Research Questions
Our research focuses on understanding social influence and social change, and how this can be used to create scalable interventions to address social problems related to the environment, health, and social inequity. We examine psychological factors that influence behavior and societal change, including the role of social influence, impacts of structural factors on decision-making, identity, moral reasoning, and beliefs about whether change is possible. View major themes and research questions from our ongoing work and our publications below.
Individuals in a Structural World
- How do individuals decide to act in complex systems?
- How do people act to change structures they engage with?
- How do institutions influence decision-making?
- How do people allocate responsibility to individuals and institutions?
Conformity, Resistance, and Currents of Change
- When are people more or less likely to conform to social norms and trends?
- How do people perceive or misperceive norms in society?
- What are people’s beliefs about the status quo and its alternatives?
Persuasion, Motivation, and Advocacy
- What forms of advocacy are more influential in shifting public opinion?
- What kinds of policies or campaigns are effective at changing behavior or mobilizing collective action?
- What leads people to act on societal issues like climate change, social inequity, and public health?
Selected Publications
Loustau, T., Magnus, B., & Sparkman, G. (2025). Measuring contrarianism: Conceptual Framework and scale validation. Personality and Individual Differences, 247, 113396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2025.113396
Sparkman, G., & Hoffmann, T. (2025). What will it take to mitigate climate change? Maximizing norm transmission and potency for change-accelerating outcomes. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 65, 101570.
Sparkman, G., Ginn, J., Attari, S. Z., & Weber, E. U. (2025). Americans and policymakers underestimate endorsement for the most popular climate solution narrative, combining personal and political action. Communications Earth & Environment, 6(1), 525.
Syropoulos, S., & Sparkman, G. (2025). Most Christian American religious leaders silently believe in climate change, and informing their congregation can help open dialogue. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(13), e2419705122.
Trenfield, M., & Sparkman, G. (2025). Combining Individual & Structural Framing for Extreme Winter Storms.
Doell, K. C., Todorova, B., Vlasceanu, M., Bak Coleman, J. B., Pronizius, E., Schumann, P., ... ...Sparkman, G., ..& Lutz, A. E. (2024). The International Climate Psychology Collaboration: Climate change-related data collected from 63 countries.
Syropoulos, S., Sparkman, G., & Constantino, S. M. (2024). The expressive function of public policy: Renewable energy mandates signal social norms. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 379(1897), 20230038.
Ginn, J., & Sparkman, G. (2024). Can you default to vegan? Plant-based defaults to change dining practices on college campuses. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 93, 102226.
Vlasceanu, M., Doell, K. C., Bak-Coleman, J. B., Todorova, B., Berkebile-Weinberg, M. M., Grayson, S. J., ...Sparkman, G., ...& Lutz, A. E. (2024). Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries. Science advances, 10(6), eadj5778.
Sabherwal, A., Pearson, A., & Sparkman, G. (2021). Anger consensus messaging can enhance expectations for collective action and support for climate mitigation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 76, 101640.
Sparkman, G., Geiger, N., & Weber, E. U. (2022). Americans experience a false social reality by underestimating popular climate policy support by nearly half. Nature Communications, 13(1), 1-9.
Sparkman, G., Howe, L., & Walton, G. (2021). How social norms are often a barrier to addressing climate change but can be part of the solution. Behavioural Public Policy, 5(4), 528–555.
Sparkman, G., Lee, N. R., & Macdonald, B. N. (2021). Discounting environmental policy: The effects of psychological distance over time and space. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 73, 101529.
Sparkman, G., Attari, S., & Weber, E. (2021). Moderating spillover: Focusing on personal sustainable behavior rarely hinders and can boost climate policy support. Energy Research & Social Science, 78, 102150.
Sparkman, G., & Walton, G. M. (2017). Dynamic norms promote sustainable behavior, even if it is counternormative. Psychological Science, 28(11), 1663-1674.
Sparkman, G., & Walton, G. M. (2019). Witnessing change: Dynamic norms help resolve diverse barriers to personal change. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 82, 238-252.
Sparkman, G., Weitz, E., Robinson, T. N., Malhotra, N., & Walton, G. M. (2020). Developing a scalable dynamic norm menu-based intervention to reduce meat consumption. Sustainability, 12(6), 2453.
Sparkman, G., Macdonald, B., Caldwell, K., Kateman, B., & Boese, G. (2021). Cut back or give it up? The effectiveness of reduce and eliminate appeals and dynamic norm messaging to curb meat consumption. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 75, 101592.