Matthew Apps
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brainapps.bsky.social
Matthew Apps
@brainapps.bsky.social
Full Professor of Cognitive Computational Neuroscience & MSNlab PI-- Motivation, decision-making & social cognition in human brains. Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, UK.
www.msn-lab.com
And David Robbe
November 5, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Now @dlbarack.bsky.social in this next session with his more theoretical perspective on foraging from food to inquiry.
November 5, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Matthew Apps
Finally, we found that people who believe climate change is man-made and support policies to protect the planet had higher pro-environmental motivation specifically.

People lower in trait apathy and who rated the task as less effortful were more likely to help both causes.
November 5, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Matthew Apps
Using computational modelling, we showed that these effective interventions changed how rewards 💰 for the climate 🌍 (vs. food charity) were devalued by effort 💪.

This was independent of how noisy participants' choices were 🤔
November 5, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Matthew Apps
Two interventions robustly decreased the preference to help food over climate, across measures and analyses.

These interventions:
- decreased psychological distance to the negative effects of climate change
- used system justification theory to promote pro-environmental action
November 5, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Matthew Apps
We tested the 11 expert-sourced interventions from the International Climate Psychology Collaboration led by
@madalina.bsky.social,
@kimdoell.bsky.social, @jbakcoleman.bsky.social & @jayvanbavel.bsky.social

See doi.org/10.1126/scia... & doi.org/10.1038/s415... (all the data are freely available!)
The International Climate Psychology Collaboration: Climate change-related data collected from 63 countries - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - The International Climate Psychology Collaboration: Climate change-related data collected from 63 countries
doi.org
November 5, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Reposted by Matthew Apps
People were more willing to exert effort when:

💪 the effort required was 🔽
💰 the reward available was 🔼

In the control group without intervention, motivation was higher to provide food than mitigate climate change 🌍

➡️ Interventions that promote climate motivation are key
November 5, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by Matthew Apps
3,055 ppts from 6 countries 🇧🇬🇬🇷🇳🇬🇸🇪🇬🇧🇺🇸 did our new online Pro-Environmental Effort Task ✨ the PEET ✨

On each trial, they choose between rest or work: exerting effort by clicking boxes to earn more credits 💪

Credits were donations to a climate charity 🌍 or a matched control food charity
November 5, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Our second keynote now from @benhayden.bsky.social
November 4, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Last in this session @tobywise.bsky.social talking about computational ethology in humans.
November 4, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Now Dario Campagner on the Aeon project.
November 4, 2025 at 2:37 PM
The afternoon begins with Jennifer Li from the Max Plank on brain-wide dynamics of foraging.
November 4, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Next up @alexschakowski.bsky.social talking about social foraging.
November 4, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Now for some modelling. @markdhumphries.bsky.social presenting work from @emmavscholey.bsky.social on stochastic choice in patch foraging.
November 4, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Now Hannah Haberkern on navigational strategies for foraging in ants and flies.
November 4, 2025 at 11:39 AM
The awesome @emmavscholey.bsky.social then presented work from her PhD on effortful prey-selection in humans. And her rubbish supervisor forgot to take a photo!
November 4, 2025 at 11:38 AM
We will get you to Birmingham one day Hugo!
November 4, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Next Megan Jackson from Uni. Of Bristol.
November 4, 2025 at 10:39 AM