Prof Nick Pidgeon

Professor

School of Psychology

PH: +44 (0) 2920874567
Fax: +44 (0) 2920874858
Email: [email protected]
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Background

I conduct interdisciplinary research on issues at the interface of society, public policy, technology, risk and the environment. Particular foci for my work are risk perceptions, risk communication, risk regulation/management and public engagement with science and technology. 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. I am 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. I take an eclectic stance on research methodology, and some of my work uses mixed-methods study designs where, for example, both quantitative and qualitative techniques are deployed to explore phenomena in greater depth than any one method would allow in isolation. I also conduct work into accident causation in high hazard industries, and in particular organisational safety cultures.