Dr Kris De Meyer is a Research Fellow in neuroscience at the Department of Neuroimaging and a Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Geography. He specialises in how people become entrenched in their beliefs, how this leads to polarisation in society, and how to overcome this.

Kris works with environmental scientists, policymakers and conservation NGOs to support them in communicating more constructively about controversial environmental topics, such as climate change.

He is a core member of the Challenging Radical Uncertainty in Science, Society and the Environment (CRUISSE) network, funded by the EPSRC, and of the UCL Policy Commission on Communicating Climate Science. He is also the producer of the award-winning documentary, Right Between Your Ears (exploring the neuroscience and psychology of entrenched views), co-creator of children's radio series Climate Explorers, and the participatory theatre piece, The Justice Syndicate.

He regularly speaks on BBC radio and TV about polarisation in society, and why fake news can be so believable.

Research

• Attitude formation and attitude polarisation
• The psychology of climate change
• Communication of climate science
• Science/policy co-production practices

Kris' research focuses on translating neuroscience and psychology research into actionable communication and science/policy co-production practices to resolve persistent debates in society, including on climate change and the environment.

In 2019-2020, he was part of the DEFRA-funded consortium titled, 'Citizen Engagement on the Environment'.

Teaching

Postgraduate

• 7SSG5208 Climate Change and Culture

PhD supervision

Kris is open to supervising students looking to research public opinion of climate change, communication of climate change and science/policy co-production practices.

Further details

See Kris' research profile