Professor Nick Pidgeon - Associate Member of BRASS

Career Experience and Qualifications

Professor Pidgeon is Professor of Applied Psychology at Cardiff University and is currently Director of a major project supported by the Leverhulme Trust (2007-2010) exploring risk attitudes and behaviour in relation to climate change and energy choices, as well as aspects of public deliberation about this critical environmental challenge.

Research Areas of Interest

Professor Pidgeon conducts interdisciplinary research on issues at the interface of society, public policy, technology, risk and the environment. His research focuses on risk perceptions, risk communication, risk regulation/management and public engagement with science and technology.

Research Projects

Current research projects are looking in particular at how public risk attitudes, and institutional responses to those attitudes, form a part of the social dynamics of a range of environmental and technological controversies, including those of nuclear power, GM agriculture and nanotechnologies

Publications (2008-20120

2011

Spence A., Poortinga, W., Butler, C., and Pidgeon, N.F. (2011) Perceptions of climate change and willingness to act sustainably influenced by flood experiences. Nature Climate Change. [pdf]

2010

Hall, J and Pidgeon, N.F. (2010) A systems view of climate change. Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems, 27(3), 243-253 [pdf]

Pidgeon, N.F. (2010) Systems thinking, cultures of reliability and safety. Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems, 27(3), 211-217 [pdf]

Spence, A. and Pidgeon, N.F. (2010) Framing and communicating climate change: the effects of distance and outcome frame manipulations. Global Environmental Change, 20, 656-667. [pdf]

Spence, A., Poortinga, W., Pidgeon, N.F. and Lorenzoni, I. (2010) Public perceptions of energy choices: The influence of beliefs about climate change and the environment. Environment and Energy, 21(5), 385-407. [pdf]

Bickerstaff, K., Lorenzoni, I., Jones, M. and Pidgeon, N. (2010) Locating scientific citizenship: the institutional contexts and cultures of public engagement. Science Technology and Human Values, 35(4), 474-500. [pdf]

Henwood, K.L., Pidgeon, N.F., Parkhill, K. and Simmons, P. (2010) Researching risk: narrative, biography, subjectivity, Forum Qualitative Social Research, 11(1), Article 20.

Corner, A. and Pidgeon. N.F. (2010) Geoengineering the climate – the social and ethical implications, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 52(1), 24-37. [pdf]

Parkhill, K.A., Pidgeon, N.F., Henwood, K.L., Simmons, P. and Venables, D. (2010) From the familiar to the extraordinary: local residents’ perceptions of risk when living with nuclear power in the UK. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, NS 35, 39-58. [pdf]

2009

Spence, A. and Pidgeon, N.F. (2009) Psychology, climate change and sustainable behavior, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 51(6), 8-18. [pdf]

Pidgeon, N.F. and Butler, C.  (2009) Risk analysis and climate change. Environmental Politics, 18(5), 670-688. [pdf]

Doria, M., Pidgeon, N.F. and Hunter, P. (2009) Perceptions of drinking water quality and risk and its effect on behaviour: A cross-national study. Science of the Total Environment, 407, 5455-5464. [pdf]

Venables, D., Pidgeon, N.F., Henwood, K.L., Simmons, P and Parkhill, K.A. (2009) Living with nuclear power: a Q-method study of local community perceptions. Risk Analysis, 29, 1089-1104. [pdf]

Spence, A., Pidgeon, N.F. and Uzzell, D. (2009) Climate change – psychology’s contribution. The Psychologist, 22(2) 108-111.

Pidgeon, N.F., Harthorn, B., Bryant, K. and Rogers-Hayden, T. (2009) Deliberating the risks of nanotechnology for energy and health applications in the US and UK. Nature Nanotechnology, Vol 4, Feb 2009, 95-98. [pdf]

2008

Rowe, G., Horlick-Jones, T., Walls, J., Poortinga, W. and Pidgeon, N.F. (2008) Analysis of a normative framework for evaluating public engagement exercises: reliability, validity and limitations. Public Understanding of Science, 17 (4), 419-441 [pdf]

Bickerstaff, K., Lorenzoni, I., Pidgeon, N.F., Poortinga, W. and Simmons, P. (2008) Re-framing nuclear power in the UK energy debate: nuclear power, climate change mitigation and radioactive waste. Public Understanding of Science, 17, 145-169. [pdf]

Pidgeon, N.F., Lorenzoni, I. and Poortinga, W. (2008) Climate change or nuclear power - no thanks! A quantitative study of public perceptions and risk framing in Britain. Global Environmental Change, 18, 69-85. [pdf]

Henwood, K.L., Parkhill, K.A. and Pidgeon, N.F. (2008) Science, technology and risk perception: from gender differences to the effects made by gender. Equal Opportunities International Vol. 27(8),662-676. [pdf]

Bickerstaff, K., Simmons, P. and Pidgeon, N. (2008) Constructing responsibility for risk(s):  negotiating citizen-state relationships. Environment and Planning A, 40, 1312-1330. [pdf]

Henwood, K.L., Pidgeon, N.F., Sarre, S., Simmons, P. and Smith, N. (2008) Risk, framing and everyday life: methodological and ethical reflections from three sociocultural projects. Health, Risk and Society, 10, 421-438 [pdf]

Haynes, K., Barclay, J., Pidgeon, N.F. (2008) Whose reality counts? Factors affecting the perception of volcanic risk. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 172, 259-272. [pdf]

Pidgeon, N.F., Simmons, P., Sarre, S., Henwood, K.L.,and Smith, N. (2008) The ethics of socio-cultural risk research. Health, Risk and Society, 10, 321-329. [pdf]

Poortinga, W., Cox, P. and Pidgeon, N.F. (2008) The perceived health risks of indoor radon gas and overhead powerlines: a comparative multilevel approach. Risk Analysis, 28, 235-248. [pdf]

Rogers-Hayden, T. and Pidgeon, N.F. (2008) Developments in nanotechnology public engagement in the UK: ‘upstream’ towards sustainability? Journal of Cleaner Production, 16, 1010-1013. [pdf]