Nikhil Sengupta

Dr. Nikhil Sengupta serves as a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Kent's School of Psychology, where he directs the Psychology and Public Policy Research Unit (PSYPOL) and acts as Equality representative for students. His research investigates societal attitudes, their development over time, and their influence on social and political behavior, with a focus on citizens' perceptions of their circumstances, leaders, institutions, and government across diverse populations.

Sengupta's work centers on social and political psychology, examining intergroup relations, attitude formation, and behavioral consequences through large-scale longitudinal methodologies. His research spans multiple countries including the UK, New Zealand (via the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study tracking 20,000 participants), India (150,000-person survey), and Lebanon, with particular emphasis on inequality, discrimination, national identity, and the psychological mechanisms underlying political behavior. Recent projects explore nationalism's compensatory functions, gender-based violence tolerance, and cross-cultural emotional responses during the pandemic.

Analysis of his publication record reveals consistent methodological rigor in longitudinal design and cross-national comparison, with growing emphasis on the interplay between social dominance, system justification, and collective violence. His work increasingly integrates pandemic-era contexts and geopolitical conflicts while maintaining focus on structural inequality and identity processes.

Dr. Sengupta's research has been recognized with prestigious awards including:

• ERC Starting Grant (2021, €2.48M)
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (2016, €183k)
• Margaret Foddy Travel Award (2014)
• Faculty of Science Masters Scholarship (2010)
• School of Psychology Summer Studentship (2009)

As a supervisor, Sengupta currently mentors PhD candidate Ramzi Abou-Ismail and leads the ERC-funded five-year UK-wide longitudinal study on social-political attitudes. His funding success demonstrates exceptional ability to secure competitive research support for large-scale projects examining societal dynamics. The Psychology and Public Policy Research Unit (PSYPOL) he directs facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration between psychological science and policy development, while his NZAVS involvement contributes to one of the world's most comprehensive longitudinal social attitude studies.