About

Dr. Lucy Atkinson is an associate professor in the School of Advertising & Public Relations at the University of Texas at Austin. She is an expert in environmental communication with a focus on climate change, health, ethics, and political engagement. Her research examines environmental communication across various media, including advertising, AI, social media, video games, and virtual reality, particularly in the context of climate change and sustainability and their impacts on health, political engagement, and environmental justice. Her work is grounded in a normative concern for a well-functioning society and explores how communication can empower and hold governments, corporations, organizations, and consumers accountable regarding challenges and opportunities related to climate change. She focuses on how media can either facilitate or hinder individual and collective health and well-being while supporting civic engagement and equitable, sustainable communities. Dr. Atkinson employs a highly interdisciplinary approach in her research, integrating mass communication, political science, environmental studies, psychology, and sociology. She is a mixed-methods researcher utilizing quantitative, computational, and qualitative methods such as experiments, surveys, natural language processing, generative AI, and in-depth interviews. Her research has been funded by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and Merck/Meta (Facebook). Her scholarly work has been published in leading journals including the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Consumer Behavior, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, Consumption Markets & Culture, Science Communication, and Environmental Communication. Dr. Atkinson earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her M.A. from New York University, and her B.A. from McGill University. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, she worked for several years as a newspaper reporter and editor in New York.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Medicine
• Marketing
• Cognitive psychology
• Business
• Public relations
• Psychiatry

Selected publications

• “For Your Health” Versus “For the Environment”: Exploring Congruency and Incongruency Between Message Appeals and Temporal Framing

  Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising · 2025-05-14

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Diving into people’s understanding of the deep sea: a comparative study from the east to the west of the Atlantic

  International Journal of Science Education Part B · 2025-09-17

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Treading carefully: the environment and political participation in science education

  Cultural Studies of Science Education · 2024-04-27 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Politics and science are inextricably connected, particularly in relation to the climate emergency and other environmental crises, yet science education is an often overlooked site for engaging with the political dimensions of environmental issues. This study examines how science teachers in England experience politics—specifically political participation—in relation to the environment in school science, against a background of increased obstruction in civic space. The study draws on an analysis of theoretically informed in-depth interviews with eleven science teachers about their experiences of political participation in relation to environmental issues. We find that politics enters the science classroom primarily through informal conversations initiated by students rather than planned by teachers. When planned for, the emphasis is on individual, latent–political (civic) engagement rather than manifest political participation. We argue that this is a symptom of the post-political condition and call for a more enabling environment for discussing the strengths and limitations of different forms of political participation in school science.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Behavioral Adaptability of Engineering Instructors Engaging in Emergency Remote Teaching During Three Semesters of the COVID-19 Pandemic

  2024-02-06

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The crisis-induced changes in instruction during the pandemic presented a unique opportunity to study instructor adaptability, a possible contributor to future adoption of teaching-related bestpractices. The purpose of this research is to identify the self-reported activities of engineering instructors and how this changed over the course of three semesters during the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 40 engineering instructors from a large Midwestern R1 University voluntarily completed online surveys in during Spring 2020, Fall 2020, and Spring 2021 semesters about their engagement in teaching-related activities and the perceived normality of that engagement. Descriptive statistics were used to examine general trends in activity engagement for each semester and to compare activity engagement across all three semesters. Across all three semesters, instructors most often reported engaging in self-teaching and casual conversations with their colleagues. Instructors cited getting help from staff and attending workshops less frequently. By the end of the third semester (Spring 2021), 85% of participants indicated normality of their teaching methods, compared with 25% at the beginning of the study (Spring 2020). The results of this study suggest that to encourage instructor adaptability in the future, a focus should be placed on developing a supportive instructor community as well as providing necessary space, time, and resources for instructor self-teaching. This research is part of a larger study, whose scope includes instructor interviews, an investigation of cognitive and emotional adaptability, and analysis of additional semesters as instructors continue to adapt.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The effect of monitoring complexity on stakeholder acceptance of CO2 geological storage projects in the US gulf coast region

  Frontiers in Marine Science · 2024-01-16 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  Environmental monitoring at geologic CO 2 storage sites is required by regulations for the purposes of environmental protection and emissions accounting in the case of leakage to surface. However, another very important goal of environmental monitoring is to assure stakeholders that the project is monitored for safety and effectiveness. With current efforts to optimize monitoring for cost-effectiveness, the question remains: will optimization of monitoring approaches degrade stakeholder assurance, or do heavily-instrumented sites communicate higher risk to a stakeholder? We report the results of a stakeholder survey in Gulf Coast states of the US where carbon capture and storage (CCS) is developing quickly. We rely on a 2 by 2 factorial experiment in which we manipulate message complexity (complex v. simple) and social norm (support from scientists v. support from community members). Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: 1) complex message with scientist support; 2) complex message with community member support; 3) simple message with scientist support; or 4) simple message with community member support. In addition to the experimental stimuli, subjects were also asked about their need for cognition, attitudes toward science and scientists, attitudes about climate change and support for carbon capture and storage (CCS). Our sample is drawn from residents in states bordering the western Gulf of Mexico (Texas, Louisiana, Florida) where CO 2 geologic storage is being planned both onshore and offshore. The results offer important implications for public outreach efforts to key stakeholders.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Communicating Benefits and Risks About Carbon Capture and Storage (Ccs): Understanding Stakeholder Mental Models to Inform Effective Messaging

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Fostering teacher agency in school‐based climate change education in England, <scp>UK</scp>

  The Curriculum Journal · 2024-02-16 · 34 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Drawing on conceptualisations of teacher agency through the ecological approach, and in the context of recent policy activity, we explored primary and secondary school teachers' experiences of agency in relation to climate change education in England. Data collection occurred over two distinct but related phases. Firstly, we completed a series of interviews with the same three secondary geography teachers at the outset of their careers (15 interviews during 2020–2022) which included 1 year of Initial Teacher Education and 2 years as Early Career Teachers (ECTs). Secondly, we captured the experiences of further 24 in‐service science and geography teachers (with expertise beyond the ECT period) through two online workshops held in November 2022, the first for primary teachers ( n = 10) and the second for secondary teachers ( n = 10). Interviews were held with four teachers (two primary and two secondary) who could not attend the workshops ( n = 4). Our findings underline the importance of structures (e.g. school leadership) and culture (e.g. ideas and values) in fostering teacher agency. Teachers across primary and secondary phases and at different career stages highlighted the value of curricular and extra‐curricular spaces for climate change education. If all children and young people are to access effective climate change education, researchers and policy makers will need to further consider ways to ensure teachers can achieve agency, including through access to transformative professional learning which fosters agency in relation to climate change education.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Roles of Social Media Use and Medical Mistrust in Black Americans’ COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: The RISP Model Perspective

  Health Communication · 2023-08-08 · 25 citations

  article

  = 1,136; 53.5% female) showed that social media use and medical mistrust were positively associated with belief in misinformation related to the COVID-19 vaccine, which, in turn, was positively related to vaccine hesitancy through perceived information insufficiency and information seeking intentions. Furthermore, we found that belief in misinformation and subjective norms toward anti-vaccination also serially mediated the association between social media use and medical mistrust with vaccine hesitancy. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Creating space for teacher voice: insights on professional development in two diverse settings

  Globalisation Societies and Education · 2023-08-30 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper explores how child-centred practices introduced through international agencies into classrooms in post-conflict Cambodia and for Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, were perceived by the teachers tasked with implementing them. Using a case study methodology, data for both studies were drawn primarily from interviews with teachers in Cambodian primary schools and UNWRA schools, Jordan. Findings suggest that the pedagogical practices promoted are absent of contextual issues, including school/classroom environments and cultural understandings of teaching and learning. Our contention is that for teacher education programmes and policies to have their desired effect a central role for teachers must be prioritised.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Interactive Health Messages Work Better for Those Who Feel Less in Control: The Role of External Health Locus of Control and Risk Perception

  Journal of Health Communication · 2023-04-24 · 4 citations

  reviewSenior author

  = 73). Results showed that interactivity increased risk perception regarding sugar consumption, especially for the individuals who reported a higher level of external health locus of control. Risk perception was a positive predictor of systematic processing, as well as information seeking and sharing intentions. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Lynda Dunlop

  University of York

  13 shared

• Maria Turkenburg‐van Diepen

  University of York

  12 shared

• Elizabeth A. C. Rushton

  12 shared

• Andrew Blick

  9 shared

• Lee Ann Kahlor

  9 shared

• Joshua Stubbs

  University of York

  6 shared

• Lucy Wood

  King's College London

  6 shared

• Matt Qvortrup

  Coventry University

  5 shared

Labs

• The LabPI

Awards & honors

• Regents Outstanding Teacher Award (University of Texas Syste…
• Provost Teaching Fellow (University of Texas at Austin)
• Sharon L. Dunwoody Award (School of Journalism and Mass Comm…