Research

My research examines the motivations behind people's concern and willingness to take action to address social problems. Much of my work is conducted as part of interdisciplinary teams, integrating ideas and methods from several fields to generate new approaches to studying environmental issues. My current lines of research are focused on:

• How performing pro-environmental behaviors can impact people's self-perceptions and their political attitudes regarding climate change. I also examine the unintended consequences or “spillover effects” of environmental behavior and attitude change interventions.

• Integrating human behavioral feedbacks into the modeling of the climate and other ecological systems.

• The role of emotion, cognition, gender norms, and social processes in perceptions of risk surrounding climate change, renewable energy technologies, and health decision-making.

• How labels and stereotypes impact our perceptions of others, including environmentalists and people involved with extremist groups.