Robbie is a Professor of Social Psychology, Director of Graduate Studies (Research), a member of the Undergraduate Outreach Team and Postgraduate Progression Monitoring Lead in the School of Psychology.
Research interests
Robbie is interested in the social psychology of justice and (in)equality, including:
Just-world beliefs These refer to the extent to which people believe they, and others, receive the treatment and life outcomes they deserve. These are related to psychological health, functioning, and a raft of social attitudes (for more information, see Hafer & Sutton, 2014; Sutton & Douglas, 2005; Sutton & Winnard, 2007; Sutton et al., 2008; Wu et al., 2013 in the publication list).
Conspiracy beliefs Robbie collaborates with Professor Karen Douglas on conspiracy belief (see Douglas & Sutton, 2008, 2011, Sutton & Douglas, 2014. Their work examines the psychological mechanisms that cause people to entertain such beliefs.
Immanent justice reasoning Robbie collaborates with Mitch Callan (University of Essex) on why people tend to perceive that a person's misfortune must be attributable to some prior misdeed of theirs, even when the two cannot be related (Callan et al., 2010, 2013, 2014).
Gender, sexism and inequality Robbie has studied several aspects of gender inequality, including gendered fear of crime (Sutton & Farrall, 2005, 2008; Sutton, Robinson & Farrall, 2011), sexist intrusions on the autonomy of women during pregnancy (Murphy et al., 2011; Sutton, Douglas, & McClellan, 2011), and gender inequality in educational attainment (Hartley & Sutton, 2013).
He is interested in social communicative approaches to these and other questions, such as intergroup relations (e.g., Douglas & Sutton, 2003, 2010; Sutton, Elder & Douglas, 2006). A related interest is in environmental psychology.
Key publications
Hopkins-Doyle, A., Sutton, R. M., Douglas, K. M., & Calogero, R. M. (in press). Flattering to deceive: Why people misunderstand Benevolent Sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. doi:10.1037/pspa0000135
Rutjens, B., Heine, S., Sutton, R. M., & van Harreveld, F. (2018). Attitudes towards science. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 57, 125-165. doi:10.1016/bs.aesp.2017.08.001
Cichocka, A. K., Górska, P., Jost, J., Sutton, R. M., & Bilewicz, M. (2018). What inverted U can do for your country: A curvilinear relationship between confidence in the social system and political engagement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 115(5), 883-902. doi:10.1037%2Fpspp0000168
Dawtry, R., Sutton, R. M., & Sibley, C. (2015). Why wealthier people think people are wealthier, and why it matters: From social sampling to redistributive attitudes. Psychological Science, 26(9), 1389-1400. doi:10.1177/0956797615586560
Callan, M. J., Sutton, R. M Harvey, A., & Dawtry, R. (2014). Immanent justice reasoning: Theory, research, and current directions. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 105-161.
External examiner of MSc programmes at the University of Exeter (2011-2014), Lancaster (2015-2018), BSc and MSci programmes at the University of Birmingham (2012-2016), BSc programmes at Keele University (2016-2019)
PhD examiner at Utrecht, Lancaster, LSE, Australian National University, the University of Queensland, ULB Brussels, University of Queensland, Birmingham, ISCTE (Lisbon), Lahore, and Granada
Conference organiser and host, 14th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Justice Research, Canterbury, July 2016
Member of ESRC Peer Review panel since 2011
Conference organisation
The Kent Workshop on Linguistic Bias
Grants and funding
Mar 2018
R. Sutton, Z. Bergstrom, K.Dhont and K.Douglas Leverhulme Trust "Moral memory bias about the sentience of animals"
£192,000
May 2016
K.Douglas, R.Sutton, A. Cichocka et al. ESRC/CREST "The psychology of conspiracy theories."
£50,000
2014
R. Sutton and K. Douglas Centre for Defence Enterprise "Multiple social identities"
£7,000
Nov 2011-present
Miguel Moya et al. (Granada) (Co-investigator) "Sexist ideology and power inequality in the development and maintenance of sexual harassment" Research Council, Spanish Government
€33,000
Nov 2011-Oct 2013
R. Sutton and K. Douglas Kent County Council "Coastal communities 2150: Barriers to engagement study"
£18,000
Jan 2010-April 2012
R. Sutton and T. Gannon Changing behaviour programmes – psychological perspective (Draw-down consultancy)
Aug 2009-April 2013
I. Correia, H. Alves and R. Sutton "How life treats me depends on who I am: Social identity as threat and buffer to the belief in a just world" Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal
€65,499
Publications
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