How to Communicate Climate Science
"No, that was not your average field experiment. I had to literally chase the interviewees". Valentina Bosetti (Department of Economics) is talking about the negotiators who took part in the Paris climate change conference. She gave them the same uncertain information - displayed in three different formats. She discovered that their processing of information on climate change is in fact affected by the way they are displayed.
The Paris experiment is part of a larger project awarded with an ERC Starting Grant and focused on the role of uncertainty in climate change policies. Bosetti, who has been Principal Investigator of another ERC funded project called Innovation for Climate chAnge mitigation: a study of energy R&d, its Uncertain effectiveness and Spillovers (2010-2013), says that "the economic models of climate change have followed down the route of the traditional paradigm of homo economicus. The discussion was thus focused on discount rate. Yet all the evidence indicates that we are far from being rational".
RISk and uncertainty in developing and Implementing Climate change pOlicies (RISICO), hosted by IEFE - Centre for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy, aims at improving models by introducing the role of behavioral biases and trying to understand how to reduce these biases when communicating scientific results. "How do policy makers react to information? This is a relevant question because they use research results in policy decision-making. In Paris, for instance, we have found out that the negotiators have strong a priori positions on the issue and therefore they have the tendency to not respond to scientific evidence".
Read here the other articles on the ERC research projects:
The Dream Team of Research made in..ERC
University at the Time of Star Wars
The Culture That Influences Demography
For a History of Inequality in Europe
Fostering Solidarity in Times of Migrations
A Theory of Games and Emotions
Why with Broadband We will have More Children
At the Birth of Maritime Insurance
Even Distorted Choices can be Rational
The Psychology of Economic Behavior
Great Expectations for Great Objectives
What we are Certain about Uncertainty
Putting a Halt to the Spread of Infections
Wellbeing and Fertility, a Two-Way Relationship
The Role of Financial Imperfections
The World Through the Lens of Power
The Selection of the Political Class
How to Evaluate Innovative Ideas
A Help for Those who make Predictions
When a Government is Guided by Values