Rate My Professor Abigail Pigden

Dr. Abigail Pigden is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago, where she earned her BA (Hons) and PhD. She maintains an affiliation with the Department of General Practice and Rural Health, Dunedin School of Medicine. Her PhD thesis, titled "Is the Pen Mightier than the Sword? Testing the Effects of Fiction on Empathy and Aggression, and Introducing a Hybrid Model of Media Effects" (2021), investigated the psychological effects of fictional media on empathy and aggression. Pigden's research focuses on health psychology, primary health care research, and media effects. Key publications include "The Southern Primary Care Research Network 3 years on – reflections from the end of the beginning" (2025, The Journal of Primary Health Care, co-authored with S. Leitch, A. Ryde, C. Atmore, J.R. Li, T. Moerenhout, W. Yeo, and others), which provides reflections on the network's establishment and progress; "Developing a national primary care research network: a qualitative study of stakeholder views" (2022, The Journal of Primary Health Care, co-authored with T. Stokes, S. Crengle, T. Dowell, B. Hudson, L. Toop, L. McBain, and others), exploring stakeholder perspectives; and "Developing a national primary care research and surveillance network: a qualitative study of stakeholder views" (2022, Australian Journal of Primary Health, co-authored with T. Stokes and C. Atmore). She has also contributed to an editorial in primary health care literature.