Research interests.

I use correlational and experimental research to study how people make sense of and choose to respond to social and environmental problems in order to facilitate individual and collective participation in creating conditions where all may live more harmoniously with other people and the planet now and in the future.  This year we are studying how time spent in nature can change the way people view themselves and their relation with nature, implications of different ways of understanding our interdependence with nature on how we view our relationship with animals and nature, and the ways that our emotions are related to the way we communicate about environmental problems and whether we behave sustainably.

Select Recent Publications:

Clayton, S., Devine-Wright, P. Stern, P.C., Whitmarsh, L. Carrico, A., Steg, L., Swim, J. and Bonnes, M. (2015). Psychological Research and Global Climate Change.  Nature Climate Change.

Swim, J.K., Geiger, N. & Zawadzki, S.J. (2014). Psychology and energy-use reduction policies. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1(1), 180-188.

Felding, K.S., & Hornsey, M.J., & Swim, J.K. (2014). Developing a social psychology of climate change. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44, 413-320.

Swim, J.K., & Bloodhart, B. (2014).  Portraying the Perils to Polar Bears:  The Role of Empathic and Objective Perspective Taking Toward Animals in Climate Change Communication.  Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture.

Bloodhart, B., Swim, J. K., & Zawadzki, M. J. (2013). Spreading the eco-message: Using proactive coping to aid eco-rep behavior change programming. Sustainability: Special Issue on Psychological and Behavioral Aspects of Sustainability. 5(4), 1661-1679; doi:10.3390/su5041661

Swim, J.K., Clayton, S., Doherty, T.J. Gifford, R., Howard, G., Stern, P.C, Reser, J., Stern, P., & Weber, E., (2009). Psychology & Global Climate Change addressing a multifaceted phenomenon and set of challenges. A report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change.