Biography
Catharine Fairbairn is a Helen Corley Petit Associate Professor in the department of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her doctoral training in clinical-health psychology spanned multiple disciplines ranging from social psychology to biostatistics, a transdisciplinary perspective that has expanded through her years as an independent investigator to encompass fields ranging from machine learning to social neuroscience. In recognition of her alcohol research, she was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science, a Lincoln Excellence Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, and was the 2020 recipient of the Early Career Investigator award from the Research Society on Alcoholism. She has also built her program of work while managing a major visual disability, an element she shares in hopes that we might develop a sense of possibility and belongingness among trainees from a range of backgrounds.
Research Interests
- Addiction
- Alcohol
- Social processes
Research Description
My work focuses on social and emotional processes driving alcohol use as well as the application of novel methods and measures within addiction science more broadly. In the Alcohol Research Laboratory, we employ lab-based alcohol-administration procedures, as well as ambulatory measures assessing alcohol response outside the laboratory, to better understand basic factors that might motivate heavy drinking. A primary aim of this program of work is to examine alcohol's impact within social contexts and how alcohol’s social and emotional rewards might ultimately contribute to the etiology of alcohol use disorder. Within our laboratory research, we have employed a range of measures including analyses of facial muscle movement during live interaction, eye tracking, and also electroencephalography recordings. Within our ambulatory research, we employ photographic measures of drinking contexts and alcohol biosensors that assess drinking via transdermal means. Our laboratory also has developed a focus on research synthesis and meta-analysis, the application of machine learning methods within addiction science, as well as the validation of alcohol biosensing technology. Finally, in a novel line of work we seek to bring our research into the domain of intervention, working towards the development of social-network based alcohol treatment programs that integrate biosensor-enhanced recovery support.
For prospective students:
I do expect to be reviewing doctoral applications in the 2024-2025 admissions cycle. Although there are a variety of opportunities for graduate engagement in my lab, I expect to have particular opportunities for students interested in technology-linked research methods development--specifically, wearable alcohol biosensor validation and development (see ongoing trial; collaborator Nigel Bosch). Additional lines of work in which graduate students might become involved include social neuroscience (see EEG hyperscanning trial here; collaborator Kara Federmeier) as well as social-network involved alcohol treatments and intervention research.
Education
Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Professor, Psychology
External Links
Recent Publications
Ariss, T., Caumiant, E. P., Fairbairn, C. E., Kang, D., Bosch, N., & Morris, J. K. (2025). Exploring Associations Between Drinking Contexts and Alcohol Consumption: An Analysis of Photographs. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, 134(3), 284-297. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000977
Caumiant, E. P., Kang, D., Girard, J. M., & Fairbairn, C. E. (2025). Alcohol and Emotion: Analyzing Convergence Between Facially Expressed and Self-Reported Indices of Emotion Under Alcohol Intoxication. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0001053
Creswell, K. G., & Fairbairn, C. E. (2025). The need for multi-participant alcohol administration studies. Addiction, 120(4), 574-577. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16735
Dermody, S. S., Earle, E. A., Fairbairn, C. E., & Testa, M. (2025). Time-varying relational interaction dynamics in couples discussing conflict. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 42(5), 1199-1218. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075251317168
Fairbairn, C. E., Han, J., Caumiant, E. P., Benjamin, A. S., & Bosch, N. (2025). A wearable alcohol biosensor: Exploring the accuracy of transdermal drinking detection. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 266, Article 112519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2024.112519