Climate change is a problem that is caused by human behaviour, and that presents major risks to human health – including mental health. Psychology may have a crucial role to play in terms of investigating the health consequences of climate change, and also in terms of finding strategies to mitigate its extent. In this presentation, Matt will discuss some of his research on the effects of climate change on health and human behaviours such as assault, suicide, and self-harm. He will also discuss recent research on climate change communication and battling misinformation. Matt will argue that psychology could make a significant contribution to climate change research, but that producing effective and useful research on climate change may require psychologists to make significant changes to their standard research practices.
