Professor Liao obtained a Degree of Bachelor of Medicine from Health Science Center, Peking University and her PhD degree from the Department of Community Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. She joined the School of Public Health, HKU as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2011, and became an Assistant Professor in 2018. She adopts a theoretical and intervention approach to support healthy behavioural change and decision making among different populations using theories and methodologies derived from public health, health psychology, social science and other branches of behavioural sciences. She uses different behavioural change models to understand the relationship between risk perceptions and behavioural decision making in relation to health. In particular, she is interested in using dual-process models to clarify both the cognitive and affective processes of risk judgment and behavioural decision making. On the basis of dual process models, she is also interested in developing and testing cueing or priming interventions that are aimed to activate the affective/nonconscious processes in decision making and guiding health behavioural change. Her recent research interests have also involved exploring the impacts of different risk representations (e.g. framing, graphical vs. textual, risk measures, and representations of uncertainty in risk) and trust in messengers and messages on public emotional and behavioural engagement with global health issues such as climate change and antimicrobial resistance.

* Corresponding author

1. Yuan J, Dong M, Lam WWT, Liao Q* (2025). Using positive imagination to reduce negativity in information processing and hesitant attitudes toward childhood COVID-19 vaccinations in parents: a randomized controlled trial. British Journal of Health Psychology. DOI:10.1111/bjhp.12808. [2023 IF=3.5; rank 28/180 under Psychology, Clinical]
2. Chen M, Yuan J, Xu Y, Lam WWT, Yang L, Chan DKC, Liao Q* (2025). Investigating the role of top-down regulation and bottom-up cues in eating style transitions: a one-year cohort study with young adults. Appetite. DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2025.108034 [2023 IF=4.6; rank 7/55 under Behavioral Sciences]
3. Liao Q*, Papies EK, Chen Y, Chen M, Dong M, Lam WWT (2025). Can We Prime Sustainable Food Choices? A Randomized Controlled Trial Nested within a Discrete Choice Experiment. Sustainable Production and Consumption. DOI: 10.1016/j.spc.2025.04.021 [2023 IF=10.9; rank 7/99 under Green & Sustainable Science & Technology]
4. Chen M, Chen Y, Qi R, Hsiao JH, Lam WWT, Liao Q* (2024) Testing the effects of health benefit, environmental benefit and co-benefit priming for promoting sustainable food choice and their psychological mechanisms: a randomized controlled trial combined with eye tracking. Journal of Environmental Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102485 [2023 IF=6.1; rank 14/147 under Psychology, Multidisciplinary]
5. Xu Y, Lam WWT, Yuan J, Chen Y, Liao Q* (2025). Shaping Sustainable Healthy Diets Discourse on Facebook: A Multi-region Investigation of Urban Stakeholders’ Communication, Social Networks and Public Engagement. Cities. DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2025.105944 [2023 IF=6.0; rank 5/77 under Urban Studies]
6. Liao Q*, Yuan J, Lam WWT, Lee TC, Yang L, Tian L, Fielding R (2024) Climate change scepticism and its impacts on individuals’ engagement with climate change mitigation and adaptation to heat in Hong Kong: a two-wave population-based study. Journal of Environmental Psychology: 102251. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102251 [2023 IF=6.1, ranked at 14/147 in Psychology, Multidisciplinary]
7. Yuan J, Xu Y, Wong IOL, Lam WWT, Ni MY, Cowling BJ*, Liao Q* (2024) Dynamic predictors of COVID-19 vaccination uptake and their interconnections over two years in Hong Kong. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44650-9 [2023 IF=16.6; rank 6/73 under Multidisciplinary Sciences]
8. Yuan J, Lam WWT, Xiao J, Ni YM, Cowling BJ, Liao Q* (2023). Why do Chinese older adults in Hong Kong delay or refuse COVID-19 vaccination? A qualitative study based on Grounded Theory. Journals of Gerontology: Series B. Doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbac184 [2023 IF=6.2; rank 5/37 under Gerontology]
9. Liao Q*, Dong M, Yuen J, Fielding R, Cowling BJ, Oi ILW, Lam WWT (2021). Assessing community vulnerability over 3 waves of COVID-19 pandemic, Hong Kong, China. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 27 (7). DOI: 10.3201/EID2707.204076. [2023 IF=11.8, rank 10/96 under Infectious Diseases]
10. Liao Q*, Yuan J, Dong M, Fielding R, Yang L, Lam WWT (2020). Learning public engagement and government responsiveness in the communications about COVID-19 during the early epidemic stage in China: an analysis of social media data. Journal of Medical Internet Research. DOI: 10.2196/18796. [2023 IF=7.4; rank 3/105 under Health Care Sciences]