The Psychology of Environmental Law

by Arden Rowell, Kenworthey Bilz, Linda J Demaine

Overview

Offers psychological insights into how people perceive, respond to, value, and make decisions about the environment

Environmental law may seem a strange space to seek insights from psychology. Psychology, after all, seeks to illuminate the interior of the human mind, while environmental law is fundamentally concerned with the exterior surroundings—the environment—in which people live.
Yet psychology is a crucial, undervalued factor in how laws shape people’s interactions with the environment. Psychology can offer environmental law a rich, empirically informed account of why, when, and how people act in ways that affect the environment—which can then be used to more effectively pursue specific policy goals. When environmental law fails to incorporate insights from psychology, it risks misunderstanding and mispredicting human behaviors that may injure or otherwise affect the environment, and misprescribing legal tools to shape or mitigate those behaviors.

The Psychology of Environmental Law provides key insights regarding how psychology can inform, explain, and improve how environmental law operates. It offers concrete analyses of the theoretical and practical payoffs in pollution control, ecosystem management, and climate change law and policy when psychological insights are taken into account.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479835515
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Series:	Psychology and the Law
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	349
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Arden Rowell (Author)
Arden Rowell is Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, and author of Psychology of Environmental Law, A Guide to U.S. Environmental Law, and A Guide to EU Environmental Law.

Kenworthey Bilz (Author)
Kenworthey Bilz is Professor of Law in the College of Law at the University of Illinois. She has also taught at Northwestern, Duke, Notre Dame, and KU-Leuven. She teaches courses in criminal law, evidence, negotiations, and psychology. She conducts empirical research in the moral psychology of the law.


Linda J. Demaine is Professor of Law and Willard H. Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar at Arizona State University.

Table of Contents

Preface Linda J. Demaine ix

Introduction 1

1 Key Features of Environmental Law and Psychology 9

2 Diffusion 31

3 Complexity 63

4 Nonhuman Impacts 93

5 General Law and Psychology in Environmental Law 117

6 The Psychology of Pollution Control 149

7 The Psychology of Ecosystem Management 180

8 The Psychology of Climate Change Law and Policy 219

Conclusion: Future Directions in the Psychology of Environmental Law 261

Acknowledgments 271

Notes 273

References 275

Index 325

About the Authors 337

Editorial Reviews

"Synthesizing a large body of evidence, Rowell and Bilz offer a forthright description of the extraordinary difficulties environmental conflicts pose and the hope that awareness of psychological barriers can help decision makers respond more effectively."

Holly Doremus

"How many books create a whole new field? Rowell and Bilz have done exactly that — and produced, at once, brilliant theoretical insights and terrific practical suggestions. (World, please take notice.) Their book is a landmark."

Cass R. Sunstein

"Rowell and Bilz pull off two impressive feats: they present a novel and penetrating survey of legal regulation of the environment; and they add an important member to the list of legal domains insightfully illuminated by psychological methods."

Dan M. Kahan