Professor Geoff Beattie, Dr Laura McGuire and Prof Christopher Dent are working together with Research Assistant Paula Garlick on the British Academy funded project – ‘The Great Community Climate Change Experiment’. It will be based on a series of local community events organised in the Northwest region, where the audience will take part in some unique psychological research.
We are looking for volunteers to take part in a special survey on attitudes towards climate change. Each volunteer that completes the survey will be sent a £10 Amazon voucher! You will be taking part in public research that could help improve our approaches to climate change.
Local adult audiences will be shown a new film produced by Laura McGuire and Geoff Beattie that documents the journey of Kirkby school children as they engage with climate change through creative arts workshops and how their behaviour changed as a consequence. The researchers will assess whether the voices and actions of local children are more effective at convincing adults to change their own attitudes and behaviour.
You will need a PC or laptop to do the survey. You will be first asked a set of questions, then watch a short 20 minute film, and then answer another set of questions. The whole survey will take around 40-45 minutes of your time.
To take part in the survey and claim your £10 Amazon voucher, please email Dr. Laura McGuire for more details.
Professor Beattie says: “If urgent action against climate change is going to be effective, we have to learn how best to convince people to make changes to their everyday lives and live more sustainably. However, many people feel they can’t do anything that will actually make a difference. We are assessing whether people are more likely to alter their behaviour once they’ve seen children from their own community change as a result of increased emotional engagement with climate change through the creative arts. It’s a very local angle on climate change, with a very high-level goal – making significant change in attitudes to sustainability.”