Cognitive Policy Works

We are excited to announce that our first round of research is complete. The climate meme has now been analyzed and is ready for public viewing. Thanks to everyone who made this possible! This is the first ever glimpse of the cultural memes that tell us how to think, feel, and act on the threat [...]

If I had to pick one word to describe the political culture of the United States, I would call it unwell.  Throughout the last several decades — the entirety of adult political life for most active citizens — we have been plagued with lies and deceit, anger and betrayal, a toxic polarization that has rotted [...]

At the heart of the climate crisis is a profound clash of worldviews. People live in different ideological camps — beholden to their own beliefs, values, judgements, and ideas about the relationship between humans and the natural environment. The failure of climate activists to engage the broad public effectively is largely attributable to this great [...]

Earlier this year, I had the profound honor of bringing together a team of frame analysts, data technologists, and international development experts to focus on one of the most critical problems in the world today — our rigged global financial system.  We worked closely with the campaign team at /The Rules to uncover important insights [...]

This article is co-authored by Joe Brewer and Lazlo Karafiath.  They are co-founders of DarwinSF, a social impact company whose mission is to help good memes spread. It was originally published on TriplePundit.com We all want to live in a world that supports life and promotes human well-being.  Okay, do we really want to?  That’s [...]

Writers on economics have been talking since the election about why the “fiscal cliff” metaphor is misleading. Alternative metaphors have been offered like the fiscal hill, fiscal curb, and fiscal showdown, as if one metaphor could easily be replaced by another that makes more sense of the real situation. But none of the alternatives has [...]

I’ve been applying cognitive linguistics and neuroscience to politics in six books over the past two decades. The ideas in those books were on display in many of the speeches at the Democratic National Convention. Look for them in the debates. They include: All politics is based on moral values, with strict conservatives and progressives having different [...]

Will human civilization make the transition to global sustainability?  Or are we doomed to collapse and possibly even extinction as a species?  I have grappled with this question for years as I journeyed through the intellectual landscapes of Earth System Science, cognitive science, and complex adaptive systems.  And now it is clear that I am [...]

Did you know that roughly one person in a hundred is clinically a psychopath?  These individuals are either born with an emotional deficiency that keeps them from feeling bad about hurting others or they are traumatized early in life in a manner that causes them to become this way.  With more than 7 billion people [...]

I’ve organized some of my thoughts on the evolution of cooperation, how society forms organizations, and the key insights into human nature that will be needed to build a political pathway to global sustainability.  Then I put them into a video: I’ve recently made the argument that the only way to address global challenges that [...]