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Dr Lee De-Wit trained as an experimental psychologist / cognitive neuroscientist, and his current research and teaching focuses on Political Psychology.
Some of the questions that currently drive his research include:
- What are the psychological predictors of attitudes towards immigration, and can we use an understanding of those psychological predictors to develop more effective communication around immigration? (this is the focus of the PhD research by his student Tessa Buchanan, also supervised by Alan Renwick at UCL).
- What are the psychological predictors of attitudes towards inequality and capitalism, and can we use an understanding of those psychological predictors to help bridge the polarized discussion of this topic?
- What are the psychological predictors of political engagement, with a particular focus on political knowledge and societal values. Can we use an understanding of these predictors to improve political turnout?
- Can we use more data driven techniques to idenitfy different patterns of voting behaviour (rather than relying on simple Left-Right continuums)?
- What are the psychological and cognitive characteristics of swing voters compared to other types of voters (this is the focus of the PhD research by his student Emmanuel Mahieux, also supervised by Joe Devlin at UCL).
Lee previously served as a Teaching Fellow (2016-2018), and Senior Teaching Fellow (2018-2019) at University College London, and as the Academic Director for Psychology at the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge (2016-2017).
Lee originally studied Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol (2002-2005), and then did an Economic and Research Council–funded Masters (2005-2006, with Charles Fernyhough) and Ph.D. (2006-2009, with David Milner FRS and Robert Kentridge) at Durham University. He then worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Leuven working on the Gestalt Revision program of Johan Wagemans (2010-2015). He has also spent time as a visiting researcher with Geraint Rees at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (University College London), Glyn Humphreys at the University of Oxford, and Catherine Tallon-Baudry at the University Hospital Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris.
