research

My work is broadly on what people think of political institutions and why this matters, in the fields of public opinion, behaviour, and political sociology. I have a variety of active research interests in these areas. I primarily use quantitative methods (surveys, survey experiments, text analysis) but also have qualitative work (interviews, focus groups).

The causes and consequences of political trust

My biggest strand of work is on the causes and consequences of political trust - an attitude that forms part of how people relate to their politicians and political institutions, alongside support for democracy, satisfaction, and myriad other attitudes. As part of this, I have published several journal articles, have a co-authored book under contract at Cambridge University Press, a co-edited book with Edward Elgar Press (with Malcolm Fairbrother), and am organising (with Lisanne de Blok) an ECPR Joint Sessions in 2024.

Causes. How do people develop `political trust’ in the first place? Is it a meaningful concept? What other dimensions of ‘trust’ are there? My work with Viktor Valgardsson has shown how trust is a (relatively) stable attitude, formed largely before the age of 25, and only changing in the short term. My ongoing work (by myself and with a range of others including Will Jennings and Gerry Stoker), combining surveys, survey experiments, and focus groups, shows that trust is meaningfully distinct from other attitudes like mistrust and distrust, and that these have different consequences; which aspects of institutional trustworthiness matter for trust judgements; what traits of politicians are seen as trustworthy; and the long-term trends in trust across countries.

Consequences. Despite the much larger work on the causes of trust, its consequences are less studied. Does it even matter? I have published meta-analyses on this question (generally and on COVID specifically), and have several papers (published, under review, and in progress) on the relationship between trust and outcomes such as policy preferences. I think this area is one of the more interesting parts of this area, so get in touch if you’re interested!

Class and class representation

The working class are under-represented in every democratic legislature in the world. Unlike many under-represented groups, this is also not decreasing, and in most cases, is worsening. Research also shows that this matters for the policy made and has consequences for the attitudes and behaviour of the public. Why are the working class under-represented, and what can we do about it? My work in this area is currently exploring how people derive the class of politicians (with Matt Ryan and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte), the relevance of accent (with Rob Johns), biases to working-class candidates, and the support for and viability of policy solutions to redress under-representation.

Attitudes and attitude formation

How do people develop political attitudes? My work on trust taps into this question, but I am also working on environmental and climate attitudes (with Federica Genovese and Alexander Kustov), the content of national identity (with Jessica Smith), the centrality of imperial nostalgia for UK public opinion (with Christopher Claassen), and the role of education in liberal-authoritarian attitudes (with Lizzie Simon and Jamie Furlong).

Previous work on globalisation and European integration

What’s the consequences for public opinion and behaviour of states becoming more interdependent with other states, specifically through the global economy or regional organisations like the EU? My PhD, and several publications around it, studied this question. I showed that European integration did not reduce policy congruence between parties and public (with Raimondas Ibenskas), that citizens did not perceive economic constraints on policy making (with Cal Le Gall), and that the effect of the Eurozone crisis on political support was due to economic harm, rather than limits on democratic autonomy (with Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte).

Other assorted work

I have published and ongoing work on topics not directly related to these. I have work with the Institute for Government, John Boswell, and Jessica Smith on using ministerial interviews to study executive politics in the UK; have published on the effect of the news media on UKIP support; and on support for i-voting.