FEATURING
Dr. Shahzeen Attari, Professor, Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University
TITLE
Perception and motivation challenges for decarbonization.
ABSTRACT
Solutions to climate change rest on science, technology, political will, and public support. In this talk, I will discuss efforts from our lab that aim to address problems related to human behavior, resource use, and climate change. Using methods that have strong links to environmental and psychological science, I will discuss highlights from our research ranging from perceptions of household-level energy use to state- and country-level energy mixes, and ways to correct misperceptions. I will discuss motivating factors for decarbonization solutions and some challenges we will need to address. I will end with a brief overview of our current ongoing work that deals with low carbon technology uptake. I would love to engage with you all on the path forward. You can find out more about our work here.
BIO
Dr. Shahzeen Attari’s research focuses on the psychology of resource use and how to motivate action on climate change. Attari and her lab work on problems that draw on both cognitive and environmental science, and focus on perceptions, motivations, and biases related to climate change and sustainability.
Attari’s work has been published in leading science journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Climatic Change, and has received media attention from major news outlets including the BBC, The Economist, The New York Times, and NPR.
Prior to working at Indiana University, Attari was a postdoctoral fellow at the Earth Institute and the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) at Columbia University. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering & Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Bachelors of Science in Engineering Physics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Annually the Department of Psychology hosts a Colloquia Series throughout the academic year. This exciting program brings us together outside of the classroom to have conversations with the speakers we’ve invited to our campus to share their ideas. You’ll have the chance to hear from international speakers on a wide range of provocative topics.
