Richard Thaler was awarded the Nobel prize for economics in October, for work that has “built a bridge between the economic and psychological analyses of individual decision-making”. … Nick Clegg, meanwhile, is adapting to life outside Westminster. He was leader of the Liberal Democrats between 2007 and 2015, deputy prime minister […] Read more »
How to persuade people that climate change is real
… What exactly does change minds about climate science? Research suggests that a variety of messages can influence people’s agreement with the scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and humans are contributing to it. And different people may respond differently to different kinds of messages. Here are five insights […] Read more »
Conservatives probably can’t be persuaded on climate change. So now what?
When it comes to climate change, US conservatives inhabit a unique position, as part of the only major political party in the democratic world to reject the legitimacy of climate science and any domestic policy or international agreement meant to address it. Instead, the GOP is working actively to increase […] Read more »
Polarized Opinion on Climate Change and Messages that Move Conservatives
Despite increasing scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, the parties are growing increasingly divided. Matt Grossmann talks to Megan Mulling [sic] about new research on climate polarization, the factors that influence climate opinion, and how to manage the partisan divide. He also talks to Graham Dixon about a new experiment […] Read more »
Sex, power and the systems that enable men like Harvey Weinstein
… When we learn of injustice, it’s only human to focus on how to eliminate or punish the person responsible. But my research into the social psychology of power suggests that — without exculpating corrupt individuals — we also need to take a hard look at the social systems in which […] Read more »
Why the wiring of our brains makes it hard to stop climate change
… Humans aren’t well wired to act on complex statistical risks. We care a lot more about the tangible present than the distant future. Many of us do that to the extreme — what behavioral scientists call hyperbolic discounting — which makes it particularly hard to grapple with something like […] Read more »