Researcher

Matthew T. Ballew PhD

Educator
Social & Environmental Psychologist
Consultant
Research Specialist at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

Areas of Expertise

Dr. Matthew Ballew’s research interests combine perspectives from social, environmental, and positive psychology. Dr. Ballew is broadly interested in the interrelation between human behavior, the environment (i.e., nature, social environments), and human wellness: how people influence their environments and how people’s environments influence their health and wellbeing.

My research interests include the following:

-Experiences with Nature: Understanding the positive psychological benefits people can reap from experiences with the natural world (e.g., awe walks, hiking, gardening), and how connections with nature can drive pro-environmental action, including community engagement.

-The Social Psychology of Conservation and Environmental Activism: Understanding how social and cultural factors affect people’s environmental beliefs and actions, and how interventions can leverage these factors to promote caring for the environment and individual and collective action (e.g., consumer behavior, political engagement).

-Climate Change Beliefs and Behavior: Understanding climate change public opinion and what most strongly predicts engagement to inform interventions and communications to facilitate attitude and behavior change.

-Environmental Communication: Understanding how to best frame and (positively) communicate environmental issues like climate change to more effectively foster acceptance, concern, and action.

Publications

Ballew, M. T., Pearson, A. R., Schuldt, J. P., Kotcher, J. E., Maibach, E. W., Rosenthal, A., & Leiserowitz, A. (2021). Is the political divide on climate change narrower for people of color? Evidence from a decade of US polling. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 77, 101680. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101680

Sabherwal, A., Ballew, M. T., van der Linden, S., Gustafson, A., Goldberg, M. H., Maibach, E. W., Kotcher, J. E., Swim, J. K., Rosenthal, S. A., & Leiserowitz, A. (2021). The Greta Thunberg effect: Familiarity with Greta Thunberg predicts intentions to engage in climate activism in the United States. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. doi: 10.1111/jasp.12737

Ballew, M. T., Rosenthal, S. A., Goldberg, M. H., Gustafson, A., Kotcher, J. K., Maibach, E. W., & Leiserowitz, A. (2020). Beliefs about others’ global warming beliefs: The role of party affiliation and opinion deviance. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 70, 101466. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101466

Ballew, M., Maibach, E., Kotcher, J., Bergquist, P., Rosenthal, S., Marlon, J., and Leiserowitz, A. (2020). Which racial/ethnic groups care most about climate change?. Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Available here.

Ballew, M., Marlon, J., Kotcher, J., Maibach, E., Rosenthal, S., Bergquist, P., Gustafson, A., Goldberg, M., & Leiserowitz, A. (2020). Young adults, across party lines, are more willing to take climate action. Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Available here.

Ballew, M. T., Pearson, A. R., Goldberg, M. H., Rosenthal, S. A., & Leiserowitz, A. (2020). Does socioeconomic status moderate the political divide on climate change? The roles of education, income, and individualism. Global Environmental Change, 60, 102024. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.102024

Goldberg, M. H., Gustafson, A., Ballew, M. T., Rosenthal, S. A., Cutler, M. J., & Leiserowitz, A. (2020). Predictors of global warming risk perceptions among Latino and non-Latino White Americans. Climatic Change, 1-20. doi: 10.1007/s10584-020-02728-z

Gustafson, A., Ballew, M. T., Goldberg, M. H., Cutler, M. J., Rosenthal, S. A., & Leiserowitz, A. (2020). Personal stories can shift climate change beliefs and risk perceptions: The mediating role of emotion. Communication Reports, 1-15. doi: 10.1080/08934215.2020.1799049

Leiserowitz, A., Ballew, M., Rosenthal S., & Semaan, J. (2020). Climate change and the American diet. Yale University and Earth Day Network. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Available here.

Song, H., Lewis Jr, N. A., Ballew, M. T., Bravo, M., Davydova, J., Gao, H. O., … & Romero-Canyas, R. (2020). What counts as an “environmental” issue? Differences in issue conceptualization by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 101404. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101404

Schneider-Mayerson, M., Gustafson, A., Leiserowitz, A., Goldberg, M. H., Rosenthal, S. A., & Ballew, M. (2020) Environmental literature as persuasion: An experimental test of the effects of reading climate fiction, Environmental Communication. doi: 10.1080/17524032.2020.1814377

Ballew, M. T., Goldberg, M. H., Rosenthal, S. A., Gustafson, A., & Leiserowitz, A. (2019). Systems thinking as a pathway to global warming beliefs and attitudes through an ecological worldview. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1819310116

Ballew, M. T., Goldberg, M. H., Rosenthal, S. A., Cutler, M. J., & Leiserowitz, A. (2019). Climate change activism among Latino and White Americans. Frontiers in Communication, 3. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2018.00058

Ballew, M., Gustafson, A., Bergquist, P., Goldberg, M., Rosenthal, S., Kotcher, J., Maibach, E., & Leiserowitz, A. (2019). Americans underestimate how many others in the U.S. think global warming is happening. Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Available here.

Ballew, M. T., Leiserowitz, A., Roser-Renouf, C., Rosenthal, S. A., Kotcher, J. E., Marlon, J. R., Lyon, E., Goldberg, M. H., & Maibach, E. W. (2019). Climate Change in the American Mind: Data, tools, and trends. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 61, 4-18. doi: 10.1080/00139157.2019.1589300

Ballew, M., Marlon, J., Rosenthal, S., Gustafson, A., Kotcher, J., Maibach, E., & Leiserowitz, A. (2019). Do younger generations care more about global warming? Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Available here.

Goldberg, M. H., Gustafson, A., Ballew, M. T., Rosenthal, S. A., & Leiserowitz, A. (2019). A social identity approach to engaging Christians in the issue of climate change. Science Communication, 1-22. doi: 10.1177/1075547019860847.

Goldberg, M. H., van der Linden, S., Ballew, M. T., Rosenthal, S. A., & Leiserowitz, A. (2019). The role of anchoring in judgments about expert consensus. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. doi: 10.1111/jasp.12576.

Gustafson, A., Rosenthal, S. A., Ballew, M. T., Goldberg, M. H., Bergquist, P., Kotcher, J. E., Maibach, E. W., & Leiserowitz, A. (2019). The development of partisan polarization over the Green New Deal. Nature Climate Change. doi: 10.1038/s41558-019-0621-7

Pearson, A. R., & Ballew, M. T. (2019). Conservation and the environment. In. M. A. Hogg (Ed.), Oxford research encyclopedia of psychology. New York: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.289

Ballew, M. T., & Omoto, A. M. (2018). Absorption: How nature experiences promote awe and other positive emotions. Ecopsychology, 10, 26-35. doi: 10.1089/eco.2017.0044

Bruni, C. M., Ballew, M. T., Winter, P. L., & Omoto, A. M. (2018). Natural history museums may enhance youth’s implicit connectedness with nature. Ecopsychology, 10, 1-9. doi: 10.1089/eco.2018.0025

Davydova, J., Pearson, A. R., Ballew, M. T., & Schuldt, J. P. (2018). Illuminating the link between perceived threat and control over climate change: The role of attributions for causation and mitigation. Climatic Change, 1-15. doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2181-7

Pearson, A. R., Schuldt, J. P., Romero-Canyas, R., Ballew, M. T., & Larson-Konar, D. (2018). Diverse segments of the US public underestimate the environmental concerns of minority and low-income Americans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1804698115

Pearson, A. R., Ballew, M. T., Naiman, S., & Schuldt, J. P. (2017). Race, class, and gender and climate change communication. In M. C. Nisbet & E. Markowitz (Eds.), The Oxford encyclopedia of climate change communication. New York: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.412