Fusing Facts and Feelings to Motivate Action on Climate Change
Dr. Attari works on how to engage people in solving environmental problems. Come listen to this interdisciplinary problem-solver and collaborator help us understand how to mobilize the public for climate solutions.
—Sarah Anderson, Professor, Bren School
Abstract
Solutions to climate change rest on science, technology, political will, and public support. In this talk I will discuss efforts from our lab over the past decade that aim to address problems related to human behavior, resource use, and climate change. Using methods that have strong links to environmental and cognitive science, we have investigated questions ranging from how people think about how much energy different appliances use, how to correct misperceptions using expert heuristics, what energy mix people want us to use in 2050, and some factors that shape the credibility of climate communicators. In this talk I will provide an overview of some of our main research findings and a taste of our current research projects. I would love to engage with you all on the path forward. Please bring questions and ideas.
Bio
Shahzeen Attari’s research focuses on people's judgments and decisions about climate change and resource use. Some of her research has investigated how people think about energy and water use, how people conceptualize water systems, and how the carbon footprint of climate communicators affects their audience’s policy support. Among other projects, she is currently studying how to use stories to fuse facts and feelings to motivate action on climate change. She is an Associate Professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) at Indiana University Bloomington. You can find out more about her and her research at www.szattari.com.