According to Dr. John Hibbing, deep individual differences exist across humans. He studies the manner in which these biological variations mitigate the way in which individuals respond to politically relevant environmental occurrences. Working primarily with Kevin B. Smith of UNL and John Alford of Rice University, Hibbing's current research interests center on the relationship of biological characteristics to political orientations and behavior. These characteristics could be innate, acquired in early development, and/or shaped by more proximal experiences but the fact that at some point they appear to become physiological has important implications for the manner in which political life is conceptualized and studied.
His proudest accomplishments include being in the Dana College Athletic Hall of Fame, publishing an article in Science, co-authoring with his son Matthew, collaborating with graduate students, and creating a course for undergraduates entitled "Genes, Behavior, and Politics." In his spare time he likes to travel and read fiction, but mostly he works and plays, especially fish, at him and his wife's place in the country.
Research Areas
- Political Psychology
- Biology and Politics
- Political Behavior
- Public Opinion
- Legislative Politics
Current Research
Dr. Hibbing's current research focuses on the effects of cortisol levels on voter turnout, androstenone detection on political attitudes, and electrodermal activity on both political attitudes and behaviors. Their research team also is applying various paradigms drawn from cognitive psychology including the flanker task, frustration task, gaze cuing, several economic games, and emotion discrimination exercises and using measurement techniques such as eyetracking, brain imaging (both EEG and fMRI), classic twin studies, endocrinology, cross-national physiology, and allelic association analyses.
Awards
- Velux Senior Research Fellow, University of Southern Denmark (2011)
- Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow, Sage Center for the Study of the Mind, UC-Santa Barbara (2010)
- Fenno Prize for Best Book on Legislative Politics (with Elizabeth Theiss-Morse)
- 9 National Science Foundation Grants