Contact Information

cclark27@gmu.edu

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Chris Clarke

Associate Professor, Department of Communication / Center for Climate Change Communication

My research on health and environmental risk communication focuses on two broad questions:

First, what factors motivate people to care about health and environmental topics?

Second, how can we craft effective messages that motivate people to care more?

Within both areas, I am especially interested in the role of social-psychological factors like political ideology, attention to news media discourse, social norms, scientific consensus, and psychological distance.

Specific topics of interest/expertise include energy development (i.e., unconventional oil and natural gas development via hydraulic fracturing – “fracking”); vaccine safety; and climate change, among others.

I have an inter-disciplinary background in communication, public health, and environmental policy, and I try to engage all of these fields in my scholarship.

Selected Publications

Boudet, H., Clarke, C., Bugden, D., Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C., & Leiserowitz, A. (2014). “Fracking” controversy and communication: Using national survey data to understand public perceptions of hydraulic fracturing. Energy Policy, 65, 57-67

Clarke, C., Budgen, D., Hart, P.S., Stedman, R.C,. Jacquet, J.B., Evensen, D.T.N., & Boudet, H. (2016). How geographic distance and political ideology interact to influence public perception of unconventional oil/natural gas development. Energy Policy, 97, 301-309.

Clarke, C., Holton, A., McKeever, B., & Dixon, G. (2015). The influence of weight-of-evidence messages on (vaccine) attitudes: A sequential mediation model. Journal of Health Communication, 20, 1302-1309.

Education

B.S., Rutgers University, 2005 – Health & Environmental Policy

M.S., Cornell University, 2007 – (Risk) Communication

Ph.D., Cornell University, 2012 – (Risk) Communication

Dissertations Supervised

Doran Tucker , Understanding the Persuasive Impacts of Framing Climate Change as National Security: A Multi-Method Study (2025)

Amanda C. Borth , A Reflexive Approach to Designing Small-Group Deliberation on Carbon Dioxide Removal: Integrating Public, Expert Stakeholder, And Scholarly Perspectives (2023)

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