Social Climate

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that the time is “now or never” to address global warming. But despite a history of bipartisan success on environmental issues within the United States, where the two major political parties enacted laws to protect the planet, the American political system has largely failed. With this backdrop, this talk presents a program of social psychological research that has sought to understand the psychological barriers to bipartisan climate policy within the United States. Climate policies are enacted by people within social contexts. This broader context constitutes the “social climate.” Through analyses of quantitative data and interviews, using survey, experimental, qualitative, and correlational methods, the talk will highlight the relevance of social psychological research to the climate crisis. Central to the analysis is an ecosystem of four interconnected actors that both reflect and perpetuate the conflict, highlighting challenges and opportunities. First, the public, whose beliefs, concerns, and preferences shape, and are shaped by, political and media discourse. Second, the politicians, who (with their staffs) design, enact, or obstruct climate policy. Third, the media, which reports on climate science, public attitudes, and political decisions, and thus functions as a central conduit of information between the other actors. Fourth, the activists, who aim to influence public opinion and political action to advance climate goals. Examination of how these actors perceive and respond to one another can help to uncover the disconnections and misconnections that impede policy progress—and identify the social psychological forces that shape how we collectively address the challenges of climate change.

Bio

David Sherman received his PhD in psychology at Stanford University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health psychology at UCLA. In 2003, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is Professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences. Dr. Sherman’s research on self-affirmation has been influential in understanding of motivations that lead people to engage in defensive biases. Over the past decade he has shifted much of his research focus to addressing climate change and has founded the Social Climate Science Lab, which seeks to advance social psychological theorizing in the domain of environment sustainability. The lab seeks to identify novel approaches for understanding barriers to advancing climate policy and what drives pro-environmental actions.

Dr. Sherman was Associate Editor at the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Editor of Personality and Social Psychology Review. He served as president of the International Society for Self and Identity and was a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. He has written op-eds about political polarization and climate change for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and The Hill, and the Washington Post. Dr. Sherman’s research has been supported by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health. He is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Society for Personality & Social Psychology.