Sneddon et al. address the scientists who reject the empirical evidence on fish sentience, calling them “sceptics” and their work “denial”. This is the first article to frame the question of fish sentience in these terms, and it provides an obvious opening for social science and humanities research in the science of fish sentience. It is also worth asking what practical changes in the lives of fish might arise from the mounting evidence of their sentience. I suggest that the relationship between sentience and our sense of moral obligation is not as clear as we often assume. Read the full response here.
Continue reading “Defining denial and sentient seafood — a response to Sneddon et al.”
Doom and gloom versus optimism: An assessment of ocean-related U.S. science journalism (2001-2015)
Article with Lisa Johns at Global Environmental Change.
While doom and gloom language was
identified in 10% of all articles, optimistic language was present in 27%.
Read it here.
Asad Raza’s Weekend Guests: Jennifer Jacquet
As part of Root sequence. Mother tongue (2017), Asad Raza’s show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, he invited series of guests to occupy the installation with choreographic, musical, and intellectual events for weekend visitors to the museum. Comprising mentors, friends, and younger creative practitioners, the group is a plurivocal portrait of the artist’s community. Asad Raza and Jennifer Jacquet discuss octopus, fish, shame, climate change, and other things.
Continue reading “Asad Raza’s Weekend Guests: Jennifer Jacquet”
Intergenerational apology
Guilt and shame in U.S. climate change communication
Article at Oxford Research Encyclopedia.
Guilt has tended to align with the individualization of responsibility for climate change… Shame has been used…as a primary tactic against fossil fuel producers, peddlers of climate denial, and industry-backed politicians.
Read it here.
Potential ecological and social benefits of a moratorium on transshipment on the high seas
Our Hen House interview
Why oysters, mussels and clams could hold the key to more ethical fish farming
To go with this scholarly co-authored article explaining why Bivalves Are Better, a popular piece at The Guardian about why bivalve farming is the future of ethical aquaculture.
Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge Grand Prize Winner
Jennifer Jacquet and Sunandan Chakraborty’s project at NYU was selected as one of 4 Grand Prize Winnersin the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge, a USAID initiative that is being implemented in partnership with the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution, and TRAFFIC.
Put an end to roadside zoos
Contrary to how it might feel, fondling dangerous animals only accentuates the divide between us and them. Haven’t we done enough to force that divide already? Read more at The Guardian.
Captured at Sea
Guilt, shame, and climate change at Skidmore University
Soft but significant power in the Paris Agreement
Article with Dale Jamieson on the potential for shame to put downward pressure on emissions in Nature Climate Change.
It becomes more difficult not to fulfill one’s commitments if others are fulfilling theirs, and easier to avoid one’s commitments if others are avoiding theirs.
Read it here.
Human Error (Survivor Guilt in the Anthropocene)
The values behind calculating the value of trophy hunting
Response to Naidoo et al.’s article on “Complementary benefits of tourism and hunting to communal conservancies in Namibia” in Conservation Biology.
Conservation decisions are not and should not be driven by economic benefits alone.
Read it here.
Very Bad Wizards talk shame
Psychologist David Pizarro and philosopher Tamler Sommers talk shame with Jennifer Jacquet, including the pros and cons and the difference between shame and guilt. Is shaming effective for generating social progress or getting tax cheats to pay up? Is twitter shaming on the rise or on its way out? And what does David do when he’s alone in the dark? Listen here.
Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge Prize Winner
2016 Pew marine research fellowship
It is rational to protect Antarctica
‘Rational use’ in Antarctic waters
Big Oil and Baboons: On Culture, Conscience, and Climate Denial
Article for the Culture & Conscience series at the Center for Humans and Nature.
If we assume our evolutionary predispositions represent hardware, we can consider both culture and the conscience as software.
Read more here
What to hope for from the Paris climate talks
The shaming of Walter Palmer for killing Cecil the Lion
Rather than simply ruining the life of one dentist, some arguably good things have come from this case.
Read more at The Conversation.
Public shaming can make the world a better place
The discussion about 21st-century shaming usually turns to cases in which an otherwise well-behaved person posts a tweet or photograph that results in excessive punishment by an anonymous and bloodthirsty online crowd which ruins that person’s life for a while. Many people, myself included, object to this form of vigilantism. But other examples of shaming — singling out big banks for environmental destruction, exposing countries for refusing to end forced labour or calling out denialists who undermine action on climate change — challenge the mistreated tweeter as shaming’s stereotype. What shaming largely is, after all, is not necessarily what shaming might be. Read more at WIRED.CO.UK.
On the persistent gray area between teaching and punishment
Response to Kline’s article How to learn about teaching: An evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behavior in humans and other animals in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
One of the challenges to an evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behavior will be to distinguish, if possible, between teaching… and punishment.
Read more here.
Ocean calamities: hyped litany or legitimate concern?
Is Shame Necessary in Harper’s
The Deep, Dark, Ugly Thing — Can shame shape society? by Laura Kipnis.
Is Shame Necessary in The Brooklyn Rail
“Guilt only needs to be addressed by the self, whereas shame can force change in others’ behavior. Shame can scale and its target need not be human. A company or an industry can be shamed, but they cannot feel guilty as these entities lack consciences. This important distinction is central to Jacquet’s thesis: abandon guilt and turn to shame as the tool for resolving collective action problems.” Read more in The Brooklyn Rail.
2015 Sloan research fellowship
Is Shame Necessary? New Uses for an Old Tool
The ideological divide and climate change opinion: “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches
Is Shame Necessary? at Gawker
We are not *NOT* evolved to respond to climate change
Article for the Mind & Morality series at the Center for Humans and Nature.
We are not built to solve climate change, but we were also not not built to solve it.
Read more here.
Through the Wormhole
DLD 2014
The Anthropocebo Effect
The anthropocebo effect: a psychological condition that exacerbates human-induced damage — a certain pessimism about humanity that leads us to accept humans as a geologic force and destruction as inevitable.
Jacquet, J. (2013) The Anthropocebo Effect. Conservation Biology 27:898-899. Response to the Edge.org annual question.
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria
Work on intergenerational discounting and climate change featured on Fareed Zakaria’s Global Public Square on CNN.
Intra- and intergenerational discounting in the climate game
The role of gender in scholarly authorship
A review of formal objections to Marine Stewardship Council fisheries certifications
Asymmetrical contributions to the tragedy of the commons
dctp.tv scham online
A talk with dctp.tv about scham online.
Talk at DLDw
AnOther w/Brian Eno
“Here, [Brian] Eno and Jacquet share an emailed conversation about their collaboration.”
Trends, current understanding and future research priorities for artisanal coral reef fisheries research
BBC One Planet interview
BBC One Planet interview.