During the Covid-19 pandemic, public debates about the validity of scientific findings and the value of science have intensified, as some Americans have actively resisted and even denied the legitimacy of scientific guidance about how to address the disease. What are the social and psychological drivers of public skepticism about science? How can skeptics be convinced otherwise? How do we evaluate the role of facts, of political affinity, and of personal identity in the rejection of scientifi...

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of mind, embracing psychology, computer modeling, neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, and philosophy. Its intellectual roots are in the 1950s when cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence began. Its organizational roots are in the 1970s when the term “cognitive science” was introduced and the Cognitive Science Society was formed. Cognitive science combines ideas and methods from multiple fields to address important questions about ...

Over the last several years, there has been an explosion of interest and attention devoted to the problem of Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) in climate science—that is, to giving quantitative estimates of the degree of uncertainty associated with the predictions of global and regional climate models. The technical challenges associated with this project are formidable, and so the statistical community has understandably devoted itself primarily to overcoming them. But even as these technical ...

Central to solving the climate change problem is the design of sophisticated observational means and model systems. The integration of reliable measurements over long periods, at high resolution, including a wide range of variables and on a global scale, is a huge worldwide effort. It is paramount to the assessment of climate change. It is also the key for our deeper understanding, for model validation and for harmonizing the evaluation process from data analysis, to simulations, all the w...

In order to win the world war against climate change, one will have to incentivize billions of people and enterprises to implement a myriad of micro- and macro-actions to reduce global emissions. The problem is that these stakeholders will bear 100% of the cost, and basically 0% of the benefits, which will mostly goes to future generations. This so-called externality and free-rider problems have only one solution which is unanimously supported by economists. They propose to implement the poll...

Integrating the social sciences into knowledge production about climate change is widely recognized as difficult, for various reasons. But political science presents a particular sort of problem for such integrated knowledge production. When produced for policy-oriented processes, where policy-makers may themselves get to revise and approve the text of a document (as is the case for IPCC reports), knowledge focused on explaining and evaluating the performance of political systems on climate c...

This lecture is will describe a research program directed at uncovering the cognitive mechanisms involved in non-expert understanding and use of information to make decisions under uncertainty. It will begin by providing background on the key principles of human information processing, including its strengths and limitations, that form the basis of the cognitive approach. Then it will focus on issues related to decision-making under uncertainty, from an applied perspective, in the context of ...

Research on environmental decision-making provides a strong basis for understanding decision that have consequence for climate. In particular, three traditions of research, the rational actor model, environmental social psychology and the heuristics and biases approach have each explored what shapes consequential decisions. I will review each approach, delimiting its strengths and limits. However, we lack a synthesis across these traditions, or even a strong understanding of which approach ap...

Typical arguments for why we have not yet come close to achieving our climate and sustainability goals have to do with the power of vested interests, resistance to change, and ignorance of the true state of affairs. This presentation explores three other possible reasons (reliance on baseline thinking; a lack of attention to development pathways, and a focus on individual conscious choice) and suggests alternative approaches to all three. The paper concludes that rather than trying to change ...

I will examine both the “supply side” and “demand side” of climate denial. On the supply side, I will report the evidence for the organized dissemination of disinformation by political operatives and vested interests, and how the media respond to these distortions of the media landscape. On the demand side, I explore the variables that drive people’s rejection of climate science and lead them to accept denialist talking points, with a particular focus on the issue of political symmetry. The e...

Much like a viral contagion, false information about climate change can spread rapidly from one individual to another. Moreover, once lodged in memory, misinformation is difficult to correct. Inoculation theory, therefore, offers a natural basis for developing a psychological ‘vaccine’ against the spread of fake news and misinformation about climate change. Specifically, in a series of randomized lab and field studies, we show that it is possible to pre-emptively “immunize” people against cli...

Misinformation about climate change confuses the public, reduces support for mitigation policies, and cancels out accurate information. Inoculation theory offers one approach to effectively neutralize the influence of misinformation. With inoculation, misinformation is delivered in a “weakened form” by warning of the threat of being misled along with counterarguments explaining the misleading techniques within denialist claims.  In order to identify reasoning fallacies within misinformation, ...

Audience segmentation in the U.S. and Canada has identified discrete groups with beliefs and values that predispose them to ignore, dispute, or attend closely to information on climate change. Understanding these predispositions allows us to design communications that can reduce the obstacles inhibiting audiences from becoming more engaged with the issue. Audiences that are already concerned about climate change want information on effective solutions and actions they can personally take to r...

This presentation considers the varied ways that one can model and analyze the science-politics communication process with regard to climate change. The focus is particularly on the following: the ways that politics further confounds existing challenges faced by climate scientists when speaking to those outside of their respective domains; the processes that allow media-based climate science reports to impact public opinion and policy outcomes; and the options we have to improve how climate s...

The level of ecological degradation caused by human activities now presents such a risk of global instability that we have no choice but to rethink in depth the way our modern societies are organized. This requires not only transforming our lifestyles but also reassessing the structure of our sociotechnical systems and our spatial planning strategies. Doing so requires that the actors of sustainable development take into account in their reasoning and decision-making the human dimension, alon...

A complete policy response to climate change, habitat destruction, plastic pollution, and other Anthropocene challenges requires action by governments, industries, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals. Attempts to drive change at the individual level often confront reactions like “Why should I bother altering my behavior? And if I do change, will my actions make a difference?” In this talk I discuss the drivers and predictors of individuals’ perceptions of the risk of climate change...

1-Flourishing, not sustainability, is the right vision for the future2- The Right Way to Flourish. Reconnecting with the Real WorldThe call to sustainability has failed to rouse the world to the urgent need for critique and remedial action. In its place, flourishing is the proper normative vision to put Planet Earth on a viable trajectory, halting the present downward spiral of environmental and social deterioration. Flourish...

Climate activism is crucial for any sustained progress on climate action. I will discuss this from two systemic perspectives in social science: political economy and science communication. I will explore what the terms "fossil capitalism" and "captured state" mean in reality and for activism, in particular through the lens of the political economy of dependence on cars. I will build on this systemic understanding to draw lessons for the role, potential and necessity of social organizing and a...

Climate activism has been hitting the streets since the early 2000s, but has come in notable peaks and troughs. What is it that causes those peaks and troughs? And where might we expect climate activism to go next after the latest wave of civil disobedience? What allowed these new waves of climate activism (Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future) to emerge and flourish? The talk will focus mostly on the British case, exploring frictions and factions and undercover policing as demotivatin...