Adam Pearson

Adam Pearson, PhD, is a professor of psychological science and a member of the graduate faculty in the School of Social Science, Policy, and Evaluation at Claremont Graduate University. His research explores how group processes impact environmental decision making and collective action. 

Sustainability challenges like climate change are often characterized as collective action problems, however, beyond political influences, we know surprisingly little about how group dynamics influence how people think about these issues. Work in Professor Pearson's lab seeks to understand factors that make intergroup cooperation challenging for majority and minority groups, and the implications of these dynamics for addressing local and global sustainability challenges. 

Current projects are exploring how race, ethnicity and social class influence political polarization around the issue of climate change, the impact of stereotypes and perceived norms on environmental decision making, public understanding of environmental inequities, and factors shaping public engagement with environmental organizations. For more on this work, see SCI Lab research page.

At Pomona, Professor Pearson teaches Social Psychology, Research Design and Methodology, and Climate of Change, a cross-disciplinary seminar on climate change and human behavior, co-taught with Professor Lelia Hawkins, a climate scientist at Harvey Mudd College.

He is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, an associate editor at Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, and has received early career awards from the American Psychological Association and the Society for Environmental, Population, and Conservation Psychology. In 2019, he was a member of a Nature Sustainability expert panel that explored the role of behavioral scientists, architects and engineers in sustainable design, co-organized by the Center for Convergent Behavioral Science Initiative at UVA. His work has appeared in synthesis reports by the U.S. National Academies, the U.S. National Climate Assessment, the UN Environment Programme, the UN Development Programme, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and has been featured in a variety of media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, NPR, TIME, Grist, New York Magazine, Bloomberg and FiveThirtyEight.