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Abstract:
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"The debate over climate change has come largely from the physical sciences in defining the problem, and from one narrow branch of social science neoclassical economics in generating solutions. While this focus helps to define and address issues related to what is at stake and what to do about it, a greater and more varied voice from the social sciences (e.g., sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science) is needed to address issues related to how the problem is viewed by the public and how that public will respond to the solutions that are imposed upon it. In the eyes of the social scientist, people employ ideological filters when analyzing important issues. These filters are influenced by their identity and worldview; that is, their belief systems. Critical to the formation of such belief systems are the groups to which people belong and the biases and values of the individual. Unfortunately, these cultural and psychological dimensions are overlooked because social scientists that can identify and analyze them have been notably absent from the public debate. This omission is due both to a lack of awareness among policymakers of the valuable insights that the broader social sciences can offer and to the internal reward and incentive systems of the academy that bias social scientists away from engaging in public debates. This article discusses how the other social sciences could augment the proposed economic solutions to greenhouse mitigation with research on perception, decisions, consensus, and action across three levels of analysis: the individual, organizational, and institutional levels. It also discusses a series of proposed interventions to overcome the filters and biases that take place at these levels."
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