Dr Bankole Falade is a social psychologist with interests in science and society studies. His work is focused on understanding public attitudes to scientific innovation and the determinants of health and illness from the social cognition perspective.

His interest in science and beliefs evolved from his research into the determinants of vaccine hesitancy in Nigeria where he found the influence of religion, not as anti-vaccine, but as voice for clarifications on rumoured effects of the polio vaccine. Religion is a strong voice in Africa where majority of the population belong to one faith or the other. He has since written extensively on the science, scientists and beliefs on the African continent.

Recent works include:

Falade, B. A (2020) ‘Where are the graves of coronavirus victims?’ Beliefs, conspiracy theories and representations of COVID-19 in Africa,

Falade, B., & Murire, M. (Eds.). (2021). Health Communication and Disease in Africa: Beliefs, Traditions and Stigma. Springer Nature.

Falade, B. (2024). The colonial effect: Language, trust and attitudes to science as predictors of vaccine hesitancy across Africa. Cultures of Science,

He is a researcher with the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, London School of Economics and Political Science on the POIESIS project https://poiesis-project.eu/