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POST-DOC
PHILIP PARNAMETS - NYU Social Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow
Philip completed his PhD in cognitive science at Lund University and has spent two years as a postdoc with the Emotion Lab at Karolinska Institutet. His research is grounded in a broad interest in the cognitive and computational mechanisms underlying preference change, decision making and learning, especially in the moral domain. In the Social Identity and Morality lab his work focuses on dynamic models of social learning about moral agents and of moral choices generally. Philip spends his spare time creating, listening or dancing to electronic music.
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Climate Change
Tackling climate change requires collective action, yet pro-environmental behaviors—such as reducing carbon footprints, recycling, and supporting climate policies—often demand personal effort and sacrifice. Our research examines the psychological and social factors that shape people’s willingness to engage in these behaviors. In a large-scale study across 63 countries, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions to determine which strategies are most effective in motivating climate action and support for pro-environmental policies (Vlasceanu et al., 2024). Our findings reveal that effectiveness varies based on factors such as climate beliefs, cultural context, and political identity. Notably, while many campaigns rely on fear-based messaging to drive behavior change, our research suggests that such approaches can backfire, reinforcing resistance rather than inspiring action. Additionally, across 60 countries, we find that partisanship plays a critical role in shaping the impact of climate interventions, influencing both individual behaviors and policy support (Berkebile-Weinberg et al., 2024). In a recent review, we discuss how collective cognition can help overcome these barriers—whether by shifting norms, fostering cooperation, or leveraging shared identities to promote climate-conscious attitudes and actions (Doell et al., 2021). In another study, we tested the effectiveness of “inoculation” to protect against climate disinformation across 12 countries (Spampatti et al., 2024). Broadly, inoculation strategies seek to build psychological resilience against misinformation, for instance, by pre-emptively refuting false information and teaching skills to identify misleading and false claims. We found that the effectiveness of inoculation strategies may be very limited and highly context-sensitive.