Cari Pick
Social and Behavioral Scientist
Work
Areas of expertise:
Social psychology of sustainability; climate technology attitudes; climate change communication; pro-environmental motivation; experimental design
Description
Dr. Cari Pick is a social psychologist focusing on sustainability psychology: understanding the cognitive (e.g., thoughts, beliefs, attitudes), emotional, and social factors influencing decisions that impact sustainability, climate change mitigation, or adaptation. Her research explores attitudes toward and understanding of climate technologies, the varied motivations of pro-environment individuals, attitudes toward and effects of extreme weather events, (lack of) understanding of disproportionate impacts of climate change across groups, and more. Dr. Pick also supports climate communication and public-facing data visualization efforts at EDF.
Background
Prior to working as a Social and Behavioral Scientist in Science & Innovation at EDF, much of Dr. Pick’s work focused on the fundamental social motives that drive people’s behaviors, including cross-cultural similarities and differences, and on intergroup and intragroup dynamics (e.g., stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination; social exclusion, and social processes while joining groups).
Dr. Pick also served as an Environmental Education and Conservation Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay from 2011-2015.
Education
Ph.D., M.A. Psychology, Arizona State University
B.A. Psychology and Spanish, University of Notre Dame
Study abroad semester, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Publications
Selected Publications
Romero-Canyas, R., & Pick, C. M. (in press). Deploying transdisciplinary collaboration across multiple levels of analysis for high impact sustainability solutions. In I. Walker (Ed.) Handbook of Environmental Psychology.
Pick, C. M., & Neuberg, S. L. (2022). Beyond observation: Manipulating circumstances to detect affordances and infer traits. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 108886832210766. https://doi.org/10.1177/10888683221076688
Pick, C. M., Ko, A., Wormley, A. S., Wiezel, A., Kenrick, D. T., Al-Shawaf, L., Barry, O., Bereby-Meyer, Y., Boonyasiriwat, W., Brandstätter, E., Crispim, A. C., Cruz, J. E., David, D., David, O. A., Defelipe, R. P., Elmas, P., Espinosa, A., Fernandez, A. M., Fetvadjiev, V. H., … Varnum, M. E. W. (2022). Family still matters: Human social motivation across 42 countries during a global pandemic. Evolution and Human Behavior, 43(6), 527–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.09.003
Pick, C. M., Ko, A., Kenrick, D. T., Wiezel, A., Wormley, A. S., Awad, E., Al-Shawaf, L., Barry, O., Bereby-Meyer, Y., Boonyasiriwat, W., Brandstätter, E., Ceylan-Batur, S., Choy, B. K. C., Crispim, A. C., Cruz, J. E., David, D., David, O. A., Defelipe, R. P., Elmas, P., … Varnum, M. E. W. (2022). Fundamental social motives measured across forty-two cultures in two waves. Scientific Data, 9(1), 499. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01579-w
Ko, A., Pick, C. M., Kwon, J. Y., Barlev, M., Krems, J. A., Varnum, M. E. W., Neel, R., Peysha, M., Boonyasiriwat, W., Brandstätter, E., Crispim, A. C., Cruz, J. E., David, D., David, O. A., de Felipe, R. P., Fetvadjiev, V. H., Fischer, R., Galdi, S., Galindo, O., … Kenrick, D. T. (2020). Family matters: Rethinking the psychology of human social motivation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(1), 173–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619872986
Neuberg, S. L., Williams, K. E. G., Sng, O., Pick, C. M., Neel, R., Krems, J. A., & Pirlott, A. G. (2020). Toward capturing the functional and nuanced nature of social stereotypes: An affordance management approach. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 62, pp. 245–304). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2020.04.004