Name
FAHEY, Robert Andrew
Degree
Ph.D. (Political Science)
Status
Assistant Professor
HP (URL)
Research Topic
Conspiracy Belief and its Influence on Political Behaviors
While belief in conspiracy theories has been a feature of human society for millennia, recent decades have seen concerns raised over the accelerated spread of conspiracy beliefs over the Internet, and their negative impact on social and political behaviours – including vaccine refusal and acts of political violence. My research aims to improve our understanding of why conspiracy beliefs cause extreme behaviours in some individuals and some contexts, but not in others, especially by considering the interaction between conspiracy belief and other factors such as social polarisation and populist attitudes.
Monthly Spotlight
[Monthly Spotlight] is focusing on a researcher to introduce his/her research.
What Effects do Conspiracy Theories have on Voting and Other Political Activities?
Education and Academic Employment
2008-2012 – SOAS, University of London – BA (Hons) Japanese
2013-2015 – Waseda University – MA Political Science
2015-2021 – Waseda University – Ph.D Political Science
2019-2022 – Waseda Institute of Political Economy – Research Associate
Fields of Research Interests
Political Communication, Populism, Polarisation, Conspiracy Belief, Political Text Analysis, Network Analysis, Social Media, Survey Research
Academic Publications
- Jungkunz S, Fahey RA, Hino A (2021), How populist attitudes scales fail to capture support for populists in power, PLOS One, 16 (12), e0261658
- Fahey RA, Camatarri S (2021), From Filter Bubble to Social Divide: Social Polarisation in Europe and Japan, in Foret F, Hino A (eds), Value Politics in Japan and Europe, p.79-102
- Fahey RA (2021), Nihon ni okeru popyurizumu to inbōron no shinnen (Populism and Belief in Conspiracy Theories in Japan), Yoron – Journal of the Japanese Association for Public Opinion Research, Vol. 127, p.11-21
- Fahey RA, Hino A, Pekkanen RJ (2021), Populism in Japan, in Pekkanen RJ, Pekkanen S (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics, p.317-350
- Fahey RA, Hino A (2020), COVID-19, digital privacy, and the social limits on data-focused public health responses, International Journal of Information Management, Vol.55, 102181
- Fahey RA, Boo J, Ueda M (2020), Covariance in diurnal patterns of suicide-related expressions on Twitter and recorded suicide deaths, Social Science & Medicine, Vol.253, 112960
- Curini L, Fahey RA (2020), Sentiment Analysis and Social Media, in Curini L, Franzese R (eds), The Sage Handbook of Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations, p.534-551
- Hino A, Fahey RA (2019), Representing the Twittersphere: Archiving a representative sample of Twitter data under resource constraints, International Journal of Information Management, Vol.48, p.175-184
- Fahey RA (2019), SNS dēta kara ‘yūkensha no honne’ wo suiron dekiruka? 2017nen sōsenkyo wo jirei ni (Can we infer the ‘true feelings’ of voters from social media data? A case study of the 2017 general election), Yoron – Journal of the Japanese Association for Public Opinion Research, Vol.123, p.65-70
- Fahey RA, Matsubayashi T, Ueda M (2018), Tracking the Werther Effect on social media: emotional responses to prominent suicide deaths on Twitter and subsequent increases in suicide, Social Science & Medicine, Vol.219, 19-29
Other Interests
Cooking, Hiking, Travel, Photography
Affiliated Academic Organizations
American Political Science Association
European Consortium for Political Research
Japanese Political Science Association
International Political Science Association
Japanese Association for Public Opinion Research
Awards
2012: SOAS School Prize for Undergraduate Thesis
2013-2018: MEXT Japanese Government Scholarship Recipient
2015: Waseda University Graduate School of Political Science Dean’s Prize for MA Thesis
