Dr Johnny Lawson

I am a Social Psychologist and have been teaching summer programs and weekend courses for PACE for over 20 years. I am currently a Fellow and Director of Studies for Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Girton College, Cambridge, and a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Psychological Research at Oxford Brookes University.

My interest in autism began during my third year as an undergraduate at Cambridge, which led to a PhD at the Autism Research Centre and many years of research exploring the autism spectrum. I developed an alternative cognitive model that synthesises the three dominant frameworks in the field. This model has implications not only for understanding the spectrum itself, but also for exploring sex differences in the general population and the broader effects of male-biased cognitive styles on social structures and value systems.

More recently, my work has focused on the ‘Dark Triad’ - sub-clinical psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. I am particularly interested in how certain social environments and institutions reward these traits, and the unexpected advantages they can bring in specific contexts. Across my research, I aim to understand how individual cognitive and personality differences interact with social structures to shape behaviour, institutions, and cultural norms.