I am an Associate Professor in the School of Psychological Science whose research interests lie at the intersections of social, environmental and discursive psychology – domains that I explore using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
A primary theoretical focus of my research has been the role of moral processes in attempts to bring about the fundamental societal and institutional changes necessary to avert the potentially disastrous consequences of environmental degradation, especially anthropogenic climate change. My research targets this agenda across three levels of analysis. Firstly, I explore moral processes at the institutional level by examining the psychological and behavioural implications of authorities implementing different forms of policies designed to change behavior. My past work has shown, for example, that different types of policies, and their framing, invoke different models of moral understanding and behavioural responses. For example, in recent work we have shown that the ‘warm glow’ of recycling schemes can potentially make people more wasteful if communications surrounding their implementation are not carefully managed. Secondly, I investigate processes of morality at the societal level by analysing circulating (social) media and political discourses and the social network structures through which they diffuse. Finally, at the interpersonal level, I explore how the morally normative status (or lack thereof) of environmental issues manifests in people’s reactions to interpersonal confrontations of environmental disregard and also the ways in which social identities are formed and negotiated with regards to moralised minority practices. I am interested in understanding the implications of both processes in relation to their potential to empower or inhibit societal change towards environmental sustainability.