This week at the White House, the United States Army Choir performed, “Do you hear the People Sing?” to congresspeople, governors, and the U.S. President.
I was interviewed for a profile on members of the Executive Committee of the Tyler Prize for Environmental. Achievement. This is what I said.
I’ve noticed something about how we select our political leaders: We seldom seem to select them based on the sum of their traits.

Why do people say they care deeply about sustainability and the environment but then don’t act accordingly?
Joe Árvai and his lab of postdoctoral scholars and graduate students conduct research aimed at improving our understanding of how people intuitively make judgments and decisions about, primarily, environmental issues and sustainability. They couple this research with the development and testing of tools and approaches that can be used by people to improve decision quality across a broad range of environmental, social, and economic contexts. Decision quality is measured by the degree to which people’s values and objectives align with their ultimate judgments and choices.