Ellen Matthies

Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg | OvGU · Institute of Psychology I (IPSY)

Background In crises, it is of great relevance to identify mechanisms that help people to maintain a certain level of wellbeing. This paper investigates whether appraising the COVID-19 pandemic as a threat vs. as a challenge has different effects on subjective wellbeing during the pandemic. Furthermore, we study the role of the perceived local envi...

Both crises, the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic need collective mitigation support. In the context of COVID-19, the support of mitigation strategies has found its way to the forefront of debates. Our aim was to contribute empirical evidence to this debate by investigating mitigation behaviors across both crises and discussing similarities...

Private households play a relevant role in reducing CO2 emissions, but it remains unclear whether and which psychological factors are related to emissions. Given the relevance of income as a general driver of consumption and CO2 emissions, it seems particularly important to investigate how income and psychological variables interact. In two studies...

In its report ‚Humanity on the move: Unlocking the transformative power of cities‘ (2016), the WBGU examines the transformation of cities towards sustainability. Research has a key role to play in this context, for urban transformation is a societal learning and search process. To give this societal process orientation, the WBGU has developed a ‘no...

The present study examined the overall potential that the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions have for the promotion of climate-friendly food consumption in Germany. We looked at COVID-19-related changes in people’s climate-friendly food-consumption behaviors by comparing retrospectively self-reported performances between the time period in whic...

We introduce a novel, psychological perspective on the acceptability of carbon pricing in which we differentiate between a citizen’s perspective and a consumer’s coping style. We expected acceptance to be determined by three factors: a citizen’s perspective that is rooted in a pro-environmental orientation (mediated via the personal norm to support...

Die neue Bundesregierung hat die einmalige Chance, aber auch die Verpflichtung, der Klima- und Energiepolitik einen dringend benötigten Neustart zu geben. Dieser muss konsequent am Ziel der Treibhausgasneutralität ausgerichtet sein. Folgende Leitlinien sollten diesen Aufbruch prägen: • Zuvorderst gilt es, den Klimaschutz beim nationalen politischen...

The transformation of the mobility sector is underway, and technological innovations such as autonomous driving are showing a way to set the future of mobility. In the implementation of new mobility offers, it is essential to consider aspects of acceptability research, as their use may directly depend on acceptability. In this study, determinants o...

The societal mission of mitigating air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are forcing urban agglomerations worldwide strongly greening their urban transportation systems. The global megatrend of urbanization aggravates those challenges by steadily increasing the demand for urban movements of people and goods. Recent research concludes that the...

The ongoing intensification of the socio-ecological crisis requires a "Great Transformation"(WBGU, 2011) of central societal systems involving aspects such as mobility, energy production, and nutrition. Thus, from a scientific point of view, the Great Transformation is a highly normative topic with a strong focus on societal and political processes...

The Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) have a key role to play in understanding which factors and policies would motivate, encourage and enable different actors to adopt a wide range of sustainable energy behaviours and support the required system changes and policies. The SSH can provide critical insights into how consumers could be empowered to...

Only if there is a fundamental change in the way we manage land we can reach the targets of climate-change mitigation, avert the dramatic loss of biodiversity and make the global food system sustainable. The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) proposes five multiple-benefit strategies illustrating ways of overcoming competition between...

The mobility sector was one of the sectors most affected by COVID-19 and its political restrictions, with, inter alia a huge drop in mobility behavior due to travel bans, lockdowns, and a reduced need to be mobile. The present study examined the potential of COVID-19 restrictions aiming at containing the spread of the virus to be a window of opport...

This study attempts to identify the main drivers for e-car investments in households and organizations. We questioned 227 decision makers in households currently considering car purchases, and 101 decision makers in small businesses. The businesses were private care services, because their driving profiles widely fit the capabilities of modern e-ca...

Over the next two decades, the energy transition and the growth of digitalisation will result in new risks to the electricity supply. A resilience strategy will be required to manage these risks and reliably prevent blackouts and their damaging impacts on society. The “Resilience of digitalised energy systems” working group of the Academies’ Projec...

GERMAN SUMMARY (English Summary further below): Die Zeit drängt. Ohne schnell wirksame Gegenmaßnahmen werden Erderhitzung und Biodiversitätsverlust Ausmaße annehmen, welche die Lebensweise von Menschen nicht abschätzbaren Risiken aussetzen. Obwohl die Herausforderungen weiten Teilen der Bevölkerung bewusst sind, werden dringend nötige Entscheidung...

Seit Mitte 2019 ist die Diskussion um eine CO 2 -Bepreisung in Deutschland in vollem Gange. Betrachtet man die Debatte in den großen Zeitungen, wurde hier häufig eine grundsätzlich hohe Wirksamkeit der Sozialverträglichkeit gegenübergestellt. Die Autor(inn)en erweitern diesen Diskurs, indem sie eine psychologische Perspektive einbringen: Wie sehen...

https://de.scientists4future.org/s4f-empfiehlt-repraesentative-klima-buergerinnenversammlung-2021/

Nur wenn sich unser Umgang mit Land grundlegend ändert, können die Kli-maschutzziele erreicht, der dramatische Verlust der biologischen Vielfalt abgewendet und das globale Ernährungssystem nachhaltig gestaltet werden. Der WBGU schlägt fünf exemplarische Mehrgewinnstrategien vor, um Konkurrenzen zwischen Nutzungsansprüchen zu überwinden. Diese sollt...

Sustainable consumption is increasingly shaped by online environments. Everyday exposure to online advertisement and social media content by peers may influence individual consumption decisions. By representative online surveys (N = 2,694), we examined how perception of online environments influences individual consumption levels of clothing, digit...

Autonomous Driving as a possible, almost likely future of mobility offers new scenarios to move. In the present study, we take the first step to transfer the vision of mobility as a service on autonomous driving cargo bikes: users will be able to call a cargo bike, use it for multiple purposes and release it again for others to use. To ensure broad...

Online shopping makes consumption increasingly easy. It may lead to more sufficiency-oriented goods and services being bought (e.g. second-hand clothing), but also comes with the risk of overconsumption due to rebound- and induction effects. This study examines whether perceived behavioural efficiency gains of online shopping are associated with hi...

The societal mission of mitigating air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are forcing urban agglomerations worldwide strongly greening their urban transportation systems. The global megatrend of urbanization aggravates those challenges by steadily increasing the demand for urban movements of people and goods. Shared autonomous fleets of predomi...

The work package "Behaviour Change" envisions to gain a deeper understanding of the mindset, value system, environmental worldview and behaviour of citizens of Phnom Penh. This increase of knowledge will allow us to conceptualize a curriculum for Environmental Psychology at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, to develop an intervention tool to incr...

In the report “Towards Our Common Digital Future”, the WBGU makes it clear that sustainability strategies and concepts need to be fundamentally further developed in the age of digitalization. Only if digital change and the Transformation towards Sustainability are synchronized can we succeed in advancing climate and Earth-system protection and in m...

Die neue EU-Kommissionspräsidentin hat einen Green Deal für Europa angekündigt. Dieser kann nur gelingen, wenn Chancen und Risiken der Digitalisierung für eine grundlegende Transformation von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft berücksichtigt werden. Der WBGU entwickelt hier Eckpunkte eines europäischen Wegs in eine gemeinsame digitale Zukunft: In ihrer qu...

The new European Commission president has announced a Green Deal for Europe. This can only succeed if opportunities and risks of digitalization for a fundamental transformation of the economy and society are taken into account. In this paper, the WBGU develops cornerstones of a European way to a common digital future. The EU’s cross-cutting sustain...

Das WBGU-Gutachten „Unsere gemeinsame digitale Zukunft“ macht deutlich, dass Nachhaltigkeitsstrategien und -konzepte im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung grundlegend weiterentwickelt werden müssen. Nur wenn der digitale Wandel und die Transformation zur Nachhaltigkeit konstruktiv verzahnt werden, kann es gelingen, Klima- und Erdsystemschutz sowie sozia...

Das Hochrangige Politische Forum für Nachhaltige Entwicklung der Vereinten Nationen ist die entscheidende UN-Plattform zur Koordinierung der globalen Nachhaltigkeitspolitik und ein wichtiger Adressat für den Umgang mit den Potenzialen und Risiken des digitalen Wandels für die Erreichung der UN-Nachhaltigkeitsziele. Digitalisierung verändert die Mög...

The United Nations’ High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development is the UN’s key platform for coordinating global sustainability policy and an important addressee for issues relating to the potential benefits and risks of digital change for achieving the UN sustainability goals. Digitalization fundamentally changes the range of options av...

‘Digitalization’ is often described as a huge upheaval facing our societies to which we must adapt. The WBGU opposes this interpretation, saying that digitalization must be shaped in such a way that it can serve as a lever and support for the Great Transformation towards Sustainability, and can be synchronized with it. Just as in 1987 the Brundtlan...

Der Bericht „Unsere gemeinsame digitale Zukunft“ macht deutlich, dass Nachhaltigkeitsstrategien und -konzepte im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung grundlegend weiterentwickelt werden müssen. Nur wenn der digitale Wandel und die Transformation zur Nachhaltigkeit synchronisiert werden kann es gelingen, Klima- und Erdsystemschutz sowie soziale Fortschritt...

Im Zuge der Energiewende werden neue Technologien entwickelt und Verhaltensweisen vorgeschlagen, mit denen unser alltägliches Handeln nachhaltiger wird. Doch unter welchen Bedingungen lassen sich die Potenziale nutzen? Das Arbeitspaket Verhalten im Wandel von Werten und Lebensstilen des Kopernikus-Projekts Energiewende-Navigationssystem (ENavi) leg...

This chapter focuses on strategies for behavioural change, as they have been studied in the past three decades. Informational strategies are aimed at changing knowledge, awareness, norms, and attitudes. Structural strategies are aimed at changing the circumstances in which behavioural decisions are made. The chapter outlines some basic principles o...

Preventing household food waste and overconsumption of food represents a crucial leverage point for the promotion of global environmental sustainability with various food waste related behaviors (i.e. planning, shopping, storage, preparation and consumption practices), which should be taken into account when developing appropriate intervention prog...

Limiting global warming to well below 2°C requires the rapid decarbonization of the global economy. If this enterprise fails, we will jeopardize the life-support systems of future generations. The longer the transformation towards climate compatibility is delayed, the more severe the risks and damage will be for a growing number of people. The tran...

Die Begrenzung der globalen Erwärmung auf deutlich unter 2 °C erfordert eine rapide Dekarbonisierung der Weltwirtschaft. Scheitert dieses Vorhaben, setzen wir die Lebensgrundlagen künftiger Generationen aufs Spiel. Je länger die Transformation zur Klimaverträglichkeit verschleppt wird, desto gravierender werden die Risiken und Schäden für eine wach...

Der vorliegende Beitrag betrachtet die umweltpsychologische Forschungstradition und deren Beiträge zu Themen der nachhaltigen Entwicklung. Orientierung bieten dabei Leitfragen der Umweltpsychologie. Der Beitrag befasst sich zunächst mit der Wahrnehmung von nachhaltigkeitsrelevanten Umweltproblemen, insbesondere des Klimawandels. Im Fokus stehen Mod...

A major technical revolution is underway. How will it change the coexistence of humankind on this planet? What goals will it serve? What opportunities and risks does it involve? Who will gain or lose power in its wake? How can it be used to solve humankind´s great challenges? The WBGU believes it is essential to shape digitalization with a view to...

Eine große technische Revolution ist im Gang. Wie wird sie das Zusammenleben der Menschheit auf diesem Planeten verändern? Welchen Zielen wird sie dienen? Welche Chancen und Risiken bringt sie mit sich? Wem wird sie Macht verleihen oder nehmen? Wie kann sie genutzt werden, um die großen Menschheitsherausforderungen zu lösen? Der WBGU hält es für e...

Owning a PV system, households take part in electricity production which might change their electricity use, but so far, their daily life use of electricity and monitoring has not been researched in depth. Therefore, the way PV households monitor their PV system and how their monitoring is related to energy use was investigated. More precisely, the...

The diffusion of renewable energy progressed, but reductions in energy consumption remain important. Beyond technology and economic factors, environmental motivations seem important for associating renewables with energy savings. Based on the modified norm activation model (mNAM), we investigated how environmental motivations, other psychological,...

Sehr geehrte Frau Ministerin Hendricks, sehr geehrter Herr Minister Schmidt, sehr geehrter Herr Staatssekretär Billen, mit Ihrer Eröffnung der " Nationalen Konferenz ‚Umsetzung nachhaltiger Konsum in Deutschland' " am 23. März 2017 richten Sie den Blick auf die Implementierung des vor einem Jahr im Bundeskabinett verabschiedeten Nationalen Programm...

Im Jahr 2015 gelang ein historischer Doppelerfolg für die Nachhaltigkeits-und Klimapolitik. Die Agenda 2030 für nachhaltige Entwicklung mit ihren Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) und das Überein-kommen von Paris zum Klimaschutz definieren ein ehrgeiziges globales Zielsystem. Die Gruppe der zwanzig wichtigsten Industrie-und Schwellenländer (G20)...

A substantial amount of the over 1.5 million photovoltaic (PV) systems in Germany are installed in residential households. Among these households, those with the option of self-consumption, i.e., to consume self-generated electricity can reduce their electricity consumption, especially grid electricity, by load shifting and acting in an energy-effi...

We analyzed how internal factors (e.g., value orientations or attitudes) and external factors (e.g., incentives or social influences) affect households’ decisions to make an investment in solar thermal energy, and how these factors interact in the decision process. 232 German home owners were questioned using an online survey. Internal factors were...

With respect to changes in the energy systems of many countries, electricity consumption in households is an important topic. Extensive research has investigated the various determinants of electricity consumption. However, insights into how specific sociodemographic, behavioural, and attitudinal determinants influence residential electricity consu...

The acceptability of low carbon policies is an important precondition for energy system transitions, such as the German Energiewende. This long-term experimental study examines the potential for behavioural spillover on the acceptability of low carbon policies, caused by a framed intervention to promote electricity saving behaviour. Clients of a Ge...

In the domain of electricity saving in households, a multitude of informational offers is readily available. However, these are commonly either not very well tailored to the actual living situation of consumers, i.e. do not take into account which tips are in particular relevant for a household or require consumers to answer multiple, detailed and...

Electric cars have the potential for contributing to more environmentally friendly mobility. Yet in Germany, despite ambitious govern mental targets, the market share of electric cars remains minimal. Norway, on the other hand, is currently experiencing an electric car boom. We investigated what Germany, from a psychological perspective, could lear...

The full set of information on the study "Flexibility concepts for the German power supply in 2050. Ensuring stability in the age of renewable energies" can be found on http://www.acatech.de/de/aktuelles-presse/dossiers/dossier-stromversorgung-2050.html and the main document with the study in English is available on http://www.acatech.de/de/publika...

Feedback is generally accepted as a suitable intervention technique to foster electricity saving in households. In this domain, smart meters are one promising way to deliver feedback in everyday settings. However, research has shown that feedback by itself is hardly sufficient. Hence, for a more effective design of smart meters, the opportunities w...

This field experiment highlights negative side-effects of monetary framing in the context of pro-environmental behaviour. Clients of a German energy provider (N = 653) received electricity saving tips, combined with either monetary framing (savings in Euro) or environmental framing (savings in CO2) versus no information in the control group. Short-...

Strengthening car drivers’ intention to prevent road-traffic noise is a first step toward noise abatement through voluntary change of behavior. We analyzed predictors of this intention based on the norm activation model (i.e., personal norm, problem awareness, awareness of consequences, social norm, and value orientations). Moreover, we studied the...

Reaction to Two Articles on Rebound Effects: T. Santarius. 2014. GAIA 23/2: 109‐117. B. Alcott. 2014. GAIA 23/4: 304‐305

It was the aim of this study to understand the differences between occasional organic consumers (OOC) and regular organic food consumers (ROC). A total of 571 consumers, interviewed directly after grocery shopping, were classified as conventional, occasional organic or regular organic consumers depending on the number of organically produced items...

The present study examined the processes by which children acquire pro-environmental behaviours in different cultures. Our focus was on parental influence. Several studies have been conducted on adults' environmental behaviours; however, we know little about how children's environmental attitudes and behaviours are formed. We conducted a questionna...

The 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes it unmistakeably clear: unacceptable climatic consequences, which are likely to escalate beyond the 2°C guard rail, can only be avoided if further increases in greenhouse-gas concentrations are halted as soon as possible. The WBGU therefore recommends reducing C...

Measures designed to foster individual sustainable consumption should target high-impact behaviors (impact perspective) and include strategies that promote people’s general motivation to contribute to sustainable development (intent perspective). In doing so, long-term behavioral changes and positive spillover effects may be achieved and negative s...

The year 2015 has special importance for the transformation towards sustainable ­development. New Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are then supposed to ­replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The aim is to offer a new orientation for political action in the coming decades. The WBGU recommends orienting the new catalogue of goals towar...

Strategies to promote environmentally friendly behavior among consumers require an understanding of how such behaviors are interrelated. We examined 29 different environmentally significant behaviors, using data from surveys in Germany (n = 967) and in Norway (n = 880). A priori models derived from previous research assuming either environmental be...

A web-based intervention program for changing habitual energy-relevant behavior was tested at workplaces of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In a web portal an intervention package was provided, that had proven to be successful in past field studies. For analyzing the usability of this platform, the HEIs implemented the intervention program au...

The 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes it unmistake-ably clear: unacceptable climatic impacts, which are likely to escalate beyond the 2 °C guard rail, can only be avoided if further increases in greenhouse-gas concentrations are halted as soon as possible. The WBGU therefore recommends reducing CO 2...