John obtained his M.Sc. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Sussex before going on to gain his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Queen’s University Belfast. He is a political psychologist working at the intersection of social psychology and political systems and uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to understand pressing social issues, including political identities, prejudice, intergroup relations, and how they relate to nativist populism in global north nations.

His past work has involved both qualitative comparative analyses of populist rhetoric across different national contexts, and quantitative experiments on populist rhetoric from a social identity approach. He has also recently worked in collaboration with colleagues in the Social and Political Psychology lab at Toronto Metropolitan University to investigate how politicians cultivate inclusion and/or exclusion for Muslim identities in Canada. He is currently involved in various ongoing projects, both in the UK and Canada, investigating the implications and impacts of political rhetoric on intergroup relationships.