BIO
Dr. Kim Wolske is a research associate professor in the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and a research fellow with EPIC, the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Dr. Wolske's research draws on the fields of environmental, social, and cognitive psychology to examine the behavioral dimensions of energy and climate issues, with an eye toward improving the design of public-facing policies and programs. A central focus of her research is on understanding the motivations and barriers associated with consumer adoption of efficient and renewable energy technologies. She also researches public perceptions of climate change solutions, including large-scale technologies such as carbon dioxide removal. Dr. Wolske has been recognized for excellence in teaching. In 2021, she was named Outstanding Faculty of the Year, and in 2022 the Harris School's graduating class selected her to deliver "The Last Lecture." Currently, Dr. Wolske holds the position of Past President of the Society for Environmental, Population, and Conservation Psychology, which is Division 34 of the American Psychological Association.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Hart, P.S., Campbell-Arvai, V., Wolske, K.S., & Raimi, K.T. (2022) Moral hazard or not? The effects of learning about carbon dioxide removal (CDR) on mitigation support. Energy Research & Social Science, 89: 102656.
Stern, P.C., Wolske, K.S., & Dietz, T. 2021. Design principles for climate change decisions. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 52, 9-18.
Brough, A.R., Donnelly, G.E., Griskevicius, V., Markowitz, E.M., Raimi, K.T., Reeck, C., Trudel, R., Waldman, K.B., Winterich, K.P., and Wolske, K.S. (2020). Understanding How Sustainable Initiatives Fail: A Framework to Aid Design of Effective Interventions. Social Marketing Quarterly. (Authors in alphabetical order)
Nielsen, K.S., Stern, P.C., Dietz, T., Gilligan, J.M., Vuuren, D.P. van, Figueroa, M.J., Folke, C., Gwozdz, W., Ivanova, D., Reisch, L.A., Vandenbergh, M.P., Wolske, K.S., & Wood, R. (2020). Improving climate change mitigation analysis: A framework for examining feasibility. One Earth, 3(3), 325–336. Read Here
Montgomery, A.W., Wolske, K.S., & Lyon, T.P. (2021; first online 2020) The Millennial ‘meh’: Correlated groups as collective agents in the automobile field. Journal of Management Studies, https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12606
Wolske, K.S., Gillingham, K.T., Schultz, P.W. (2020). Peer influence on household energy behaviours. Nature Energy.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0541-9 Read Here
Wolske, K.S. (2020). More alike than different: Profiles of high-income and low-income rooftop solar adopters in the United States. Energy Research & Social Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2019.101399
Raimi, K.T., ^Wolske, K.S., ^Campbell-Arvai, V., ^Hart, P. Sol. (2020). The Aversion to Tampering with Nature (ATN) Scale: Individual Differences in (Dis)comfort with Altering the Natural World. Risk Analysis. (^shared second authorship) https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13414
Lemos, M.C., Wolske, K.S., Rasmussen, L.V., Arnott, J., Kirchoff, C., & Kalcic, M. (2019). The closer, the better? Untangling scientist-practitioner interaction, knowledge use, and co-production. Weather, Climate and Society. Read Here
Wolske, K.S. ^Raimi, K.T., ^Campbell-Arvai, V., & ^Hart, P.S. (2019). Public support for carbon dioxide removal strategies: The role of tampering with nature perceptions. Climatic Change, 152(3-4): 345-361. (^shared second authorship) Read Here
Wolske, K.S., Todd, A., Rossol, M., McCall, J. & Sigrin, B. (2018). Accelerating demand for residential solar PV: Can simple framing strategies increase consumer interest? Global Environmental Change, 53:68-77. Read Here
*Wolske, K.S. & *Stern, P.C. (2018). Contributions of psychology to limiting climate change: Opportunities through consumer behavior. In S. Clayton & C. Manning (Eds). Psychology and Climate Change: Human Perceptions, Impacts, and Responses. Elsevier Academic Press, pp. 127-160. (*shared first authorship) https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813130-5.00007-2
Stern, P.C., Wittenberg, I., Wolske, K.S., & Kastner, I. (2018). Household production of photovoltaic energy: Issues in economic behavior. In A. Lewis (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and Economic Behavior (2nd ed., pp. 541-566). New York: Cambridge University Press. Read Here
*Campbell-Arvai, V., *Hart, P.S., *Raimi, K.T. & *Wolske, K.S. (2017). The influence of learning about carbon dioxide removal (CDR) on support for mitigation policies. Climatic Change, 143(3-4): 321-336. (*shared first authorship) Read Here
Stern, P.C. & Wolske, K.S. (2017). Limiting climate change: What’s most worth doing? Environmental Research Letters. 12: 091001. Read Here.
Wolske, K.S., Stern, P.C., & Dietz, T. (2017). Explaining interest in adopting residential solar photovoltaic systems in the United States: Toward an integration of behavioral theories. Energy Research & Social Science.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2016.12.023.