Dr Scott Houghton

Assistant Professor

School: Psychology

I joined Northumbria University as a full-time member of staff in 2022, having completed my undergraduate degree, MRes, and PhD at the university. My PhD research was externally funded by GambleAware and was supervised by Professor Mark Moss.

I currently serve as Programme Leader for the BSc Psychology programme and contribute to teaching across multiple areas. I support students on the undergraduate placement modules and deliver research methods teaching on the distance learning MSc Occupational Psychology programme.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

My research focuses on understanding gambling behaviour and developing evidence-based approaches to harm reduction. I'm particularly interested in examining the impact of gambling marketing on behaviour, with particular attention to how gamblers perceive and interact with promotional content.

I'm also interested in the role of digital platforms in shaping gambling behaviour. This includes examining gambling marketing on social media, where I've studied both the content of advertisements posted by operators and affiliates, and experimentally tested interventions designed to promote safer gambling through these channels. My work in this area seeks to understand how digital environments create unique risks for gamblers and identify opportunities for more effective harm reduction strategies.

I'm currently working on a funded project to develop a psychometric measure to assess the change beliefs of at-risk gamblers. Through better understanding the beliefs that at-risk gamblers have about making changes to their gambling behaviour, I hope to develop targeted interventions to reduce gambling behaviour that are theory-driven.

Methodologically, my research employs mixed-methods approaches, combining qualitative techniques such as interpretative phenomenological analysis with experimental designs and observational studies. I'm committed to conducting research that not only advances academic understanding but also has practical applications for policy development and intervention design in the field of gambling harm reduction.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Adapting in times of crisis: how social media marketing of gambling changed with major shifts in the gambling landscape, Houghton, S., Boy, F., Bradley, A., James, R., Wardle, H., Dymond, S. 13 Oct 2025, In: Information Communication and Society
An initial exploration of fatigue as a predictor of quality of life in transplant athletes competing at national and international events, Rogerson, D., Houghton, S., Jooste, J., Hogg, M. 2024, In: Journal of Sports Sciences
Exploring the Impact of Safer Sports Betting Promotion on Social Media: An Experimental Study, Houghton, S., Moss, M. 1 Sep 2024, In: Journal of Gambling Studies
Assessing the bets advertised on Twitter by gambling operators and gambling affiliates – an observational study incorporating simulation data to measure bet success, Houghton, S., Moss, M. 4 May 2023, In: International Gambling Studies
Frequent gamblers’ perceptions of the role of gambling marketing in their behaviour: An interpretative phenomenological analysis, Houghton, S., Punton, G., Casey, E., Mcneill, A., Moss, M. 16 Jun 2023, In: PLoS One
Tracking online searches for gambling activities and operators in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Google Trends™ analysis, Houghton, S., Boy, F., Bradley, A., James, R., Wardle, H., Dymond, S. 12 Oct 2023, In: Journal of Behavioral Addictions