Rob Johns

Rob Johns arrived at Essex in October 2010 having previously worked in the Department of Government at the University of Strathclyde. His teaching and research are in the fields of political psychology (especially the nature and origins of public opinion), electoral behaviour and questionnaire design. Rob is a Principal Investigator on the 2011 Scottish Election Study and has worked on a number of other major survey projects.

Rob's research is about how and why people think what they think about politics. Within this broad focus, he has addressed a diverse range of questions in a range of contexts: Do people care about civilian as well as military casualties in war? Do voters feel represented by parties, even if those parties have no chance of power? Why are women less likely to favour Scottish independence? Is radicalism in the Middle East driven by what the West does or what it stands for? Rob would be happy to supervise students whose research also falls in the broad field of public opinion.

Rob is co-author of Takeover: Explaining the Extraordinary Rise of the SNP, and election night analyst on STV.