To Slow Down Climate Change, Speed up Gender Equality

Gender equity and environmental sustainability may seem like unrelated issues, but research shows that they are in fact closely intertwined. Women and other underserved groups are disproportionately impacted by the global climate crisis, but they are also uniquely positioned to lead the fight for sustainability. In this piece, we review the evidence and offer six strategies to help business and political leaders empower women and address environmental challenges through an intersectional approach to sustainability. Ultimately, we argue that to tackle climate change (as well as the myriad other sustainability challenges that face today’s organizations), leaders must acknowledge the complexity and interconnectedness of these issues — and work to develop integrated solutions that will improve them all. For more, see the article in Harvard Business Review.

Trust in Scientists and Their Role in Society (TISP)

Science is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in scientists can help decision-makers act on the best available evidence, especially during crises. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public trust in scientists. We interrogated these concerns with a preregistered 68-country survey of 71,922 respondents and found that in most countries, most people trust scientists and agree that scientists should engage more in society and policymaking. We found variations between and within countries, which we explain with individual- and country-level variables, including political orientation. While there is no widespread lack of trust in scientists, we cannot discount the concern that lack of trust in scientists by even a small minority may affect considerations of scientific evidence in policymaking. These findings have implications for scientists and policymakers seeking to maintain and increase trust in scientists. For more, see the article in Nature Human Behaviour and the data in Nature Scientific Data.

Scientists’ Collective Climate Advocacy, Trust in Scientists, & Voting Behavior

Scientists increasingly engage in policy advocacy, especially on climate change. Does this advocacy undermine—or bolster—public trust in scientists and support for scientists' recommendations? We leveraged a unique opportunity to answer this question in a real-world setting: the 2023 referendum for the Swiss climate protection law (CPL), which was supported by a public statement of 252 renowned scientists across disciplines. We conducted a pre-registered, two-wave, quasi-field experiment (npre-vote = 1,622, npost-vote = 891) to test how scientists' collective support for the law affected public trust in scientists and voting behavior. We found that scientists' advocacy was associated with greater public trust, particularly among left-leaning individuals; only a minority viewed these scientists as not objective. However, perceptions of scientists' role in society and policymaking and voting behavior remained largely unaffected when participants were reminded of the CPL advocacy. Although we studied a restrained form of policy advocacy in a somewhat unique setting, our study challenges the widespread assumption that policy advocacy undermines public trust in scientists. For more, see the article in Environmental Research Letters.

How CEO Sex and Narcissism affect Firm Environmental Sustainability

Integrating the gender socialization perspective with the extended agency model of narcissism, we investigate why some strategic leaders better address environmental sustainability. After developing and validating a new measure of leader narcissism, results from a multi-study, mixed-methods approach support our theorizing. Our discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these results for bridging the micro-macro divide to better understand the microfoundations of corporate sustainability performance, recruiting and promoting more sustainable leaders, and measuring CEO narcissism. This paper was presented at the Strategic Management Society 2022 and is currently under review.

Critical events at critical times? A gendered identity approach on the path to (sustainable) leadership

What are critical events or shocks? How might they influence early career professionals' leadership pursuits? Do these processes differ for those who identify as men and women? What are their implications for sustainability? In this theoretical piece, Dr. Stephanie Rehbock, Ronit Kark, and I highlight how #criticalevents affect early career professionals and their #identitysalience at a critical time for gender equity and (social) sustainability more broadly, while also challenging research and practice to more carefully consider the accuracy of our science and the untapped potential of the nexus between #diversity, #leadership, and #sustainability. For more, see the article in Frontiers.

For more of my work on topics related to social sustainability, e.g., diversity & leadership and work-family, please see those respective pages.