar, the secret science behind speed-dating and personal ads, and what a person’s sense of humor reveals about the innermost workings of his or her mind—all along paying tribute to others who have carried out similarly weird and wonderful work. Wiseman’s research has involved secretly observing people as they go about their daily business, conducting unusual experiments in art exhibitions and music concerts, and even staging fake séances in allegedly haunted buildings. With thousands of research subjects from all over the world, including enamored couples, unwitting pedestrians, and guileless dinner guests, Wiseman presents a fun, clever, and unexpected picture of the human mind.