Profile
Matthew joined Queen Mary University of London as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in October 2023, supported by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. He previously held an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Essex.
He holds a BA in Modern Languages and European Studies and an MRes in Politics and International Relations from the University of Bath, and was awarded his PhD at Queen Mary University of London in 2021.
Research
Research Interests:
Matthew’s research is in the field of political psychology and political behaviour. His British Academy project addresses the role of the future in democratic politics: how we think about the political future, what we want it to be like, and how that shapes the choices we make together. His PhD focused on closely related questions about how voters form expectations about election outcomes and how those expectations relate to their voting behaviour.
Examples of research funding:
2023 British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, “The Political Psychology of the Future”.
2022 ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, “How Do Citizens Think About the Future? The Nature, Origins and Role of Expectations in Political Life”.
2018 ESRC PhD Studentship, “Assessing the Differential Effect of Poll Exposure on Voting Behaviour”.
Publications
Barnfield, M. and Johns, R. (2025). Hope, Optimism, and Expectations for the Political Future. Political Behavior.
Barnfield, M. (2024). Policy Discounting Across and Beyond the Lifespan. European Journal of Political Research.
Fernández-Roldán, A. and Barnfield, M. (2024). Voters Share Polls That Say What They Want to Hear: Experimental Evidence From Spain and the USA. International Journal of Public Opinion Research.
Barnfield, M. (2023). Momentum in the Polls Raises Electoral Expectations. Electoral Studies.
Barnfield, M. (2022). Misinformation in Experimental Political Science. Perspectives on Politics.
Barnfield, M. and Bale, T. (2022). ‘Leaving the Red Tories’: Ideology, Leaders, and Why Party Members Quit. Party Politics.
Zerback, T., Reinemann, C., and Barnfield, M. (2021). Total Recall? Examining the Accuracy of Poll Recall During an Election Campaign. Mass Communication and Society.
Barnfield, M. (2020). Think Twice Before Jumping on the Bandwagon: Clarifying Concepts in Research on the Bandwagon Effect. Political Studies Review.
Supervision
Matthew is currently unavailable for formal supervision of PhD projects.
