My first major lesson in the psychology of politics was in my late teens, when I spent a lot of time arguing with my mum about the war in Iraq. In the run up to the US/UK invasion, she chaired the local Stop the War coalition. At the time I felt convinced we had a duty to remove Saddam Hussein and that the US/ UK would take full responsibility for reconstructing Iraq after the war. After the invasion it became increasingly clear that I was wrong. I’m sorry to my mum for being such an argumentative teenager at the time, but I’m extremely grateful for her continued passion and engagement in politics.
Realising I was wrong about something so important (especially having been so convinced at the time) has shaped my interest ever since, not just in politics, but also in the reasons behind our political beliefs and why we sometimes hold them so single-mindedly.
As an undergraduate, my studies at the University of Bristol started to give me some insight into this. I owe a lot to the many excellent lecturers there, who spent so much time discussing ideas with me, inspiring me to go on to study psychology. I’d like to pay particular tribute to Nick Scott-Samuel and the now-late Tom Trościanko and Richard Gregory, who collectively inspired me to study for a PhD to understand the psychology of how we see the world.
I’d like to thank the University of Bristol again for making me an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in 2015, and pay particular thanks to Policy Bristol (and Kat Walls) for helping me to set up the Bristol Politics Cafe in the run up to the 2015 election. Many of the ideas for this book started to take form in the lectures and debates of those sessions. In discussing how academic research might contribute to broader political issues, I started to realise that many people were looking for different ways to approach political issues, from a more considered and reflective perspective. I hope the open, informed and earnest tone of those ‘politics cafes’ is reflected in this book.
I regret that I didn’t learn more about the psychology of politics as an undergraduate. So I’d like to particularly thank Chris Donlan at University College London, and Kate Plaisted-Grant and Jason Rentfrow at the University of Cambridge for giving me the chance to develop lectures on this topic, the content of which has largely formed the backbone of this book. The lectures seem to have received very positive student feedback; I hope this book proves to be equally well received.
I also owe an enormous debt to many colleagues with whom I’ve discussed the psychology of politics over the last few years. Particular thanks to Gary Lewis (who also very kindly reviewed an early draft of the book), Carmen Lefevre, Colin Davis, Jeff Bowers, Steve Lewandowsky, Nathalia Gjersoe, Alan Renwick, Peter John, Ric Bailey, Nicholas Wright, Jens Madsen, Clare Bissell, Caitlin Mullin and Annelien Buedts.
I’d also like to thank the many fantastic students I’ve had the honour to teach or supervise over the last few years. Nothing inspires me to think and learn more than the opportunity to share that knowledge. I’d especially like to thank James Glenister, who also read an earlier draft of the book.
I’m also lucky to have met Ed Sapira and be a member of his tech-politics club Newspeak House in Bethnal Green, London. The psychology of politics and the role of technology in politics are tightly intertwined, and I’ve had some of the most interesting conversations about politics and psychology over the last year at Newspeak, which also helped to shape and inform this book.
Finally I’d like to thank my publishers Elliott and Thompson, and in particular Pippa Crane and Jennie Condell. From the first moment we met, I was really excited that we could do something quite special with this book at such a poignant time. I’ve heard so many horror stories from colleagues who have worked with publishers who have pushed them to oversell research or taken a factory line approach to book writing. They’ve been the exact opposite. To be honest, if you enjoy reading this book, it will largely be thanks to Pippa and Jennie, who have worked so hard in helping me to find a way to communicate the science of why we vote the way we do.