Dr Paul Bain is a Reader in social psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath. He is interested in how psychological factors can help us understand support/opposition to social policies and innovations promoting more sustainable living. He has a particular interest in beliefs about the future of society – how policies and innovations are expected to impact people’s character and how society will function, including cross-cultural comparisons. Some specific topics he investigates are the extent of people’s economic wants, and public attitudes to universal basic income, degrowth, and three-day work weeks. He also examines public views about trade-offs between different aspects of sustainability, such as whether people think environmental, economic and social sustainability are consistent or in conflict.
Selected papers:
Bain, P. G., & Bongiorno, R. (2022). Evidence from 33 countries challenges the assumption of unlimited wants. Nature Sustainability, 5, 669-673. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00902-y
Bain, P. G., Kroonenberg, P. M., Johansson, L.-O., Milfont, T. L., Crimston, C. R., Kurz, T., Bushina, E., Calligaro, C., Demarque, C., Guan, Y., & Park, J. (2019). Public views of the Sustainable Development Goals across countries. Nature Sustainability, 2, 819-825. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0365-4
Bain, P. G., Hornsey, M. J., Bongiorno, R., Kashima, Y., & Crimston, D. (2013). Collective futures: How projections about the future of society are related to actions and attitudes supporting social change. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(4), 523-539. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213478200
Bain, P. G., Milfont, T. L., Kashima, Y., & et al. (2016). Co-benefits of addressing climate change can motivate action around the world. Nature Climate Change, 6, 154-157. https://doi.org/10.1038/NCLIMATE2814
Bain, P. G., Bongiorno, R., Tinson, K., Heanue, A., Gómez, Á., Guan, Y., Lebedeva, N., Kashima, E., González, R., Chen, S. X., Blumen, S., & Kashima, Y. (2023). Worldviews about societal change: Their structure and their implications for understanding responses to sustainability, technology, and political change. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 26, 504-535. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12574