Principal Investigator

Adam Pearson is a professor of psychology at Pomona College and a member of the graduate faculty at Claremont Graduate University. He received a B.S. in Biology from Cornell University, and M.S., M.Phil, and Ph.D. in social psychology from Yale University. He is an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (APA Div. 8), the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (APA Div. 9), and the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and a past Associate Editor of the journal Group Processes and Intergroup Relations. His work has been featured in outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, NPR, TIME Magazine, New York Magazine, Bloomberg, Boston Globe, Grist, the Hill, FiveThirtyEight, and The Wall Street Journal. He has consulted with a variety of local and state governments, professional societies, and other nonprofits on climate communication and public engagement efforts.

CV

Lab Members & Affiliates

Sydney Tai (PO ’26) is a sophomore from Cary, North Carolina, majoring in Public Policy Analysis with a concentration in Environmental Analysis. She is interested in studying public opinion related to climate change across different demographic dimensions and its effects on climate communication and policy.
Camile Bernard is senior Pomona psychology major and history minor from New York City. She is interested in using history and social psychology to understand the complex human dimensions of global issues like climate change in order to make a positive societal impact. Her thesis explores how children perceive environmentalists. After graduation she hopes to get a Ph.D. in Child Development.
Talia Felcher is a senior at Scripps College from Portland, Oregon. She is studying psychology and environmental science and is interested in the connection between climate science and human behavior and how different communities respond to climate change. Additionally, she is eager to explore methods to enhance climate communication. Her thesis is currently exploring how climate-related emotions influence reproductive intentions in different cultural contexts.
Isabelle Abbasi is a junior at Pomona College from Riverside, CT, majoring in gender and women’s studies with a disciplinary focus in psychology. She is interested in how an intersectional approach to researching climate change, and its effects on different populations, can offer novel solutions. She is particularly interested in applying disability studies theory to research in social psychology to better understand and address inequities in climate-related negative health outcomes.
Xuwen (Kevin) Hua (PO ’23) is a lab alum and current lab manager in the Center for the Decision Sciences at Columbia Business School. His collaborative work with the SCI Lab investigates how popular lay beliefs about life hardship (e.g., “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”) impact judgments of climate vulnerability and support for investments in disadvantaged communities. He is also interested in understanding how computational models can inform research on human behavior.
Corinne Tsai (PO ’20) is a SCI Lab alum and  environmental justice analyst at the Emerson Collective. Her research with the SCI Lab has explored social psychological foundations of climate justice and coalition-building, as well as how equity and identity-based messaging impact public support for climate policies. Her co-authored paper with Adam, “Building Diverse Climate Coalitions,” won the 2023 Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Award from APA Division 9.
Anandita Sabherwal is a doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics. Her collaborations with the SCI lab explore psychological effects of exposure to emotion consensus information, such as normative messages that emphasize growing public anger about political inaction on climate change, and licensing and compensatory behaviors that may occur when people consider actions or inactions of governments, businesses, and other powerful actors.
Matt Ballew, Ph.D. (CGU ’18) is a SCI Lab alum and currently a research associate at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Matt’s research interests center around understanding people’s connection to groups, communities, and the natural world. Recent collaborations examine how race, gender, and social class shape political polarization around climate change within the United States.

Friends of the lab and recent collaborators:

  • Jonathon Schuldt, Cornell
  • Neil Lewis, Cornell
  • Rainer Romero-Cañyas, Environmental Defense Fund
  • Mario Bravo, Environmental Defense Fund
  • Matt Ballew, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
  • Jack Dovidio, Yale
  • Samuel Gaertner, U Delaware
  • Tessa West, NYU
  • Leaf Van Boven, CU Boulder
  • Susan Clayton, College of Wooster
  • Sander van der Linden, Cambridge
  • Gregg Sparkman, Boston College
  • Michael Kukenberger, UNH School of Management
  • Lupe Bacio, Pomona College
  • Don Edmondson, Columbia Medical School
  • Renee Salas, Harvard C-CHANGE
  • Kristi White, University of Minnesota
  • Leticia Nogueira, American Cancer Society
  • Dorainne Green, Indiana University