Michael Bruter

Michael Bruter is Professor of political science at the LSE and Director of the Electoral Psychology Observatory. He has developed a distinguished research profile in the sub-field of voters’ psychology, political behaviour, and political science research methods winning multiple awards for his research and its impact including the Market Research Society Award for Best International Research, ESRC 10th Anniversary Celebrating Impact Award for Outsanding International Impact and Special Mention for the Stein Rokkan ECPR Award for Best Comparative Research for the book “Inside the Mind of a Voter” he co-authored with Sarah Harrison. Bruter has been the recipient of over €5 million in research grants from large external funding bodies such as the ERC and the ESRC for frontier-breaking projects. Recent examples include a new ERC Advanced Grant to study electoral hostility (why people hate each other because of elections and how to resolve the resulting rifts), an ESRC grant on the electoral experience of first time voters, and a study of electoral psychology in over 20 countries which has encompassed a broad range of innovative quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Bruter has given keynote speeches and talks in multiple prestige events including the Nobel Prize Dialogue on the Future of Democracy, events at the United Nations and the Houses of Parliament, to the EU-Canada meeting on youth participation, the Council of Europe-European Commission cross-group on young voters, and many more. He is the first social scientist ever invited to give the annual STOA keynote lecture on the future of science and technology to the European Parliament, and has advised and worked with multiple Electoral Commissions (Sweden, Australia, UK, South Africa, Finland, Georgia, Palestinian Territories, Mauritius, etc) as well as the European Commission, Committee of the Regions and many International Organisations. He has also served as expert witness on cases pertaining to voters’ psychology tried by the Irish High Court and Irish Supreme Court. Bruter has published 8 books, including “Inside the Mind of a Voter” co-authored by Sarah Harrison and published by Princeton University Press in 2020, and Citizens of Europe (Springer). He has also published numerous articles in such journals as Comparative Political Studies, Public Choice, Nature: Human Behaviour, American Behavioural Scientist, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, etc focused on topics within the fields of voters’ psychology, political behaviour, identity, and social science research methods.