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Draft:Michael Robbins

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  • Comment: As with most professor drafts, this one lacks independent reliable sources. Pbritti (talk) 04:22, 10 August 2025 (UTC)

Michael Robbins is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics and public opinion in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). He is the Director and Co‑Principal Investigator of the Arab Barometer,[1] the leading research organization covering public opinion in the Arab region, which has conducted over 135,000 public opinion interviews. Robbins is a also senior researcher affiliated with Princeton University and is widely cited in international media and scholarly publications. He is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[2]

Early Life

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Robbins earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2012. His dissertation, Bound by Brand: Opposition Party Support Under Electoral Authoritarianism,[3] received the Aaron Wildavsky Award from the American Political Science Association in 2013 for best dissertation in religion and politics.[4] He holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University (2003).

Career

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Robbins has held key roles in major public opinion research organizations:

Earlier in his career, Robbins worked with the World Bank and the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute at Qatar University.

Research and Publications

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Robbins has authored and co-authored dozens of academic articles and book chapters. His work has appeared in journals such as Foreign Affairs, Journal of Democracy, Comparative Political Studies, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, and Journal of Conflict Resolution.

Selected academic works include:

Robbins has contributed extensively to the field of research data quality. PercentMatch, developed by Michael Robbins and Noble Kuriakose, is a statistical tool designed to detect potential data fabrication in public opinion surveys.[5] The program identifies respondents whose answers match an unusually high proportion of another respondent's answers—an indicator of possible falsification. Robbins and Kuriakose's analysis revealed that many widely used international survey datasets may contain significant levels of fabricated data.[5]

The development and findings of PercentMatch received broad attention, including coverage in Science[6] and The Washington Post.[7][8] A peer-reviewed study in Political Analysis[9] concluded that PercentMatch was the most effective available statistical method for identifying falsified responses in survey data.

The impact of this work was substantial: it helped spark renewed scrutiny of survey data quality and served as a cornerstone for two major task force reports—one by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and a joint AAPOR and World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR).[10] These reports established best practices and standards for quality assurance in public opinion research with Robbins serving as an author on the joint AAPOR/WAPOR task force.[10] Robbins is also an author of the quality control section on a revised and updated version the United Nations Handbook on household surveys.

Media

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Robbins' analysis has been featured in the Washington Post,[11][12][13] Foreign Policy,[14] and The Conversation.[15] He has written extensively for the Monkey Cage blog , focusing on topics such as political Islam, public attitudes toward democracy, and Arab responses to conflict. His work and expertise has been featured in: The New York Times,[16] The Economist,[17] The BBC,[18][19] CNN,[20][21] and the Sunday Times Radio, among others.

Awards and Grants

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Personal Life

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Robbins is a member of the Board of Directors of the Santa Fe Opera[22] and the Lensic Center for the Performing Arts.[23]

References

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  1. ^ "Michael Robbins, PhD – Arab Barometer". Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  2. ^ "Council on Foreign Relations". www.cfr.org. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  3. ^ Robbins, Michael D. (2012). Bound by Brand: Opposition Party Support under Electoral Authoritarianism (Thesis thesis). hdl:2027.42/93906.
  4. ^ "Aaron Wildavsky Best Dissertation Award Past Recipients – Religion and Politics". Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  5. ^ a b Kuriakose, Noble; Robbins, Michael (2016-08-01). "Don't get duped: Fraud through duplication in public opinion surveys". Statistical Journal of the IAOS. 32 (3): 283–291. doi:10.3233/SJI-160978. ISSN 1874-7655.
  6. ^ "Many surveys, about one in five, may contain fraudulent data". www.science.org. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  7. ^ Gelman, Andrew; Edwards, Jonathan; Hax, Carolyn; Natanson, Hannah; Stein, Jeff; Diamond, Dan; Siegel, Rachel; Judkis, Maura; Gilbert, Daniel (2016-02-27). "Can you trust international surveys?". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  8. ^ Robbins, Michael; Edwards, Jonathan; Hax, Carolyn; Natanson, Hannah; Stein, Jeff; Diamond, Dan; Siegel, Rachel; Judkis, Maura; Gilbert, Daniel (2016-03-26). "Yes, you can trust international surveys. Mostly". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  9. ^ Cohen, Mollie J.; Warner, Zach (April 2021). "How to Get Better Survey Data More Efficiently". Political Analysis. 29 (2): 121–138. doi:10.1017/pan.2020.20. ISSN 1047-1987.
  10. ^ a b "AAPOR/WAPOR Task Force Report on Quality in Comparative Surveys". World Association for Public Opinion Research. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  11. ^ Robbins, Michael; Edwards, Jonathan; Hax, Carolyn; Natanson, Hannah; Stein, Jeff; Diamond, Dan; Siegel, Rachel; Gilbert, Daniel; Judkis, Maura (2016-05-20). "Five years after the revolution, more and more Tunisians support democracy". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  12. ^ Tessler, Mark; Robbins, Michael; Jamal, Amaney; Edwards, Jonathan; Hax, Carolyn; Natanson, Hannah; Stein, Jeff; Diamond, Dan; Siegel, Rachel (2016-07-27). "What do ordinary citizens in the Arab world really think about the Islamic State?". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  13. ^ Robbins, Michael; Edwards, Jonathan; Hax, Carolyn; Natanson, Hannah; Stein, Jeff; Diamond, Dan; Siegel, Rachel; Gilbert, Daniel; Judkis, Maura (2019-09-19). "Analysis | Protests continue in Algeria. Why?". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  14. ^ Tessler, Michael Robbins, Mark (2025-07-29). "Tunisians voted for jobs, not Islam". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2025-07-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Robbins, Michael (2015-07-15). "What the Arab street thinks of Iran and of US policy toward Iran". The Conversation. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  16. ^ "Can the Palestinian Authority Really Govern Gaza After the War? (Published 2023)". 2023-11-24. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  17. ^ "Despots are pushing the Arab world to become more secular". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  18. ^ "Arabs believe economy is weak under democracy". 2022-07-06. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  19. ^ Arab Barometer الباروميتر العربي (2022-07-22). BBC World News: Interview with Dr. Michael Robbins on Racism in MENA. Retrieved 2025-07-26 – via YouTube.
  20. ^ Arab Barometer الباروميتر العربي (2023-10-30). CNN interview: What Palestinians Really Think of Hamas. Retrieved 2025-07-26 – via YouTube.
  21. ^ Survey conducted before the Hamas terror attack showed low Palestinian support for the group | CNN. 2023-10-29. Retrieved 2025-07-26 – via www.cnn.com.
  22. ^ "Board of Directors | Santa Fe Opera". www.santafeopera.org. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  23. ^ "Lensic Board". The Lensic. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
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