Iowa State distinguished professor of psychology Craig Anderson will be discussing his research on how human violence is affected by climate change in his lecture “Rapid Global Warming and Human Violence.”

Anderson’s lecture will be at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Pioneer Room of the Memorial Union and is part of the Sigma Xi Lecture Series. During his lecture, Anderson will breakdown his research on how these two seemingly unrelated topics interact.

Anderson said there are direct and indirect ways that climate change affects human violence. A direct effect is a phenomenon known as “The Direct Heat Effect,” which states that with the increase of temperatures in the spring, summer, and fall seasons, there is also an increase of aggression, Anderson said.

There are also the indirect effects, like what will happen to populations of people because of the effects of climate change, said Anderson.

One example of indirect effects is called “eco-migration,” which is where large groups of people need to migrate from their homeland to a new location. Anderson said in the past this has been due to war, but in the future, this could be due to natural disasters caused by global warming.

Anderson said this impacts human violence by causing tension between countries regarding the movement of people, and within countries regarding if and where people are able to settle.

In his lecture, Anderson will talk in detail about direct and indirect effects climate change has on human violence, the consequences and what society can do to minimize the effects to make for a less violent species.

Anderson’s lecture is cosponsored by Sigma Xi and the Committee on Lectures, funded by Student Government.