Research Focus

My research on health and environmental risk communication focuses on two broad questions: First, what factors motivate people to care about health and environmental topics? Second, how can we craft effective messages that motivate people to care more?

Within both areas, I am especially interested in the role of social-psychological factors like political ideology, attention to news media discourse, social norms, scientific consensus, and psychological distance. Specific topics of interest/expertise include energy development (i.e., unconventional oil and natural gas development via hydraulic fracturing – “fracking”); vaccine safety; and climate change, among others. I have an inter-disciplinary background in communication, public health, and environmental policy, and I try to engage all of these fields in my scholarship.

Current Projects

■ Designing message to build public support for federal climate policy, especially a carbon tax

■ Examining social-psychological factors that drive public support for federal climate policy, especially a carbon tax

Select Publications

■ C. E. Clarke & D. T. N. Evensen. The politics of scientific consensus? Political divergence and partisanship in unconventional energy development in the United States. Energy Research & Social Science 51, 156-167 (2019).

■ C. E. Clarke et al., Communicating about climate change, natural gas development, and “fracking”: U.S. and international perspectives, in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science, Oxford University Press (2019).

■ C. E. Clarke et al., How geographic distance and political ideology interact to influence public perception of unconventional oil/natural gas development. Energy Policy 97, 301–309 (2016).