Rosemary Randall

Research has given us a lot of good ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ on how to communicate about climate change. It tells us that:

•  information doesn’t by itself change people’s minds
• confirmation bias means that people seek out facts that confirm their existing views
• people find it hard to understand risks that are not immediate and tangible
• fear appeals have mixed effects

However we rarely talk about the inner state of the person we are communicating with and how this relates to the creative, innovative, whole-hearted and committed responses we need. If we are to help people avoid the flight into false certainty and paranoia that I wrote about last month, what kind of emotional state should be trying to foster? « Read the rest of this entry »