Is it possible to overcome climate polarization?

Issue #154: The biggest lessons from climate change studies in psychology

Last week, in one of his first acts as incoming President, Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. 2024 set a new record for the warmest year on record, and this dealt a serious blow to worldwide efforts to address climate change. Addressing climate change will require a massive level of cooperation and having American leaders pull in and out of international agreements seriously undercuts these efforts.

To get a better handle on how we might address this issue, Jay attended a conference last semester with several experts on climate change hailing from backgrounds in law and policy to business and media gathered at Vanderbilt Law School for the Bypassing Climate Polarization Conference (organized by Michael Vandenbergh). Jay was one of the few psychologists at the event and gave the keynote talk (Nate Luce wrote an excellent summary of his talk, along with the rest of the conference, which we share below).

One of the most interesting things about the conference is that …