My lab group in social and environmental psychology studies how individuals react to collective problems such as climate change. Who is helping, in what ways, and under what conditions? At the consumer level, I study individual and household decisions from clothing purchasing to transportation. At the societal level, I study policy preferences, advocacy, and activism, and how the public reacts to these behaviors. I also maintain a strong basic science program. Crossing planetary boundaries is an emergency and we have limited time to make a transition towards clean energy and circular consumption. Please get involved.
Assistant Professor of Social Psychology with tenure, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
2022 Early Career Achievement, APA Div. 34 Environmental Psychology
2021 Rising Star, Association for Psychological Science
Larger Grants (PI and co-PI)
2024 — 29 NWO SSH-L: Reinforcement learning of pro-environmental behavior (€800.000)
2024 — 25 EU Commission: EU harmonized consumer waste labels (€575.000)
2024 — 28 UvA Research Priority Area: BRIDGES Sustainability (€1.250.000)
2023 — 25 UvA Sustainable Prosperity: SISTEM-NL Microfibers from clothes washing (€400.000)
2023 — 27 OCW: Starter Grant: Climate activism behavior (€414.000)
2023 — 27 Horizon Europe: MOSAIC Motivations and land-use (€6.937.000)
2022 — 26 NWO-KIC Circularity: MIWATEX Poly-cotton clothing recycling (€1.294.000)
Teaching and Supervising
I teach in BSc Social Psychology, BSc Politics, Psychology, Law & Economics, MSc Social Influence, and the Research MSc in Psychology. I’m sorry, I rarely have capacity to host interns or visitors in person, even if you bring funding.
PhD students: Anna Bosshard, Anna Sach, Linli Zhou; and Anna Castiglione (U of Trento)
PhD graduates: Maria Zwicker
Postdocs: Alaa Aldoh
Consulting
I consult for companies, universities, and governments with clients such as the European Commission, United Nations, University of California, Defra, UK Cabinet Office, UK National Rail, Fairphone, Open Evidence, and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
See this report of media attention and societal impact. On the right, I spoke in Cambridge about communicating for influence (14 min).
Official PDFs are provided below. Many are legal because they are open access. For others, under the Taverne Amendment, it is legal for researchers at Dutch universities to post official publications “regardless of any 'restrictive publishers’ guidelines, provided that clear reference is made to the source of the first publication of the work.”
2025
1. Brick, C., Bosshard, A., Boven, B., Hijink, J., Praetorius, A., & Jacobs, L. (2025, in press). Psychological outcomes from a citizen science study on microplastics from household clothes washing. Environmental Science: Advances. 10.1039/D5VA00037H. PDF
2. Ghasemi, O., Cologna, V., Mede, N. G., Stanley, S. K., Strahm, N., Ross, R., Alfano, M., Kerr, J. R., Marques, M. D., Berger, S., Brick, C., Joubert, M., Maibach, E., Mihelj, S., Newell, B. R., Oreskes, N., & Schäfer, M. S. (2025). Climate scientists less trusted than scientists in general: evidence from 68 countries. Environmental Research Letters, 20, 6. 10.1088/1748-9326/add1f9. PDF
3. Todorova, B., Steyrl, D., Hornsey, M. J., Pearson, S., Brick, C., Lange, F., Vlasceanu, M., Van Bavel, J. J., Lamm, C., & Doell, K. (in press). Machine learning identifies key individual and nation-level factors predicting climate-relevant beliefs and behaviors. npj Climate Action. preprint
4. Cologna, V., Meiler, S., Kropf, C. M., Lüthi, S., Mede, N. G., Bresch, D. N., Lecuona, O., Berger, S., Besley, J., Brick, C., Joubert, M., Maibach, E. W., Oreskes, N., Schäfer, M. S., van der Linden, S., TISP Consortium (in press). The relationship between extreme weather events and support for climate policies across 68 countries. Nature Climate Change. preprint
5. Cologna, V., Mede, N. G., Berger, S., Besley, J., Brick, C., Joubert, M., Maibach, E. W., Mihelj, S., Oreskes, N., Schäfer, M. S., van der Linden, S., Aziz, N. I., Abdulsalam, S., Shamsi, N. A., Aczel, B., Adinugroho, I., Alabrese, E., Aldoh, A., Alfano, M., ... Zwaan, R. A. (2025). Trust in scientists and their role in society across 67 countries. Nature Human Behaviour. s41562-024-02090-5. PDF
2024
6. Brick, C., Nielsen, K. S., Berger, S., Henn, L., Wolske, K. S., Lange, F., Hanss, D., Bauer, J. M., Aldoh, A., Sachisthal, M. S., Johnsen, S. Å., & Cologna, V. (2024). Current research practices on pro-environmental behavior: A survey of environmental psychologists. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 97, 102375. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102375. PDF
7. Bosshard, A., Berger, S., Lange, F., Sosa, A., Kankaanpää, E., Fellegi, E., Dydula, J., Pulicelli, M., Aliyeva, O., & Brick, C. (2024). Limited overlap between behavioral tasks, pro-environmental propensity, and carbon footprint. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 97, 102297. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102297. PDF
8. Nielsen, K. S., Cologna, V., Bauer, J. M., Berger, S., Brick, C., Dietz, T., Hahnel, U. J., Henn, L., Lange, F., Stern, P. C., & Wolske, K. S. (2024). Realizing the full potential of behavioral science for climate change mitigation. Nature Climate Change, 14(4), 322-330. 10.1038/s41558-024-01951-1. PDF
9. Kenward, B., & Brick, C. (2024). Large-scale disruptive environmental activism strengthened environmental attitudes in the United Kingdom. Global Environmental Psychology, 2, e11079. 10.5964/gep.11079. PDF
10. Vlasceanu, M., Doell, K. C., Bak Coleman, J. B., Todorova, B., Berkebile-Weinberg, M. M., Grayson, S. J., Patel, Y., Goldwert, D., Pei, Y., Chakroff, A., Pronizius, E., van den Broek, K. L., Vlasceanu, D., Constantino, S., Morais, M. J., Schumann, P., Rathje, S., Fang, K., Aglioti, S. M., ... Van Bavel, J. J. (2024). Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries. Science Advances, 10, eadj5778, 10.1126/sciadv.adj5778. PDF
11. Dablander, F., Sachisthal, M. S., Cologna, V., Strahm, N., Bosshard, A., Grüning, N., Green, A., Brick, C., Aron, A., & Haslbeck, J. M. (2024). Climate change engagement of scientists. Nature Climate Change, 14, 1033-1039. 10.1038/s41558-024-02091-2. PDF
12. Madsen, J. K., de-Wit, L., Dewies, M., Ayton, P., Brick, C., de-Moliere, L., & Groom, C. (2024). Behavioural science should assume people are reasonable. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(28), 583-585. 10.1016/j.tics.2024.04.010. PDF
13. Röseler, L., Kaiser, L., Doetsch, C., Klett, N., Seida, C., Schütz, A., Aczel, B., Adelina, N., Agostini, V., Alarie, S., Albayrak-Aydemir, N., Aldoh, A., Al-Hoorie, A. H., Azevedo, F., Baker, B. J., Barth, C. L., Beitner, J., Brick, C., & Brohmer, H. & … Zhang, Y. (2024). The Replication Database: Documenting the replicability of psychological science. Journal of Open Psychology Data, 12(8), 1–23. 10.5334/jopd.101. PDF
14. Doell, K., Todorova, B., Vlasceanu, M., Coleman, J., Pronizius, E., Schumann, P., Azevedo, F., Patel, Y., Berkebile-Weinberg, M., Brick, C., Lange, F., Grayson, S., Pei, Y., Chakroff, A., van den Broek, K., Lamm, C., Vlasceanu, D., Constantino, S., & Rathje, S., ... Van Bavel, J. (2024). The International Climate Psychology Collaboration: Climate change-related data collected from 63 countries. Scientific Data, 11(1066). s41597-024-03865-1. PDF
15. Pauer, S., Rutjens, B., Brick, C., Lob, A., Buttlar, B., Noordewier, M., Schneider, I., & van Harreveld, F. (2024). Is the effect of trust on risk perceptions a matter of knowledge, control, and time? An extension and direct replication attempt of Siegrist and Cvetkovich (2000). Social Psychological and Personality Science, 15(8), 1008-1023. 10.1177/19485506241263884. PDF
16. Ramli, K., Sisay, B. A., & Brick, C. (2024, in press). Optimal delivery of social norms based feedback for household water consumption. Global Environmental Psychology. 10.23668/psycharchives.15432. Accepted PDF
17. Mede, N., Cologna, V., Berger, S., Besley, J., Brick, C., Joubert, M., Maibach, E., Mihelj, S., Oreskes, N., Schäfer, M., van der Linden, S., Abdul Aziz, N. I., Abdulsalam, S., Abu Shamsi, N., Aczel, B., Adinugroho, I., Alabrese, E., Aldoh, A., Alfano, M., ... Ntui, N. N. (2024, in press). Perceptions of science, science communication, and 2 climate change attitudes in 67 countries – the TISP 3 dataset. Nature Scientific Data. 10.1038/s41597-024-04100-7. Accepted PDF
18. Yang, X., Schulz, J., Schmidt, K., Kenny, A. R., Pfuhl, G., Gjoneska, B., Dalger, I., Exner, A., Lander, K., Becker, M., Du, H., Johri, A., Selcuk, E., Gallyamova, A., Calluso, C., Reggev, N., Vranka, M. A., Acar, O. A., Palma T. A., … Dunham, Y. (2024, Registered Report Stage 1). Large-scale cross-societal examination of real- and minimal-group biases. Nature Human Behaviour. Stage 1 PDF
19. Castiglione, A., Bizzego, A., Brick, C., & Esposito, G. (2024, Registered Report Stage 1). A climate action intervention to boost individual and collective climate mitigation behaviors in young adults. Peer Community in Registered Reports. Stage 1 PDF
2023
20. Brick, C., Nielsen, K. S., & Hofmann, W. (2023). Opportunities for emotion research on biodiversity. Emotion Review, 15(4), 263-266. 10.1177/17540739231193755. PDF
21. Zwicker, M., van Harreveld, F., Zickfeld, J. H., & Brick, C. (2023). Intentions to purchase a sustainable mobile phone by network analysis in four European countries. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 40, September 2023, 337-351. 10.1016/j.spc.2023.07.008. PDF
22. Zwicker, M., Brick, C., Gruter, G.-J. M., & van Harreveld, F. (2023). Positive consumer attitudes and willingness to pay for novel bio-based plastic bottles. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 35, 173-183. 10.1016/j.spc.2022.10.021. PDF
23. Bosshard, A., Chatrou, A., & Brick, C. (2023). Climate concern and engagement: Large face-to-face and online polls in the Netherlands. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 26, e6, 1-12. 10.1017/SJP.2023.3. PDF
24. Koller, K., Pankowska, P. K., & Brick, C. (2023). Identifying bias in self-reported pro-environmental behavior. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 4, 100087. 10.1016/j.cresp.2022.100087. PDF
25. Geiger, N., & Brick, C. (2023). Core social motives explain responses to collective action issues. Social Psychological and Personality Compass, 17(3), e12732. 10.1111/spc3.12732. PDF
26. Meijers, M. H. C., Wonneberger, A., Azrout, R., Torfadóttir, R., & Brick, C. (2023). Introducing and testing the personal-collective-governmental efficacy typology: How personal, collective, and governmental efficacy subtypes are associated with differential environmental actions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 85, 101915. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101915. PDF
2022
27. Nielsen, K. S., Brick, C., Hofmann, W., Joanes, T., Lange, F., & Gwozdz, W. (2022). The motivation-impact gap in pro-environmental clothing consumption. Nature Sustainability, 5, 665–668. 10.1038/s41893-022-00888-7. PDF
28. Pröpper, H. Y., Blanken, T. F., Geiger, S., & Brick, C. (2022). Identity over truth? Cultural cognition weakly replicates across 23 countries. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 83, 101865. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101865. PDF
29. Kácha, O., Vintr, J., & Brick, C. (2022). Four Europes: Climate change beliefs and attitudes predict behavior and policy preferences using a latent class analysis on 23 countries. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 81, 101815. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101815. PDF
30. Sparks, A., Ehret, P. J., & Brick, C. (2022). Measuring environmental orientation: testing and building scales. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 81, 101780. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101780. PDF
31. Downey, H., Bretagnolle, V., Brick, C., Bulman, C. R., Cooke, S. J., Dean, M., Edmonds, B., Frick, W. F., Friedman, K., McNicol, C., Nichols, C., Herbert, S., O'Brien, D., Ockendon, N., Petrovan, S., Stroud, D., White, T. B., Worthington, T. A., & Sutherland, W. J. (2022). Principles for the production of evidence-based guidance for conservation actions. Conservation Science and Practice, 4(5). 10.1111/csp2.12663. PDF
32. Zwicker, M., Bosshard, A., & Brick, C. (2022). Organisations can make a real impact on sustainable development. One Earth, 5(7), 751-753. 10.1016/j.oneear.2022.06.007. PDF
33. Buchanan, E., Cuccolo, K. M., Coles, N., Heyman, T., Iyer, A., Lewis, N. Jr., Peters, K., van Berkel, N., van ‘t Veer, A., Taylor, J. E., Montefinese, M., Valentine, K. D., Maxwell, N. P., Türkan, B. N., Williams, G. P., Oliveros-Chacana, J. C., Röer, J. P., Fini, C., Acar, O. A., … Lewis, S. C. (2022, Stage 1 Registered Report). Measuring the semantic priming effect across many languages (SPAM-L). Nature Human Behaviour. Stage 1 PDF
34. Castiglione, A., Brick, C., Lindsay, D., Holden, S., & Aron, A. (2022). Discovering the psychological building blocks underlying climate action - a longitudinal study of real-world activism (Registered Report). Royal Society Open Science, 9, 210006. 10.1098/rsos.210006. PDF
2021
35. Brick, C., Hood, B., Ekroll, V., & de-Wit, L. (2021). Illusory essences: A bias holding back theorizing in psychological science. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(2), 491-506. 10.1177/1745691621991838. PDF
36. Brick, C., & Freeman, A. L. (2021). Communicating evidence in icons and summary formats for policy makers: What works? Behavioural Public Policy, 8(3), 441-469. 10.1017/bpp.2020.54. PDF
37. Brick, C., Bosshard, A., & Whitmarsh, L. (2021). Motivation and climate change: A review. Current Opinion in Psychology, 42, 82-88. 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.04.001. PDF
38. Brick, C., Fillon, A. A., Yeung, S. K., Wang, M., Ho, J. Y., Wong, S. C., & Feldman, G. (2021). Self-interest is overestimated: Two successful pre-registered replications of Miller and Ratner (1998). Collabra: Psychology, 7(1), 23443. 10.1525/collabra.23443. PDF
39. Brick, C., & Sherman, D. K. (2021). When does being watched change pro-environmental behaviors in the laboratory? Sustainability, 13(5), 2766. 10.3390/su13052766. PDF
40. Geiger, S., Brick, C., Nalborczyk, L., Bosshard, A., & Jostmann, N. B. (2021). More green than gray? Toward a sustainable overview of environmental spillover effects: a Bayesian meta-analysis. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 78, 101694. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101694. PDF
41. Lange, F., & Brick, C. (2021). Changing pro-environmental behavior: Evidence from (un)successful intervention studies. Sustainability, 13(14), 7748. 10.3390/su13147748. PDF
42. Zwicker, M. V., Brick, C., Gruter, G. M., & van Harreveld, F. (2021). (Not) doing the right things for the wrong reasons: an investigation of consumer attitudes, perceptions, and willingness to pay for bio-based plastics. Sustainability, 13(12), 6819. 10.3390/su13126819. PDF
43. Cologna, V., Hoogendoorn, G., & Brick, C. (2021). To strike or not to strike? An investigation of profiles of participating and non-participating students at the Fridays for Future climate strikes. PLoS ONE, 16(10), e0257296. 10.1371/journal.pone.0257296. PDF
44. Brick, A., & Brick, C. (2021). Districting that minimises partisan bias. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8, 138. 10.1057/s41599-021-00809-7. PDF
45. Nielsen, K. S., Cologna, V., Lange, F., Brick, C., & Stern, P. C. (2021). The case for impact-oriented environmental psychology. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 74, 101559. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101559. PDF
46. Lange, F., Nielsen, K. S., Cologna, V., Brick, C., & Stern, P. C. (2021). Making theory useful for understanding high-impact behavior: A response to van Valkengoed et al. (2021). Journal of Environmental Psychology, 75, 101611. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101611. PDF
47. Kenward, B., & Brick, C. (2021). Even UK Conservative voters prefer the environment to be at the heart of post-COVID-19 economic reconstruction. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 9(1), 321-333. 10.5964/jspp.6917. PDF
48. Sutherland, W. J., Taylor, N. G., Aldridge, D. C., Martin, P., Rhodes, C., Shackelford, G., Beard, S., Belfield, H., Bladon, A. J., Brick, C., Christie, A. P., Dobson, A. P., Downey, H., Hood, A. S. C., Hua, F., Hughes, A. C., Jarvis, R. M., MacFarlane, D., Morgan, W. H., … Petrovan, S. O. (2021). A solution scan of societal options to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission and spread. Journal of Biosafety and Biosecurity, 3(2), 84-90. 10.1016/j.jobb.2021.08.003. PDF
49. Tierney, W., Hardy, J., III, Ebersole, C. R., Viganola, D., Clemente, E. G., Gordon, M., Hoogeveen, S., Haaf, J., Dreber, A., Johannesson, M., Pfeiffer, T., Huang, J. L., Vaughn, L. A., DeMarree, K., Igou, E. R., Chapman, H., Gantman, A., Vanaman, M., Wylie, J., … Uhlmann, E. L. (2021). A creative destruction approach to replication: Implicit work and sex morality across cultures. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 93, 104060. 10.1016/j.jesp.2020.104060. PDF
2020
50. Brick, C., McDowell, M., & Freeman, A. L. (2020). Risk communication in tables vs. text: a Registered Report randomised trial on 'fact boxes'. Royal Society Open Science, 7(3), 190876. 10.1098/rsos.190876. PDF
51. Hodges, H., Kuehl, C., Anderson, S., Ehret, P., & Brick, C. (2020). How water districts can reduce household water use through communication: A field experiment. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 39(4), 1076-1099. 10.1002/pam.22246. PDF
52. Ehret, P., Hodges, H., Kuehl, C., Brick, C., Muller, S., & Anderson, S. (2020). Systematic review of household water conservation interventions using the information-motivation-behavioral skills model. Environment & Behavior, 53(5), 485-519. 10.1177/0013916519896868. PDF
53. Lange, F., Brick, C., & Dewitte, S. (2020). Green when seen? No support for an effect of observability on environmental conservation in the lab: a Registered Report. Royal Society Open Science, 7(4), 190189. 10.1098/rsos.190189. PDF
54. Vesely, S., Klöckner, C. A., & Brick, C. (2020). Are environmentalists more pro-social when solving social dilemmas? Expectations and behavior in the lab. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 67, 101362. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.101362. PDF
2019
55. Ford, H., Brick, C. (co-first author), Blaufuss, K., Dekens, P., & Azmitia, M. (2019). Women from under-represented minorities are given too few talks at world’s largest earth science conference. Nature, 576, 32-35. 10.1038/d41586-019-03688-w. PDF
56. Brick, C. (2019). A modest proposal for restoration ecology. Restoration Ecology, 27(3), 485-487. 10.1111/rec.12943. PDF
57. Schüz, B., Brick, C., Wilding, S. E., & Conner, M. T. (2019). Socioeconomic status moderates the effects of health cognitions on health behaviors: Two multi-behavior studies. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 54(1), 36-48. 10.1093/abm/kaz023. PDF
2018
58. Brick, C., & Lai, C. K. (2018). Explicit (but not implicit) environmentalist identity predicts pro-environmental action. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 58, 8-17. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2018.07.003. PDF
59. Brick, C., Freeman, A. L., Wooding, S., Skylark, W. J., Marteau, T., & Spiegelhalter, D. J. (2018). Winners and losers: Communicating the potential impacts of policies. Palgrave Communications, 4(69), 1-13. 10.1057/s41599-018-0121-9. PDF
60. Brick, C., & Spiegelhalter, D. J. (2018). Winners and losers: Communicating the potential impacts of policies: Commentary on Zeller. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 10.1093/ntr/nty197. PDF
61. Ford, H., Brick, C., Blaufuss, K., & Dekens, P. S. (2018). Gender inequity in speaking opportunities at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. Nature Communications, 9(1358), 1-6. 10.1038/s41467-018-03809-5. PDF
62. Moshontz, H., Campbell, L., Ebersole, C. R., IJzerman, H., Urry, H. L., Forscher, P. S., Grahe, J. E., McCarthy, R. J., Musser, E. D., Antfolk, J., Castille, C. M., Rhys Evans, T., Fiedler, S., Flake, J. K., Forero, D. A., Janssen, S. M., Keene, J. R., Protzko, J., … Chartier, C. R. (2018). The Psychological Science Accelerator: Advancing psychology through a distributed collaborative network. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 1(4), 501-515. 10.1177/2515245918797607. PDF
63. Busic-Sontic, A., & Brick, C. (2018). Personality trait effects on green household installations. Collabra: Psychology, 4(1), 8, 1-11. 10.1525/collabra.120. PDF
64. Voisin, D., Brick, C., Valleé, B., & Pascual, A. (2018). When stereotype threat does not impair performance, self-affirmation can be harmful. Self & Identity, 18(3), 331-348. 10.1080/15298868.2018.1454339. PDF
2017
65. Brick, C., Sherman, D. K., & Kim, H. S. (2017). "Green to be seen" and "brown to keep down": Visibility moderates the effect of identity on pro-environmental behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 51, 226-238. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2017.04.004. PDF
2016
66. Brick, C., & Lewis, G. J. (2016). Unearthing the “green” personality: Core traits predict environmentally friendly behavior. Environment and Behavior, 48(5), 635-658. 10.1177/0013916514554695. PDF
67. Brick, C., McCully, S. N., Updegraff, J. A., Ehret, P. J., Areguin, M. A., & Sherman, D. K. (2016). The impact of cultural exposure and message framing on oral health behavior: Exploring the role of message memory. Medical Decision Making, 36(7), 834-843. 10.1177/0272989X15570114. PDF
2015
68. Binning, K. R., Brick, C., Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2015). Going along versus getting it right: The role of self-integrity in political conformity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 56, 73-88. 10.1177/0013916514554695. PDF
69. Updegraff, J. A., Brick, C., Emanuel, A. S., Mintzer, R. E., & Sherman, D. K. (2015). Message framing for oral health: Moderation by perceived susceptibility and motivational orientation in a diverse sample of Americans. Health Psychology, 34(1), 20-29. 10.1037/hea0000101. PDF
2010
70. Brick, C., Seely, D. L., & Palermo, T. M. (2010). Association between sleep hygiene and sleep quality in medical students. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 8(2), 113–121. 10.1080/15402001003622925. PDF
71. Canseco-Gonzalez, E., Brehm, L., Brick, C., Brown-Schmidt, S., Fischer, K., & Wagner, K. (2010). Carpet or cárcel: the effect of age of acquisition and language mode on bilingual lexical access. Language and Cognitive Processes, 25(5), 669-705. 10.1080/01690960903474912. PDF