Robert Lupton

Associate Professor

Political Science

Bob Lupton’s teaching and research examines public opinion and voting behavior in the United States, especially the influence of the foundational predispositions of ideology, core values and partisanship, as well as their contextual correlates, on citizens’ orientations toward the political world.

Elite opinion—particularly that of party activists who shape the attitudes and behavior of elected officials and the mass public alike—is central to his research agenda. Specifically, his published work to date explores the ideological structure and (in)coherence of political party activists and the American mass public, the role of core values in linking citizens’ ideological and partisan identities over time, the asymmetrical attitudinal organization of the major party coalitions and the influence of social network communication on individuals’ political attitudes and behavior, among other topics.

His scholarly interests extend to a range of questions involving political psychology, political cognition and comparative political behavior.  His peer-reviewed articles appear in several leading political science journals, namely the Journal of Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, Political Psychology and Political Behavior.