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Although human-caused climate change is one of the greatest societal challenges of the 21st century, insights from social and environmental psychology remain underrepresented in the mitigation debate. This is surprising given that the collective potential for reducing national carbon emissions through changes in individual lifestyles and behaviours has clearly been demonstrated. Accordingly, this PhD thesis aims to provide a more systematic and detailed understanding of individual mitigation behaviour. It does so specifically by examining the social-psychological determinants of climate change risk perceptions, intentions and behaviours using a longitudinal UK national survey (N = 808, wave 1) and (N = 501, wave 2). In total, three separate analyses were conducted using the national survey data. In the first analysis (chapter 4), a social-psychological model of climate change risk perceptions is advanced. The model proposes that public risk perceptions of climate change are influenced by three key psychological dimensions, namely; (i) cognitive, (ii) experiential and (iii) socio-cultural factors. Results confirm the model’s validity and show that nearly 70% of the variance in risk perception can be explained by the model’s components. Main findings also provide empirical support for a distinction between personal and societal risk judgements and highlight important differences in their psychological antecedents. The second analysis(chapter 5) specifically investigates the interrelation between personal experience with extreme weather, affect and risk perception and situates their conceptual relationship within the cognition-emotion debate. Results provide strong support for a dual-process model, where risk perception and affect mutually influence each other in a stable feedback system. In the third analysis (chapter 6), a domain-context-behaviour (DCB) model is advanced. The purpose of the model is to causally conceptualize and systematically organize the social-psychological determinants of climate change mitigation behaviours. A key aspect of the DCB model is the notion that environmental values (i.e. the “domain”) and climate change cognitions, norms and emotions (i.e. the “context”) do not influence specific mitigation intentions and behaviours (e.g. energy conservation) directly. Rather, they influence a broad and general orienting intention to help reduce climate change. This general intention in turn activates and predicts specific mitigation intentions directly as well as indirectly via behaviour-specific determinants. Important differences emerge between high-impact and low-impact behavioural changes. Overall, results from this thesis have important implications for public policy, risk communication and behavioural change interventions.

This dissertation presents two research programs that investigated whether warmth can improve intergroup attitudes. The first research program included three studies that tested whether spontaneous racial attitudes are more positive toward children than adults. These studies were based on the assumption that children are perceived as being higher in trait warmth, which may improve attitudes by decreasing perceived threat and distance to the out-group. In contrast, the results showed that participants consistently preferred their racial in-group over the racial out-group, and there was no evidence that this spontaneous racial bias was reduced for very young child targets; spontaneous racial bias is strong even when warm groups are considered. The second research program comprised four studies that focused on explicitly measured intergroup attitudes. These studies examined whether individual differences in the need for affect (NFA) and (for completeness) the need for cognition (NFC) predict improved attitudes toward groups varying on stereotypical warmth and competence. These studies were based on the notion that people higher in NFA evaluate warmth more positively because they enjoy the emotionally stimulating aspect of warmth. The findings indicated that people higher in NFA evaluated stereotypically warm and incompetent groups more positively than stereotypically cold and competent groups, whereas people higher in NFC evaluated stereotypically cold and competent groups more positively than stereotypically warm and incompetent groups. Moreover, as expected, this set of studies also provided direct evidence that evaluations of warmth mediated these associations. Together, the two programs of research suggest that warmth may be one important mechanism for improving intergroup attitudes on an explicit measure, whereas more research is needed to examine when warmth can improve attitudes on an implicit measure.

This thesis outlines the novel theoretical approach of social context mismatch theory (SCMT). SCMT outlines how changes in context can lead to mismatches between motives and their surrounding environment. For example, the basic human desire to care for others has become problematic in a modern context, where globalised identities are possible. We want to care for all the vulnerable members of society, but we are faced with numerous barriers. The conclusion of SCMT is that these mismatches provide fertile soil for hypocrisy to thrive, as people become accustomed to failing to meet their desired standards. Having introduced the theory, three core chapters use this model to outline how broader contextual perspectives can bring different psychological concepts together in order to gain a novel perspective on well-established social psychological processes. Chapter 2 outlines how people see their values as dynamic over time and illustrates relationships between this dynamism and well-being. Chapter 3 shows how people display different forms of hypocrisy in the realm of ethical consumption and how higher thresholds for ethical behaviour can encourage greater desire to change to a more pro-social position. Chapter 4 manipulates perceptions of complexity of a little-known moral issue and shows how greater complexity can lead to less harsh moral judgements and a reduced willingness to engage with remedial action. Finally, the thesis concludes by outlining a range of future directions that SCMT opens up, particularly for those who want to bring relatively isolated psychological ideas together. Accordingly, there is a strong focus on how a simultaneous awareness of multiple contexts can provide new perspectives on psychological processes. SCMT is a theory that is inextricably linked to working towards a more caring world and the dissertation reflects this motivation.

First impressions based on facial appearance alone predict a large number of important social outcomes in areas of interest to the general public, such as politics, justice and economics. The current project aims to expand these findings to science communication, investigating both the impressions that the public forms of a scientist based on their facial appearance, and the impact that these impressions may have on the public’s selection and evaluation of the research conducted by the scientist in question. First, we investigated what social judgement traits predict looking like a “good scientist” (someone who does high-quality research) and an “interesting scientist” (someone whose research people show interest in). Three studies showed that looking competent and moral were positively related to both looking like a good scientist and to interest ratings, whereas looking physically attractive positively predicted being perceived as a scientist with higher interest ratings, but was negatively related to looking like a good scientist. Subsequently, we investigated whether these perceptions translated into real-life consequences. Three studies examined the impact of first impressions on the public’s choice of scientific communications, and found that people were more likely to choose real science news stories to read or watch when they were paired with scientists high on interest judgements. Another three studies looked at whether the appearance of the researcher influenced people’s evaluations of real science news stories . We found that people judged the research to be of higher quality when it was associated with “good” scientists. Our findings illustrate novel insights into the social psychology of science communication, and flag a potential source of bias in the dissemination of scientific findings to the general public, stemming solely from the facial appearance of the scientist.

In 1995, the World Summit for Social Development identified social integration as one of the three overriding objectives for social and economic development. This priority arose following a century that ended with the collapse of many states and the sharpening of strife around the world. Social integration was seen as a pathway to reinforcing common identities, supporting cooperation and lessening the likelihood of violence and conflict. For the past 20 years, governmental, academic and third sector organisations – with the United Nations at the forefront – sought to improve social integration. However their methods and interventions have commonly been restricted to policymaking and dialogue practices. Peacebuilding and reconciliation are affected by communication within and amongst different groups. Nonetheless, the potential for communication design to contribute towards social integration remains unexplored. This practice-led communication design research focuses on 18 to 30 year old youth in Lebanon – an extreme case of a politically, religiously, geographically, culturally and linguistically segregated post-conflict generation. The research adopts an innovative, interdisciplinary(1.) and collaborative(2.) approach, to explore the contribution of communication design methods towards social integration interventions. The interdisciplinary and collaborative case study process spans seven stages of practice: Discover, Delve, Define, Develop, Deliver, Determine Impact and Diverge. I developed this process with Darren Raven in 2010, and have been testing and refining it over the past five years through the socially-focused design projects of BA Design for Graphic Communication students and staff at the London College of Communication. This process builds on the Design Council’s Double Diamond design process by incorporating stages from the National Social Marketing Centre’s process. Through these stages, the research developed several innovative communication design methods: Explorations, a cultural probes toolkit exploring young people’s local context; Road Trip, an autoethnographic journey preparing the researcher; Connections, an effective method for recruiting stakeholders; Expressions Corner, a confidential diary room for understanding young people’s experiences, attitudes and behaviours; Imagination Studio, a collaborative workshop series for developing social integration interventions; Imagination Market, an efficient platform for piloting these interventions; and a Social Impact Framework; to evaluate the impact of the interventions and research. These methods enhanced candid input from young people, reduced ethical tensions, and improved their engagement with the research. The methods also involved youth and wider stakeholders in understanding and reframing the problem, invited them to generate and deliver solutions, strengthened their sense of ownership and therefore the sustainability of the research outputs, and finally, built their capabilities throughout the process. The social integration interventions developed and piloted through the case-study research ranged from a citizen journalism platform reducing media bias, to a youth-led internal tourism service encouraging geographic mobility. The evaluation of the 24-hour pilot interventions demonstrated a positive shift in young people’s willingness to integrate. The social impact and social value assessment suggests that effective social integration interventions – such as the ones developed and piloted in the case study research – have higher chances of delivering positive social and economic outcomes for the communities involved. This practice-led research presents a number of contributions, the most significant of which is a methodology, process and set of methods highly transferable across social integration challenges worldwide. The research also provides social integration theory and practice with a clear demonstration of the value and potential of communication design to advance interventions from replication to innovation. To communication design theory and practice, the research makes the case for the value of interdisciplinary and collaborative principles in enhancing rigour and social impact. Finally, to the Lebanese context, the research provides in-depth qualitative insights on social group dynamics, segments, and behaviours, which act as an evidence-base to underpin future local interventions. Beyond this thesis, the knowledge gained from this research will be disseminated to the various relevant communities of practice – including researchers, designers, policy makers, and community development workers – in the form of Creative Commons licensed design guidelines, as well as presentations, capacity building workshops, and academic publications. The dissemination of knowledge hopes to inspire and enable these communities to adopt, adapt and build on communication design methods when addressing social segregation challenges within their varying contexts. Notes in the text: (1.) Drawing on disciplines such as social, political, behavioural, and psychological sciences. (2.) Engaging multiple stakeholders including young people, civil society, institutions, topic experts and policy-makers.