Stian's first work was at the harder end of the sciences. Having worked as a nuclear physicist and an analytical chemist, and having studied most of the big areas of science - physics, chemistry, biochemistry - as an undergraduate, he drifted towards experimental psychology. Once safely ensconced, he studied for a PhD in psycholinguistics, looking at the functional architecture of speech comprehension and production systems.

Stian spent three years working at Warwick, investigating decision making, particularly impulsivity and the effect of delay on preferences, as well as context effects and individual differences in risk and time preferences. He was funded for a year by a research fellowship from HFC Bank, looking at the psychology of credit card debt, balance transfers and buy-now-pay-later deals, as well as other more general areas of decision making. He now works at UCL, looking at advice taking in decision making. Stian also has academic publications on task switching and executive control, ageing, and sex differences.

Aside from academic research, Stian is also interested in the public understanding of science, He got an MSc with distinction in Science Communication from Imperial College, and has since worked as a researcher or scientific advisor on psychology or neuroscience related television series including 'The Human Mind' (BBC1, 2003), 'The Body of Marilyn Monroe' (Tiger Aspect, 2004), 'How Art Made the World' (BBC2, 2005) and 'Secrets of the Sexes' (BBC1, 2005), and 'Alternative Medicine' (BBC2, 2006). He has also worked on new ways of running psychology experiments - online or using mobile phones - most recently supervising a major piece of web-based research on sex differences for BBCi.