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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 10d

I enjoyed the opportunity to discuss this work with such an engaged group of scholars working on collective action research.

For those who are interested in the full paper, it’s available as an open access article in the Journal of Environmental Psychology: doi.org/10.1016/j.je...

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 10d

Our findings show that while extreme climate protests can reduce support for the activist group carrying them out, they can also increase public concern about climate change and spur intentions to act—a tension that many activists and organisers face.

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 10d

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting at the 2025 Collective Action Network (CAN) Meeting on my recent research into the climate activist’s dilemma.

The climate activist's dilemma: Extreme climate protests reduce movement support but raise climate concern and intentions. Jarren L. Nylund, Michael Thai, Matthew J. Hornsey. Net Zero Observatory, Business School, The University of Queensland. School of Psychology, The University of Queensland.

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 15d

We should have another article coming out in the not too distant future summarising the various research we and others have done using this paradigm on these kinds of topics if you'd like me to share it with you when it is published.

Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 15d

Thanks for sharing these links, Ketan. I imagine that each subsequent version is generally getting better, but will never be perfect (pictured is how it was explained to us). But yeah, definitely share your concern about the corporate aspect of the technology.

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 16d

For anyone interested, here is a link to bypass the paywall and download a PDF version of the article: rdcu.be/eHcNY

The promise and limitations of using GenAI to reduce climate scepticism

Nature Climate Change - ChatGPT provides a way of teaching people about climate change. This research reveals that conversations between climate sceptics and ChatGPT reduced climate scepticism, but...

rdcu.be

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 17d

Quite possibly! However, it should be noted that the effects on reducing scepticism among sceptics were susceptible to decay at follow-up. So, it might be that repetition of the intervention, or other factors are needed, to make the decline more durable.

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 17d

In the paper, we’re explicit about several limitations of the approach. However, we've now conducted several studies that are similar to those in this paper (on different science-related topics), with none of them finding inaccurate information being generated by ChatGPT on these topics.

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 17d

That's a fair concern, one that we address in the article itself. We used a validated process in which responses were fact-checked by another LLM (Claude), and a substantial subset of responses manually fact-checked by independent climate experts. Results found negligible evidence of misinformation.

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Reposted by Jarren Nylund

Boryana Todorova @todorova.bsky.social · 23d

🧠🌍 Join me next week for the Planetary Health Alliance – Next Gen Speaker Series to learn why climate action is brain health action!

When? 24th of September, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EDT
Where? Online - register here: planetaryhealthalliance.org/events/next-...

Next Gen Speaker Series - Boryana Todorova - Planetary Health Alliance

Boryana Todorova is a Visiting Researcher at the Net Zero Observatory, University of Queensland, and a member of the Neuro Climate Working Group. Her research examines the two-way relationship between...

planetaryhealthalliance.org

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 17d

This paper is the product of a team effort from members of the Net Zero Observatory. I’m grateful to have worked alongside such talented colleagues: business.uq.edu.au/research/net...

A mock-up of what the second spread of “The promise and limitations of using GenAI to reduce climate scepticism” (Hornsey et al., 2025) article would look like printed.

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 17d

Across two studies, we found that short conversations with ChatGPT led climate sceptics to report lower confidence in their sceptical views and small increases in pro-environmental intentions.

You can read the article here:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

A mock-up of what the first spread of “The promise and limitations of using GenAI to reduce climate scepticism” (Hornsey et al., 2025) article would look like printed.

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · 17d

Thrilled to share my first publication in a Nature journal!

Our new article in Nature Climate Change (@natclimate.nature.com) explores whether conversations with generative AI tools like ChatGPT may help shift climate scepticism.

A mock-up of what the first page of “The promise and limitations of using GenAI to reduce climate scepticism” (Hornsey et al., 2025) article would look like printed.

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · Sep 8

Thanks to my supervisors, progress review panel, fellow members of the Net Zero Observatory, and other friends and family for their support throughout this journey.

And in what feels like a rite of passage, I now also seem to have my very own UQ web profile: business.uq.edu.au/profile/1925...

Mr Jarren Nylund

business.uq.edu.au

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · Sep 8

Pleased to announce that I successfully passed my PhD confirmation milestone at The University of Queensland (UQ) last week.

Excited to be continuing my research into factors that influence public perceptions of climate protests.

A photo of a UQ meeting room with a television mounted on the wall. The screen displays the title slide of Jarren Nylund’s PhD confirmation presentation: “Factors That Influence Public Perceptions of Climate Change Protests”

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · Aug 27

A thoughtful piece by Sarah DeWeerdt in Anthropocene Magazine about my recently published research on the “climate activist’s dilemma.”

www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/08/the-...

The backlash paradox of radical climate protests

Extreme actions turn people off the activists behind them—but may leave the broader climate movement stronger than before.

www.anthropocenemagazine.org

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Reposted by Jarren Nylund

Boryana Todorova @todorova.bsky.social · Jul 29

📢 🥳 New paper alert!

We developed a new task (RateME) for studying the effects of personal and group rejection and showed that both types of rejection can be linked to radicalization via increased hostility.

🔗 Link to the paper: shorturl.at/uJiDa

Group and personal rejection are similarly linked to extreme intergroup attitudes

Perceived marginalization of social groups has been identified as one of the main drivers of violent extremism across countries. However, most psychol…

shorturl.at

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · Aug 8

Big thanks to Ryan and to the Wells Fargo protest organisers who engaged with the research directly. It’s powerful to see theory meet real-world action, and I hope this research adds nuance to conversations about protest strategy.

Activists Target Wells Fargo for Dropping its Climate Commitments - Inside Climate News

Seven protesters were arrested after coordinated actions in New York and San Francisco, as climate organizers escalate tactics against the bank. The campaign echoes findings from new research on publi...

insideclimatenews.org

Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · Aug 8

In the article, reporter Ryan Krugman highlights findings from my recently published article on the “climate activist’s dilemma”: extreme protest tactics may reduce support for activist groups, but simultaneously raise climate concern and personal willingness to act.

Activists Target Wells Fargo for Dropping its Climate Commitments - Inside Climate News

Seven protesters were arrested after coordinated actions in New York and San Francisco, as climate organizers escalate tactics against the bank. The campaign echoes findings from new research on publi...

insideclimatenews.org

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · Aug 8

Inside Climate News just published a powerful piece on the recent direct actions against Wells Fargo, and how recent research helps unpack public reactions to those kinds of protests.

Activists Target Wells Fargo for Dropping its Climate Commitments - Inside Climate News

Seven protesters were arrested after coordinated actions in New York and San Francisco, as climate organizers escalate tactics against the bank. The campaign echoes findings from new research on publi...

insideclimatenews.org

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Reposted by Jarren Nylund

Milo Kei @milokei.bsky.social · Jul 15

Fascinating new empirical study about the efficacy of 'extreme' climate protest. Give it a read! The trade-off btw public disgust and public action

Have you summarised this as 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'@owasow.bsky.social?

#Sociology #AcademicSky #SocialMovements #ProtectProtest

Omar Wasow @owasow.bsky.social · Jul 14

New paper finds a ‘climate activist’s dilemma’: “study participants perceived climate activists engaging in extreme protests to be more immoral and supported movement less. However, extreme protests also heightened climate concern and intention to take action.” www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Journal of Environmental Psychology

The climate activist’s dilemma: Extreme protests reduce movement support but raise climate concern and intentions

Jarren L. Nylund,
Michael Thai,
Matthew J. Hornsey

Highlights
• Extreme (vs. moderate) climate protests reduce support for the activist group.
• Support was reduced via immorality, low emotional connection, and identification.
• Extreme (vs. moderate) climate protests increase climate concern and intentions.
• Extreme tactics may boost concern but harm activist group support.
• No loss of support for the broader climate movement or cause was observed.

Abstract
Some members of the climate movement advocate for disruptive tactics, including mass civil disobedience, in the effort to pressure governments to address anthropogenic climate change. However, prior research on the “activist's dilemma” suggests that extreme protest actions may reduce public support for a movement. The present research aimed to discover if these findings would replicate within the highly moralised context of climate change, and explore target deservingness as a potential moderator. Across two studies, with Australian psychology students (Study 1; N=178) and a politically representative sample from the United Kingdom (Study 2; N=511), participants perceived climate activists engaging in extreme (vs. moderate) protests to be more immoral, felt less emotional connection and identification with them, and supported the movement less. However, Study 2 found that extreme (vs. moderate) protests also heightened climate concern and intentions to take climate-related actions. These findings highlight a “climate activist’s dilemma”: while extreme tactics may reduce support for the activist groups who engage in such tactics, they may simultaneously raise climate concern and personal intentions to act.

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · Jul 24

Thanks to my co-authors, Michael Thai and Matthew Hornsey, for their guidance and support.

#climate #activistsdilemma

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · Jul 24

But here's the twist, those same extreme tactics can also make people more concerned about climate change and more willing to act on it.

It’s a complex trade-off that we have called the climate activist’s dilemma: doi.org/10.1016/j.je...

Photo of the article titled “The climate activist’s dilemma: Extreme protests reduce movement support but raise climate concern and intentions”. It is authored by Jarren L. Nylund, Michael Thai, and Matthew J. Hornsey, and published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Abstract: Some members of the climate movement advocate for disruptive tactics, including mass civil disobedience, in the effort to pressure governments to address anthropogenic climate change. However, prior research on the “activist's dilemma” suggests that extreme protest actions may reduce public support for a movement. The present research aimed to discover if these findings would replicate within the highly moralised context of climate change, and explore target deservingness as a potential moderator. Across two studies, with Australian psychology students (Study 1; N = 178) and a politically representative sample from the United Kingdom (Study 2; N = 511), participants perceived climate activists engaging in extreme (vs. moderate) protests to be more immoral, felt less emotional connection and identification with them, and supported the movement less. However, Study 2 found that extreme (vs. moderate) protests also heightened climate concern and intentions to take climate-related actions. These findings highlight a “climate activist's dilemma”: while extreme tactics may reduce support for the activist groups who engage in such tactics, they may simultaneously raise climate concern and personal intentions to act.

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Jarren Nylund @jarrennylund.bsky.social · Jul 24

Proud to share my first lead-author publication, now out in the Journal of Environmental Psychology!

We found that extreme climate protests (like blockades and defacing property with paint) can backfire by reducing support for the climate movement.

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Reposted by Jarren Nylund

Greenpeace Australia Pacific @greenpeaceap.bsky.social · Jul 23

BREAKING (GOOD) NEWS: The historic Pacific-led campaign to hold countries accountable for the climate damage they have caused has been backed by the world’s highest court overnight. Read more 👇

www.greenpeace.org.au/news/worlds-...

World’s highest court delivers historic protections for climate-impacted communities - Greenpeace Australia Pacific

SYDNEY, Thursday, 24 July 2025 – The historic Pacific-led campaign to hold countries accountable for the climate damage they have caused  has been backed by the world’s highest court overnight,&h...

www.greenpeace.org.au

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