About me and how to get in touch

I’m Dr Steph Lay, and I completed my PhD with the Open University in 2015. I’ve always had a fascination with strange and eerie things, goth culture, ghost stories, horror and generally anything unsettling so the subject of eerie faces was a perfect one for me. I first read about the valley when I was looking for an original subject for my MSc Psychology dissertation, and saw a blog post all about it. I was fascinated but back then, there was hardly any psychological research into the topic so I said to myself “That sounds fun, I’ll give it a go.”

I never expected that twenty years later, I’d still be talking about it. I’m now an independent researcher, exploring a new area of the relationship between our susceptibility to the uncanny valley effect and our tendency towards paranormal beliefs.

I’m now also applying my academic and analytics background in exciting new directions: I’m currently researching the prevalence of hauntings and strange experiences here in my home town of Milton Keynes.

I also work on the YouTube channel Into The Fog, where I use data, user stories and creative design to help bring tales of the unexplained to life - a solid grounding in the uncanny comes in extremely useful there!

I always enjoy talking to folks about my research and I’m available for interviews, talks or articles, or if you’re also researching in the same area, I’d love to chat. If you’d like to get in touch, fill in the form below and I’ll get back to you.