Staff profile

Nick joined Durham University in 2010 as Lecturer in Quantitative Social Research and became Professor of Politics in 2018. He received his PhD in Political Science from the London School of Economics in 2010. During 2008 he was also a Visiting Researcher at Stanford University.

Nick uses quantitative (and often experimental) methods to study political behaviour, accountability and representation, particularly in the United Kingdom. He serves on the Editorial Board of the journal Electoral Studies. He is a founding member of the Centre for Institutions and Political behaviour at Durham University. 

Nick welcomes enquiries regarding PhD supervision in the areas of British and comparative politics, electoral behaviour and legislative politics. He is particularly interested in supervising candidates interested in carrying out rigorous empirical research. 

Current and past research grants:

• Issue Opinion and Democratic Politics in Britain (£45,048 Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship).

• Causes and Consequences of Electoral Violence: Evidence from England and Wales 1832-1914 (£504,077 from the ESRC/AHRC). Patrick Kuhn (PI), Gidon Cohen and Nick Vivyan.

• Reducing Turnout Misreporting Through Contextualization (£10,000.00 from the British Academy). Nick Vivyan (PI) and Patrick Kuhn.

• What Do Voters Want From their Parliamentary Representatives?
  (€106,000 from Austrian National Bank). Markus Wagner (PI) and Nick Vivyan.

• Estimating Constituency Opinion in Britain (£115,433 from the ESRC). Nick Vivyan (PI) and Chris Hanretty.

• Voter Approval of the Activities of Members of Parliament (£9,900 from The British Academy). Nick Vivyan (PI) and Markus Wagner.

• British Politics
• Legislative Politics
• Political Economy
• Public Opinion and Elections
• Quantitative Methods

Chapter in book

• Vivyan, N. (2014). Attention-seeking constituents? How voters want MPs to spend their time. In P. Cowley, & R. Ford (Eds.), Sex, Lies & the Ballot Box: 50 things you need to know about British elections. Biteback Publishing

Journal Article

• Blaxill, L., Cohen, G., Hutchison, G., Kuhn, P. M., & Vivyan, N. (online). Electoral Violence in England and Wales, 1832–1914. Past & Present: A Journal of Historical Studies, https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtae017
• Caldwell, D., Cohen, G., & Vivyan, N. (online). Long-Run Trends in Partisan Polarization of Climate Policy-Relevant Attitudes Across Countries. Environmental Politics, https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2024.2403957
• Kuhn, P. M., & Vivyan, N. (2022). The Misreporting Trade-off Between List Experiments and Direct Questions in Practice: Partition Validation Evidence from Two Countries. Political Analysis, 30(3), 381-402. https://doi.org/10.1017/pan.2021.10
• Bischof, D., Cohen, G., Cohen, S., Foos, F., Kuhn, P. M., Nanou, K., Visalvanich, N., & Vivyan, N. (2022). Advantages, Challenges and Limitations of Audit Experiments with Constituents. Political Studies Review, 20(2), 192-200. https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299211037865
• Kuhn, P. M., Mellish, S., & Vivyan, N. (2021). Psychological Threat and Turnout Misreporting. Electoral Studies, 70, Article 102276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102276
• Glinitzer, K., Vivyan, N., & Wagner, M. (2020). Costly signals: Voter responses to parliamentary dissent in Austria, Britain and Germany. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 45(4), 645-678. https://doi.org/10.1111/lsq.12274
• Hanretty, C., Lauderdale, B. E., & Vivyan, N. (2020). A Choice-Based Measure of Issue Importance in the Electorate. American Journal of Political Science, 64(3), 519-535. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12470
• Vivyan, N., Wagner, M., Glinitzer, K., & Moritz-Eberl, J. (2020). Do Humble Beginnings Help? How Politician Class Roots Shape Voter Evaluations. Electoral Studies, 63, Article 102093. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2019.102093
• Eggers, A. C., & Vivyan, N. (2020). Who Votes More Strategically?. American Political Science Review, 114(2), 470-485. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055419000820
• Campbell, R., Cowley, P., Vivyan, N., & Wagner, M. (2019). Why friends and neighbors? Explaining the electoral appeal of local roots. Journal of Politics, 81(3), 937-951. https://doi.org/10.1086/703131
• Campbell, R., Cowley, P., Vivyan, N., & Markus, W. (2019). Legislator dissent as a valence signal. British Journal of Political Science, 49(1), 105-128. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007123416000223
• Hanretty, C., Lauderdale, B. E., & Vivyan, N. (2018). Comparing Strategies for Estimating Constituency Opinion from National Survey Samples. Political Science Research and Methods, 6(3), 571-591. https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2015.79
• Kuhn, P. M., & Vivyan, N. (2018). Reducing Turnout Misreporting in Online Surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly, 82(2), 300-321. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfy017
• Lauderdale, B. E., Hanretty, C., & Vivyan, N. (2018). Decomposing Public Opinion Variation into Ideology, Idiosyncrasy, and Instability. Journal of Politics, 80(2), 707-712. https://doi.org/10.1086/695673
• Eggers, A. C., Vivyan, N., & Wagner, M. (2018). Corruption, accountability, and gender: Do female politicians face higher standards in public life?. Journal of Politics, 80(1), 321-326. https://doi.org/10.1086/694649
• Hanretty, C., Lauderdale, B. E., & Vivyan, N. (2017). Dyadic representation in a Westminster system. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 42(2), 235-267. https://doi.org/10.1111/lsq.12148
• Hanretty, C., Lauderdale, B. E., & Vivyan, N. (2016). Combining national and constituency polling for forecasting. Electoral Studies, 41, 239-243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2015.11.019
• Vivyan, N., & Wagner, M. (2016). House or Home? Constituent preferences over legislator effort allocation. European Journal of Political Research, 55(1), 81-99. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12119
• Vivyan, N., & Wagner, M. (2015). What do voters want from their local MP?. The Political Quarterly, 86(1), 33-40. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923x.12128
• Wagner, M., Tarlov, J., & Vivyan, N. (2014). Partisan bias in opinion formation on episodes of political controversy: evidence from Great Britain. Political Studies, 62(1), 136-158. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.01002.x
• Vivyan, N., Wagner, M., & Tarlov, J. (2012). Representative misconduct, voter perceptions and accountability: Evidence from the 2009 House of Commons expenses scandal. Electoral Studies, 31(4), 750-763. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2012.06.010
• Vivyan, N., & Wagner, M. (2012). Do voters reward rebellion? The electoral accountability of MPs in Britain. European Journal of Political Research, 51(2), 235-264. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2011.01998.x
• Hix, S., Høyland, B., & Vivyan, N. (2010). From doves to hawks: A spatial analysis of voting in the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. European Journal of Political Research, 49(6), 731-758. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2010.01916.x