About
I am deeply concerned about the health of both the planet and its inhabitants, and I am constantly thinking about how I can contribute as a psychologist. In the early 2010s, I decided to redirect my research focus entirely to the study of environment and human behavior. My primary research focus is to understand how people perceive their relationship with nature and the emotional and behavioral implications of those perceptions. Some examples of my work in this area include studies on nature connectedness, empathy toward nature, and, more recently, gratitude toward nature. My other focus is to uncover the cross-national variability of phenomena regarding environmental attitude and pro-environmental behavior. For example, I demonstrated that the relationship between environmental concern and environmental action varies systematically along the cultural orientations and political contexts in different societies. In my recent projects, I have expanded my interests to include human responses to the problem of climate change, such as climate change anxiety, support for climate policies, and conspiracy theories about climate change.
I have published over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles. Based on the standardized citation indicators released by Stanford University, I have been recognized as one of the world’s top 2% scientists for the past two years (2022, 2023).
I am now a Professor in the Division of Social Science at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and an Affiliate Researcher at the Center for Experimental Research in Social Sciences at Hokkaido University. I was formerly the Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Journal of Social Psychology, and am currently an Associate Editor of PLOS Climate, PsyEcology, and Royal Society Open Science. I am also serving on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Global Environmental Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Review. I have reviewed manuscripts for over 75 journals. I regularly teach environmental psychology at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and collaborate with and offer consulting services to local and international environmental organizations.