RESEARCH

Our research pioneers innovative public health approaches to building community resilience against polarization, extremism, and radicalization. Just as medical vaccines prepare immune systems to recognize and resist viruses, our evidence-based psychological inoculation methods help communities develop natural resistance to harmful narratives before they can take root and spread through social networks.

Through partnerships with leading research institutions, we've developed and validated scalable prevention approaches that strengthen both individual and community-wide resilience. Our interventions are designed to enhance critical thinking, strengthen social bonds, and empower communities to maintain healthy information environments.

Our prevention science framework moves beyond reactive approaches to build proactive protection through "psychological antibodies." Like a vaccine that provides broad-spectrum immunity, we've discovered that building resilience to extreme narratives naturally enhances resistance to less extreme but still concerning content. This "blanket protection" effect creates sustainable community immunity.

We continue advancing this methodology through research examining how protective effects spread through social networks and identifying optimal timing for "booster shot" interventions. This innovative approach helps communities develop self-sustaining resilience while reducing resource demands over time.

Most importantly, our research translates into practical tools that strengthen community cohesion. We provide evidence-based resources and training that empower organizations to implement effective prevention strategies aligned with their values and goals. Our scientifically-validated methods deliver measurable, lasting positive impact while bringing communities together.

For more information, check out PERIL here: https://perilresearch.com/

We partnered with scientists at Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles, to develop new ways to model and test the dynamic reciprocal effects among psychological processes, climate change-related behaviors, and social environmental factors over time: the Dynamic Model of Climate Action (DCMA). Guided by our new model, this study employed a longitudinal design, surveying a probability-based representative sample of 2,774 Texas and Florida residents five times between 2017 and 2022, both during and outside of tropical cyclone events. 

The findings revealed that as people engaged in more tropical cyclone adaptation behaviors, their personal risk perceptions decreased over time, particularly when storms were absent. However, perceptions of future tropical cyclone risks remained constant. This suggests that while people adapt to current perceived risks, this adaptation may paradoxically reduce motivation for future preparedness, even as climate change intensifies these threats. 

The implications of these findings are significant for climate change adaptation strategies. They indicate that as people adapt to current risks, they may become less likely to take future adaptive actions, despite the increasing severity of climate-related threats. This underscores the potential need for programs and policies that encourage proactive adaptation investments, even when immediate threat perceptions are low. 

Paper: https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/4/pgae099/7641944