Dr Moira Nicolson

Climate change could see more trees in cities to tackle heatwaves - BBC News Scientists say air temperatures could be reduced by 5C by planting more trees.

Simple but effective…

Plant trees to tackle deadly heatwaves, say experts

www.bbc.com/news/article...

My blog on why Human Behaviour is the missing Piece in AI Safety

Unlocking AI's Potential in Large Organisations

Insightful session from the Applied Data & Insight Team (Cabinet Office and Government Communications Office) on Unlocking #AI's Potential in Large Organisations with
@moiranics.bsky.social which took a practice-based approach, supported by online resources
👉 www.gov.uk/government/p...

Swiss village almost entirely destroyed after collapse of glacier buries it in mud One person missing and Blatten devastated after huge cloud of ice and rubble inundates evacuated town

My friend is in charge of the team that wrote the climate change adaptation plan for Switzerland and this is one of the things they expected.

Unlocking AI’s Potential in Organisations: Humans, Habits and Hidden Risks This event marks two new Cabinet Office toolkits providing practical frameworks for successfully scaling AI across your organisation

Join us on 4th June for my team’s latest work on #AI #alignment.

In person tickets are now sold out but we’re hosting online too.

Full agenda and speakers to be announced later this week.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unlocking-...

Unlocking AI’s Potential in Organisations: Humans, Habits and Hidden Risks This event marks two new Cabinet Office toolkits providing practical frameworks for successfully scaling AI across your organisation

Join us on 4th June for my team’s latest work on #AI #alignment.

In person tickets are now sold out but we’re hosting online too.

Full agenda and speakers to be announced later this week.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unlocking-...

Diagram showing the four key drivers of walkability (accessibility & connectivity, public transits, security & safety and environmental quality) and the benefits these bring (health, economic, social cohesion and environmental). All fundamental to conceit of a ‘livable city’

“Safety and security, and street connectivity are the dominant drivers of urban walkability… Similarly, aesthetically pleasing scenery, sidewalk, and land use mix and diversity…”

A new article reviews existing literature to identify drivers of walkability: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Much appreciation for my council Hammersmith & Fulham’s new rain garden on King Street, which has just been planted up in time for spring! Special thanks to Cllr Wes Harcourt, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Ecology 🌱🙌

I’m going to be at #Anthropy next week with @parisawright.bsky.social talking about the evidence on why grassroots community engagement can help solve multiple social issues.

If you’re there, let me know! And check out the session on the final day about positive male role models.

Oxford Street Transformation This public consultation – which will run from 28 February 2025 to 02 May 2025 - is about gathering your views on the proposed establishment of a new Mayoral Development Corporation to unlock the true...

A nine-week consultation begins today on the London Mayor's plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street (h/t the London Minute)
haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/oxford-street
haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/oxford-street

Does anyone know of places in the UK with a good reputation for being accessible eg to people with different mobility needs and preferences?

Heritage Action Zones: Breathing New Life Into Old Places | Historic England This initiative harnesses our extensive and wide-ranging expertise to help breathe new life into unloved places and achieve sustainable growth.

Ah very interesting. That reminds me of Historic England’s Heritage Action Zones which do exactly what that article suggests would be needed to address people’s safety concerns - more work to repair and rejuvenate the way a place looks and feels. historicengland.org.uk/advice/herit...

Graph showing perceived safety from different modes of transport - driving a car, being a car passenger, using public transport, cycling, driving a motorcycle , cycle on an e bike, take an aeroplane. The graphs show that people find being in a car or flying safer than cycling and being on a motorbike.

Quite interesting comparison from your Brussels survey. Shame they haven’t included walking but would be easy to add!

YouTube video by Healthy Streets Healthy Streets Introduction

On that note, Healthy Streets has a wonderful tool for public engagement with street design. Is this what you're after? www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFcT...

Thanks Pete! This is excellent. I agree it would make most sense to capture crime as well as other factors like road safety if creating a “safe streets” index. I quite like the idea of being able to distinguish between the different components eg is it traffic or is it crime that’s putting ppl off.

Cover of the OECD report linked: "Mind shift, green lift: Six behavioural science trends for environmental policy"

✨OECD Behavioral Science Trends for Environmental Policy (2025)✨

Their paper posits 6 roles for green behavioral insights:

1️⃣ Policy development
2️⃣ Climate adaptation
3️⃣ Policy support
4️⃣ Citizen participation
5️⃣ Uptake of green actions
6️⃣ Misinformation

🔗 doi.org/10.1787/162c...

Chuffed to be cited ☺️

Thank you!

@brionylatter.bsky.social @carlietrott.bsky.social

Does anyone know of a standardised or just generally good way of measuring pedestrians perceptions of road safety? For instance if you wanted to score specific routes based on how safe people feel eg from crime and cars? @cast-centre.bsky.social @petedyson.bsky.social

Hope to see some of you at #anthropy25 26-28 March! We'll run a silo busting Panel

2k+ leaders from government, business & NGOs will come together to discuss, advocate & challenge visions for a brighter Britain in 30 Years & how to actually get there. Info/Pass:
www.edenproject.com/visit/whats-...

Juste came across this interesting paper: repetition does not just cause "illusory truth" but also "illusory implications" -- people make inferences on the basis of familiar (illusory) information. @lkfazio.bsky.social @profsanderlinden.bsky.social @ulliecker.bsky.social doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

Paper titled, "Attitudes in the Social Context: The Impact of Social Network Composition on Individual-Level Attitude Strength". The abstract reads "Four studies, using both experimental and correlational designs, explored the implications of being embedded within attitudinally congruent versus attitudinally heterogeneous social networks for individual-level attitude strength. Individuals embedded within congruent social networks (i.e., made up of others with similar views) were more resistant to attitude change than were individuals embedded within heterogeneous social networks (i.e., made up of others with a range of views). Mediational evidence suggests that attitudinally congruous social networks may increase attitude strength by decreasing attitudinal ambivalence and perhaps by increasing the certainty with which people hold their attitudes. These results suggest that features of the social context in which an attitude is held have important implications for individual-level attitude strength."

People in social networks made up of others with similar views were more resistant to attitude change than people in heterogeneous social networks

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15598106/

Although maybe more interesting is, what would be a good, measurable proxy for researcher ability? Earnings data is available so I can see why you’d use it.

I agree that would seem to be the assumption. At the start the authors state they assume individuals vary in terms of 3 characteristics - what they expect to earn as a result of going to university, their research ability and their ability at non research jobs. I would say that’s quite limited.

The UK has pretty comprehensive stats on who dies in road incidents.

Car occupants are the group with the largest number of deaths, but when adjusting for miles travelled, it's a very different story.

www.gov.uk/government/s...

🚀 Some news: I'm re-launching my project on the Civil Service 🚀

In 2022, I interviewed 50 civil servants about their experiences navigating Brexit, the pandemic, and political turmoil galore. Now, post-election and amid renewed debates about Whitehall reform (#tepidbathgate), it's time to reboot.

Facebook to ditch fact-checking: what do researchers think? Meta’s planned shift away from third party fact-checking in favour of a crowdsourced approach has perplexed those who study the spread of misinformation.

Nice article in Nature about what the research says about Meta's decision to stop their fact-checking program. My 2 cents;

“Studies provide very consistent evidence that fact-checking does at least partially reduce misperceptions about false claims.”

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Amazing thanks for highlighting that thread! You’d definitely have to be very committed (with plenty of spare time) to do that journey!

I’ve often thought this about lots of similar places across the UK - like National Trust. I love visiting them, but really difficult without a car.

I'm now on the lookout for a new role, can you help? 🙏 #OpenToWork

Looking for a senior (Head/Director) role in industry, academia, an NGO, IGO or think tank on climate, sustainable food/agriculture/land use, nature or wider sustainability strategy.

Happy to relocate.

Experience & skills are ⬇️