Human Cognition and the Anthropocene
Summary
Understanding the multiple reciprocal relationships between human cognition and the Anthropocene is emerging as a critical research frontier across the sciences and humanities. This report maps the rapidly expanding but conceptually disconnected landscape of research on how Anthropocene conditions shape the brain and mind—and how human cognition and social processes, in turn, drive and sustain global change. We sketch existing scholarship across four domains: material impacts on brain function and development; psychological consequences of Anthropocene stressors; socio-cultural effects that shape meaning making and behavior; and the mind’s epistemic capacities for recognizing and interpreting planetary change. Building on this survey, we advance a broader conceptual framework that understands the human brain and mind as embedded in complex social-ecological systems across scales—linking neural processes to individual behavior, social networks, collective imaginaries, institutions, the biosphere, and ultimately the dynamics of the Earth system in a recursive loop.
This framing provides a foundation that requires more integrative and collaborative research capable of tracing causal pathways across scales, from the biological impacts of heat and pollution to the cognitive roots of innovation, governance, and global coordination. Themes such as environmental change, novel entities, and technological mediation cut across this landscape. The report concludes by proposing three ‘big’ research questions aimed at guiding future areas of inquiry: (1) identifying the causal mechanisms through which cognition contributes to Anthropocene dynamics; (2) mapping the feedbacks that link environmental change and human cognitive processes; and (3) examining how cognitive processes operate across individual, collective, and institutional scales to shape Anthropocene dynamics. Taken together, these questions point towards a broader, coherent agenda for understanding the brain and mind as both shaped by and shaping the Anthropocene—and for mobilizing cognitive resources toward more sustainable and equitable futures.
