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Publications
Artificial intelligence, digital social networks, and climate emotions
Galaz, V., H. Metzler, C. Schill, T. Lindahl, S. Daume, A. Marklund, A.J. Castro, J. Bard, T. McPhearson, D. Galafassi, and H. Peters. 2025. Artificial intelligence, digital social networks, and climate emotions. npj Climate Action 4:23.
Emotions relate to climate change action in various ways. Here we elaborate on how the expansion of digital social networks and advances in artificial intelligence, ranging from recommender systems to generative AI, may affect the way people perceive and engage emotionally on climate change. We develop a simple framework that links individual and collective emotions, AI, and climate action, and suggest three critical areas in...
Triple bottom line or trilemma? Global tradeoff s between prosperity, inequality, and the environment
Wu, T., J. C. Rocha, K. Berry, T. Chaigneau, M. Hamann, E. Lindqvist, J. Qiu, C. Schill, A. Shephon, A.-S. Crepin, and C. Folke. 2024. Triple bottom line or trilemma? Global tradeoff s between prosperity, inequality, and the environment. World Development 178:106595.
A key aim of sustainable development is the joint achievement of prosperity, equality, and environmental integrity: in other words, material living standards that are high, broadly-distributed, and low-impact. This has often been called the “triple bottom line”. But instead, what if there is a “trilemma” that inhibits the simultaneous achievement of these three goals? We analysed international patterns and trends in the relationships between per-capita gross national income, the Gini coefficient for...
Titanic lessons for Spaceship Earth to account for human behavior in institutional design
Lindahl, T., J. M. Anderies, A.-S. Crépin, K. Jónás, C. Schill, J. C. Cárdenas, C. Folke, G. J. Hofstede, M. A. Janssen, J.-D. Mathias, and S. Polasky. 2024. Titanic lessons for Spaceship Earth to account for human behavior in institutional design. npj Climate Action 3(1):1-9.
Combating environmental degradation requires global cooperation. We here argue that institutional designs for such efforts need to account for human behavior. The voyage of the Titanic serves as an analogous case to learn from, and we use behavioral insights to identify critical aspects of human behavior that serve as barriers or opportunities for addressing the challenges we face. We identify a set of public goods...
Harnessing Behavioral Tailwinds for Climate Action
Cárdenas, J.C., S.M. Constantino, and C. Schill.. 2024. Beijer Discussion Paper 281: Harnessing Behavioral Tailwinds for Climate Action. Beijer Discussion Paper Series.
Current mitigation and adaptation efforts are inadequate to address climate change, threatening the wellbeing of people and planet. Behavioral scientists often point to regularities of human decision-making as barriers to climate action. Addressing climate change requires long term planning, yet individuals are myopic and tend to discount the future; climate change and its solutions are uncertain, yet people avoid risks and are averse to change;...
Sustaining local commons in the face of uncertain ecological thresholds: Evidence from a framed field experiment with Colombian small-scale fishers
Schill, C. and J.C. Rocha. 2023. Sustaining local commons in the face of uncertain ecological thresholds: Evidence from a framed field experiment with Colombian small-scale fishers. Ecological Economics 207:107695.
Due to climate change abrupt and persistent changes in ecosystems, impacting millions of livelihoods, are likely but hard to predict. How people respond to such uncertain ‘regime shifts’ is poorly understood. Here, we assess the potential for local collective action to avert uncertain, yet catastrophic, regime shifts using behavioural economic experiments with 256 small-scale fishers from the Colombian Caribbean coast. With a framed, dynamic common-pool...
Sanctioned quotas versus information provisioning for community wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe: A framed field experiment approach
Ntuli, H., A.S. Crépin, C. Schill, and E. Muchapondwa. 2023. Sanctioned quotas versus information provisioning for community wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe: A framed field experiment approach. Environmental and Resource Economics 84(3):775-823.
We investigate the behavioural responses of natural common-pool resource users to three policy interventions—sanctioned quotas, information provisioning, and a combination of both. We focus on situations in which users find utility in multiple resources (pastures and wild animal stocks) that all stem from the same ecosystem with complex dynamics, and management could trigger a regime shift, drastically altering resource regrowth. We performed a framed field...
Negotiating the ethical-political dimensions of research methods: A key competency in mixed methods, inter- and transdisciplinary, and co-production research
West, S. and C. Schill. 2022. Negotiating the ethical-political dimensions of research methods: A key competency in mixed methods, inter- and transdisciplinary, and co-production research. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 9(1):1-13.
Methods are often thought of as neutral tools that researchers can pick up and use to learn about a reality ‘out there.’ Motivated by growing recognition of complexity, there have been widespread calls to mix methods, both within and across disciplines, to generate richer scientific understandings and more effective policy interventions. However, bringing methods together often reveals their tacit, inherently contestable, and sometimes directly opposing...
Consumption – the missing link towards phosphorus sustainability
Metson, G.S., W.J. Brownlie, J.C. Bausch, M. Jonell, K. Matsubae, F. Mnthambala, C. Schill and E. Tilley. 2022. Consumption – the missing link towards phosphorus sustainability. In: W.J. Brownlie, M.A. Sutton, K.V. Heal, D.S. Reay and B.M. Spears (eds.). Our Phosphorus Future. UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Edinburgh. Pp. Chapter 8.
Supporting low levels of animal product (meat, dairy, and eggs) consumption and food waste can significantly reduce the impacts of unsustainable phosphorus use. In addition, consuming products grown with good on-farm nutrient management practices, including phosphorus recycling can further reduce impacts. These changes can contribute to achieving multiple United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals related to improving human and environmental health.
Combining approaches: Looking behind the scenes of integrating multiple types of evidence from controlled behavioural experiments through agent-based modelling
Wijermans, N., C. Schill, T. Lindahl, and M. Schlüter. 2022. Combining approaches: Looking behind the scenes of integrating multiple types of evidence from controlled behavioural experiments through agent-based modelling. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 25(4):569-581.
Understanding complex (social) phenomena benefits from combining different tools, perspectives, expertise, and experiences. Research designs that combine approaches are gaining in popularity. Carrying out research in interdisciplinary teams, however, is a challenging, high-investment activity. Unawareness of and reflecting on conflicting ways of seeing or studying the world may endanger project success. Agent-based modelling has proven instrumental in bringing together different approaches. Yet, this potential enabler...
Untangling social-ecological interactions: A methods portfolio approach to tackling contemporary sustainability challenges in fisheries
Girón Nava, B. González Mon, A.F. Johnson, J. Pittman, C. Schill, N. Wijermans, Ö. Bodin, S. Gelcich, and M. Glaser. 2022. Untangling social-ecological interactions: A methods portfolio approach to tackling contemporary sustainability challenges in fisheries. Fish and Fisheries 23(5):1202-1220.
Meeting the objectives of sustainable fisheries management requires attention to the complex interactions between humans, institutions and ecosystems that give rise to fishery outcomes. Traditional approaches to studying fisheries often do not fully capture, nor focus on these complex interactions between people and ecosystems. Despite advances in the scope and scale of interactions encompassed by more holistic methods, for example ecosystem-based fisheries management approaches, no...
