Media
In the News
Media coverage and news articles featuring our research.
Talks
Presentations, lectures, and speaking engagements by our lab members.
TED Talks
How to Feng Shui Your Fridge and Other Happy Climate Hacks
Check out Dr. Zhao's TED talk on how to take action on climate change and get happier!
Selected Talks
For a full list of talks, see Dr. Zhao's CV.
Podcasts
Movies & TV
Video content, documentaries, and film projects featuring our research.
Books
Published and upcoming books by Dr. Zhao.
Leave the Lights On
How Joyful Decisions Can Save Our Species
Elizabeth Dunn and Jiaying Zhao
How to make an impact on climate change by taking actions that bring you
joy
What if the most effective ways to fight climate change made you happy?
Psychologist Elizabeth Dunn and climate behavior scientist Jiaying Zhao challenge
everything we think we know about sustainable living. While most climate advice demands
self-denial—eat less, travel less, want less—this groundbreaking book offers a
counterintuitive truth: you can make your life better while saving our species at the same
time. The authors reveal how tweaking everyday decisions around food, travel, housing, and
shopping can nudge us toward a tipping point of mass action—without tipping us into
burnout.
Leave the Lights On is a bold invitation to reimagine climate action not as a burden, but
as an opportunity to build a brighter future—without guilt, without gloom, and without
giving up the things that make life worth living. With warmth, clarity, and a refreshingly
optimistic voice, Zhao and Dunn reframe what it means to “do your part.” Because
sustainability doesn’t lie in doing everything, it lies in doing something,
joyfully.
Cash Transfers for Inclusive Societies
A Behavioral Lens
Jiaying Zhao, Saugato Datta and Dilip Soman
The latest title in the Behaviourally Informed Organizations series offers practical
advice on how best to successfully design, deliver, and evaluate efficient cash transfer
programs,
with a view to alleviating poverty.
While much progress has been made in reducing poverty worldwide – especially in the
pre-pandemic era – it is fair to say that an unacceptably large proportion of the world's
people still live in
poverty. Cash Transfers for Inclusive Societies sheds light on the widely prevalent cash
transfer
programs. The book asks these central questions: What is the state of the art in the
development of
welfare programs? What do we know works in these programs and what does not? How can an
understanding of behavioral science better inform the design, delivery, and evaluation of
welfare programs?
The latest title in the Behaviourally Informed Organizations series, the book develops a
nuanced
framework for how governments, practitioners, and society in general should design cash
transfer
programs to improve inclusivity, reduce poverty, and improve equality. It draws on field
experiments
and case studies to showcase past successes, while also building frameworks and developing
prescriptive advice that we can give to practitioners who are looking to design a
behaviorally
informed cash transfer program. With contributions from leading academics as well as
seasoned
practitioners, Cash Transfers for Inclusive Societies presents a new model to policymakers
to
study
and shift the discourse on poverty alleviation from purely economic factors to also
behavioral
ones.
Media Inquiries
For any media inquiries, email Dr. Zhao at jiayingz@psych.ubc.ca.
Dr. Zhao has worked with:
