“The Fierce Urgency of Now”:

Intergroup Conflict and the Social Psychology of Climate Change Policy

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, I present a program of social psychological research that has sought to understand the psychological barriers to bipartisan climate policy within the U.S. The research program, steeped in traditional experimental social psychology on intergroup conflict, is situated within the context of four interconnected agents that both reflect and perpetuate the conflict: 1) the public, that recognizes the existence and importance of the climate crisis, but who are influenced by identity and norms; 2) the politicians, who make policy within their own social psychological context; 3) the media, who advance narratives of extremity; and 4) the activists, who try to influence the other agents to act with the urgency that is required. Through analyses of survey, experimental, qualitative, and correlational data from these four agents, the talk highlights the relevance of social psychological research to ongoing conflicts, while, at the same time, examines its impact at affecting change commensurate with the urgency of the moment.

Sponsorship of an event does not constitute institutional endorsement of external speakers or views presented.