Current research

I study the underlying psychology of political attitudes, communication, and behaviours. My PhD thesis focused on the psychology of voting and suggested a framework of “group-ishness”, which highlights the role of group membership, coordination, and competition in our political cognition and behaviour. I am currently researching the psychological forces that shape neoliberal ideology and related economic preferences, and I’m also working on a book about national nostalgia and the various forms it can take in our minds and in political communication. The application of these findings is an equally important focus of my research as well as making it as accessible as possible.

Academic focus: political psychology, intergroup relations, national identity, authoritarianism, egalitarianism, candidate evaluation, neoliberalism, national nostalgia, partisanship, and voting

Methodological focus: survey experiments, construct measurement, political polling, and election modelling, generally focused on quantitative methods, but I love a mixed methods study

PhD Thesis

Title: The group-ishness of voting: Preferences towards group membership, within-group authority, and between-group hierarchy shape and predict the way we vote

Publications

Baron, D., Lauderdale, B., & Sheehy‐Skeffington, J. (2023). A Leader Who Sees the World as I Do: Voters Prefer Candidates Whose Statements Reveal Matching Social‐Psychological Attitudes. Political Psychology.

Turnbull-Dugarte, S. J., Townsley, J., Foos, F., & Baron, D. (2021). Mobilising support when the stakes are high: Mass emails affect constituent‐to‐legislator lobbying. European Journal of Political Research.

Baron, D., Sheehy-Skeffington, J. & Kteily, N. S. (2018) Ideology and perceptions of inequality. In B. Rutjens and M. J. Brandt (Ed.s) Belief Systems and the Perception of Reality, 45-62. London: Routledge.

Working papers

Baron, D. (in-progress). Group orientations in elections: An application of social identity, intra- and inter-group theories to the UK General Election results of 2015, 2017, and 2019.

Baron, D., Lawall, K., Lauderdale, B., & Sheehy-Skeffington, J. (in-progress). The coalitional voter: Which shared attributes cause voters to perceive similarity with candidates?

Obradovic, S. & Baron, D. (in-progress). “Nostalgic Britain: Exploring the meaning of nostalgia and what it tells us about perceptions of the ingroup and intergroup relations in the present”