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Professor John Dixon

Professor Of Social Psychology

Psychology

john.dixon@open.ac.uk

0152433157

Biography

 

About Me

Having grown up in Northern Ireland and South Africa, I have a particular interest in the social psychology of intergroup contact, conflict, desegregation, and re-segregation in historically divided societies. I also firmly believe that methods and concepts must adequately address the complexity of psychological processes as they unfold in everyday life contexts.

This has led me to explore a variety of methodological and conceptual frameworks, including those 'borrowed' from Linguistics, Geography, and Sociology. It has also led me to avoid the—for me, fruitless—polarization of ‘quantitative’ versus ‘qualitative’ research in social psychology in favor of conducting detailed case studies that combine various methodological strategies, approaches, and techniques. I have sought to bring this vision to my work as co-Editor (with Jolanda Jetten) of the British Journal of Social Psychology and Associate Editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology.

I have been privileged to collaborate on several international projects and to have worked extensively with colleagues from other disciplines. My latest projects are funded by the Leverhulme Foundation and the Australian Research Council respectively. The Leverhulme project is an interdisciplinary collaboration (with Professor John Wolffe from OU History as Principal Investigator) that integrates psychological and historical perspectives on anti-Catholicism in the UK. The ARC project—led by Professor Stefania Paolini, Durham University—uses both psychological and geographic perspectives to understand everyday patterns of contact-seeking and avoidance. It combines survey, observation, and experimental methods with GPS tracking data and GIS analytics.

Research Interests

Working with longstanding collaborators Kevin Durrheim and Colin Tredoux, my early research in post-apartheid South Africa highlighted the lack of support for equality and desegregation policies.

This work:

  • Developed understanding of the so-called ‘principle-implementation gap’ in white attitudes to social change (for a review, see Dixon et al., 2017).
  • Challenged the dominant approach to social change in psychology by exploring the sometimes ‘ironic’ consequences of prejudice reduction interventions such as the contact hypothesis (Dixon et al., 2005,  2012).
  • Developed now widely adopted methods and concepts for understanding the persistence of racial segregation as a ‘micro-ecological’ system (Dixon & Durrheim, 2003).
  • Helped to drive the emergence of a ‘spatial turn’ in social psychology, as exemplified by a critical reworking of classic concepts such as ‘place identity’ and ‘place attachment’ (Dixon & Durrheim, 2000, 2004).

My more recent ESRC-funded research programme has integrated psychological and geographic perspectives on sectarian relations in Northern Ireland. This involved bringing together a team of geographers, anthropologists, GIS specialists, and psychologists to:

  • Build a new approach to understanding ‘activity space segregation’ in divided cities, based around understanding everyday mobility practices  (e.g., Dixon et al., 2020, 2022).
  • Develop a Boundary Transgression Model of resistance to desegregation (Dixon et al., 2025).

My work has also involved engagement beyond academia through public talks and exhibitions, policy workshops and briefings, community events, and open access websites (e.g., @Belfast Mobility Project). It includes collaborations with organisations such as the Belfast Housing Executive, the Belfast City Council, and the Northern Ireland Department of Justice.

Examples of some of our work:

Dixon, J., Durrheim, K., Tredoux, C., McKeown, S., Stevenson, C., & Huck, J. (under review). ‘Crossing the line’: A Boundary Transgression Model of resistance to desegregation. European Review of Social Psychology.

Dixon, J., Sturgeon, B., Huck, J., Hocking, B., Jarman, N., Bryan, B., Whyatt, D., Davies, G., & Tredoux, C. (2022). Navigating the divided city: Place identity and the time-geography of segregation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 84 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101908

Dixon, J., Tredoux, C., Davies, G., Huck, J., Hocking, B., Sturgeon, B., Whyatt, D., Jarman, N. & Bryan, D. (2020). Parallel lives: Intergroup contact, threat, and the segregation of everyday activity spaces. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 118, 457-480. DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000191

Dixon, J. Durrheim, K. & Thomae, M. (2017). The principle-implementation gap in attitudes towards racial equality (and how to close it). Advances in Political Psychology, 38, 91–126.

Dixon, J., Levine, M., Reicher, S. & Durrheim, K. (2012). Beyond prejudice: Are negative evaluations the problem and is getting us to like one another more the solution? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35, 411-425

Dixon, J. & Levine, M. (Eds). (2012). Beyond prejudice: Extending the social psychology of intergroup conflict, inequality and social change. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Press.

Dixon, J., Durrheim, K., & Tredoux, C. (2007). Intergroup contact and attitudes towards the principle and practice of racial equality. Psychological Science, 18, 867-872.

Durrheim, K. & Dixon, J. (2005). Racial Encounter: The Social Psychology of Contact and Desegregation.  London: Psychology Press.

Dixon, J., Durrheim, K. & Tredoux, C. (2005). Beyond the optimal contact strategy: A ‘reality check’ for the contact hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60, 697-711.

Dixon, J. & Durrheim, K. (2004). Dislocating identity: Desegregation and the transformation of place. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24, 455-473.

Dixon, J. & Durrheim, K. (2003). Contact and the ecology of racial division: Some varieties of informal segregation. British Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 1-23.

 

Teaching and Leadership

I have served for several years as Chair of DE200, the undergraduate module that delivers our core Level 2, BPS-accredited curriculum to a cohort of almost 4,000 students. I am now leading on the planning and production of its successor module, D220.

I have also contributed in various leadership roles across my career at the OU. For example, I served as

  • Deputy Head of the Department of Psychology (2012–2014) and subsequently as Head of Department (2014–2017).
  • Deputy Chair of the OU’s REF submission to the 2014 Sociology UoA and as Impact Lead for our REF 2021 submission to the Psychology UoA, a role I am reprising for the 2029 REF.

 

Publications

Book

Investigating Psychology 2 (Volumes 1-3) (2015)

Beyond Prejudice: Extending the Social Psychology of Conflict, Inequality and Social Change (2012)

Book Chapter

Beyond Prejudice as Antipathy: Understanding kinder, gentler forms of discrimination (2022)

Non-citizens' rights: Xenophobia, nationalism and struggle post-transition (2022)

From prejudice reduction to collective action: Two psychological models of social change (and how to reconcile them) (2016)

Fact and evaluation in racist discourse revisited (2016)

Is seeing believing?: visual perception and attention for dynamic scenes (2015)

Can I do two things at once? Attention and dual tasking ability (2015)

Conclusion: the challenges and opportunities of an integrative approach (2014)

Investigating Psychology: an integrative approach (2014)

Journal Article

Reaching across social divides deliberately: Theoretical, political, and practical implications of intergroup contact volition for intergroup relations (2024)

The use of GNSS technology in smartphones to collect sensitive data on human mobility practices: Ethical challenges and potential solutions (2024)

Ironies of proximity: Intergroup threat and contact avoidance on neighbourhood interface areas (2023)

The contact hypothesis and the virtual revolution: Does face-to-face interaction remain central to improving intergroup relations? (2023)

Fuzzy Bayesian inference for mapping vague and place-based regions: a case study of sectarian territory (2023)

Thoroughly thought through? Experimenting with Registered Reports (2022)

Navigating the divided city: Place identity and the time-geography of segregation (2022)

Everyday dehumanization: Negative contact, humiliation, and the lived experience of being treated as ‘less than human’ (2022)

Negative contact, collective action, and social change: Critical reflections, technological advances, and new directions (2021)

A Liar and a Copycat: Nonverbal Coordination Increases with Lie Difficulty (2021)

Can regenerated inner-city areas remain sites of public-place sociability? Psycho-social processes predicting public sociability in a changing neighbourhood (2021)

Fostering social change among advantaged and disadvantaged group members: Integrating intergroup contact and social identity perspectives on collective action (2021)

‘When the walls come tumbling down’: The role of intergroup proximity, threat, and contact in shaping attitudes towards the removal of Northern Ireland’s peace walls (2020)

Parallel lives: Intergroup contact, threat and the segregation of everyday activity spaces (2020)

It’s not just ‘us’ versus ‘them’: Moving beyond binary perspectives on intergroup processes (2020)

Xenophobic Violence and Struggle Discourse in South Africa. (2019)

Understanding how and why spatial segregation endures: A systematic review of recent research on intergroup relations at a micro-ecological scale (2019)

Networks of (Dis)connection: Mobility Practices, Tertiary Streets and Sectarian Divisions in North Belfast (2019)

Exploring segregation and sharing in a divided city: A PGIS approach (2019)

Negotiating the Ground: ‘Mobilizing’ a Divided Field Site in the ‘Post-Conflict’ City (2018)

‘Thinking ill of others without sufficient warrant?’ Transcending the accuracy-inaccuracy dualism in prejudice and stereotyping research (2017)

Beyond the two-group paradigm in studies of intergroup conflict and inequality: Third parties and intergroup alliances in xenophobic violence in South Africa (2017)

The principle-implementation gap in attitudes towards racial equality (and how to close it) (2017)

Contact, Political Solidarity and Collective Action: An Indian Case Study of Relations between Historically Disadvantaged Communities (2017)

The Struggle for the Nature of “Prejudice”: “Prejudice” Expression as Identity Performance (2016)

Divide and Rule, Unite and Resist: Contact, Collective Action and Policy Attitudes among Historically Disadvantaged Groups (2015)

The Social Psychology of Citizenship: Engagement With Citizenship Studies and Future Research (2015)

The Social Psychology of Citizenship, Participation and Social Exclusion: Introduction to the Special Thematic Section (2015)

More Than Words: Place, Discourse and the Struggle over Public Space in Barcelona (2015)

Explaining the paradoxical effects of intergroup contact: Paternalistic relations and system justification in domestic labour in South Africa (2014)

‘What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding?’ Further Reflections on the Limits of Prejudice Reduction as a Model of Social Change (2013)

Beyond prejudice: are negative evaluations the problem and is getting us to like one another more the solution? (2012)

On the contested nature of place: 'Figuera’s Well', 'The Hole of Shame' and the ideological struggle over public space in Barcelona (2011)

Predicting support for racial transformation policies: intergroup threat, racial prejudice, sense of group entitlement and strength of identification (2011)

Challenging the stubborn core of opposition to equality: racial contact and policy attitudes (2010)

A paradox of integration? Interracial contact, prejudice reduction and perceptions of racial discrimination (2010)

Mapping the multiple contexts of racial isolation: the case of Long Street, Cape Town (2009)

'The inner citadels of the color line’: Mapping the micro-ecology of segregation in everyday life spaces (2008)