Matthew Barnfield

Matthew Barnfield is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London’s School of Politics and International Relations, supported by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. His research focuses on political psychology and political behavior, particularly the role of future-oriented thinking in democratic politics, voter expectations, and electoral dynamics. He holds a PhD from Queen Mary (2021), and prior fellowships include an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Essex.

His research interests include how citizens conceptualize the political future, the impact of expectations on voting behavior, and methodological innovations in studying political phenomena. He has published in journals such as Political Behavior, Policy Studies Journal, and Electoral Studies, addressing topics like wishful thinking, public investment preferences, and misinformation effects.

Barnfield has been awarded prestigious grants including the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2023) for his project on the political psychology of the future, and an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (2022) exploring how citizens think about the future. His earlier ESRC PhD Studentship (2018) examined the effects of polls on voting behavior.

He is currently unavailable for formal PhD supervision but actively contributes to academic discourse through his research on topics such as bandwagon effects, vaccine policy, and party membership dynamics. His work bridges theoretical insights with empirical rigor, addressing both short-term electoral behavior and long-term societal challenges.