In a surprising turn of events, the esteemed minds behind the Psychology of Sustainability and Behavior Change Lab took a break from their research to engage in a friendly game of badminton ahead of the Christmas dinner. The result? A demonstration of hidden talents and team spirit.

We are happy to announce that Jessica joined our team as a PhD student in October! She will be working in the Eccellenza team together with Zahra, Nina and Ulf. Her research will focus on energy and climate-related judgments and decisions around the world, with a strong emphasis on carbon capture technologies.

The PSCB lab is excited to welcome two new members to the team: Lukas and Daniel.

Lukas joins us as a PhD student. During the next years he will play an important role in the Horizon Europe Project DIAMOND. His focus is on the integration of human decision-making data into integrated assessment models which are used to inform policy makers around the world.

Daniel, our research intern, will contribute to the Eccellenza project. His work will focus on the cognitive and affective mechanisms underlying climate-related decisions.

We warmly welcome Lukas and Daniel and are happy to have them in our team!

Last week, from June 20 to June 23, the entire PSBC lab team was at the International Conference on Environmental Psychology in Aarhus (ICEP 2023). We were proud to present our research in human centered-energy modeling (Maria, Mart, and Ulf), acceptance of new climate technologies (Jessi), climate information processing (Zahra and Anne), and energy policy support during the energy crisis (Nina). An overview of the conference program, including our presentations, can be found here. We had a wonderful conference, inspiring talks and discussions, and overall a great time in the city of Aarhus. 

Last week we had the pleasure of visiting the exhibition "Nature and us?" at the Stapferhaus together with our colleagues from the Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences. We were captivated by the exhibition's thought-provoking exploration of the critical state of Earth and nature and our relationship with it. 

The exhibit highlighted the prevailing belief that humans are superior to rocks, plants and animals that has shaped our thinking for generations. "Nature and us" revealed the origins of this view while inviting us to broaden our own perspective. The questions "What exactly is nature?", "Who does it belong to?", and "Do we have a responsibility to protect it?" formed the basis for stimulating discussions about the intricate connection between humans and the natural world and our place in it.

Mart joined the PSBC Lab as a postdoctoral researcher in May 2023, and we're excited to welcome him to the team!

He will be working on human-centered energy modeling within the SWEET CoSi project (Co-Evolution and Coordinated Simulation of the Swiss Energy System and Swiss Society).

Before joining the PSBC Lab, Mart worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Energy Efficiency group of the Institute of Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva.

Mart holds a BSc in Physics and a MSc in Sustainable Development from Utrecht University. He did his PhD at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development at Utrecht University, for which he developed simulation models on how the impact of PV solar panels and electric vehicles on the electricity grid can be reduced through smart charging and vehicle-to-grid. In particular, he focused on integrating insights from engineering with theory from innovation science and environmental psychology in these models.

The PSBC team is pleased to welcome Dr. Michael Fell as a visiting researcher during the next two months.

Michael Fell is a senior research fellow at UCL Energy Institute. His work focuses on social aspects of energy use, in particular people's ability and willingness to offer demand-side flexibility in electricity systems. His main current projects focus on the potential for interactive visualisation and environmental sensing to support collective energy and environmental action, and decision-making in peer-to-peer energy trading and similar prosumer-centric models.

You can read more about his currents projects here https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/energy/people/dr-michael-fell

Professor Ulf Hahnel gave an interview for the February issue of the grants office newsletter of University of Basel.

Read the full interview here

The PSBC Lab is happy to welcome Dr. Kristian Nielsen at the Society and Choice Research Seminar series!

Currently an Assistant Professor at CBS Sustainability, Copenhagen Business School, Kristian visited the PSBC Lab this week. He held an inspiring talk at the Faculty of Psychology, focussing around the latest insights on how psychology and the behavioural sciences have an important role in addressing climate change.

"Addressing climate change requires unprecedented societal transformations within a short time frame. Psychology has an important role to play in informing this transformation. The typical psychological approach to date has, however, been to demonstrate that specific concepts and theories can predict behaviors that contribute to or mitigate climate change. Psychologists need to go further and show that integrating psychological concepts into feasible interventions can reduce greenhouse gas emissions far more than would be achieved without such integration. In this talk, I will offer suggestions for how to increase psychology’s contribution to mitigating climate change and its relevance for policymakers and high-level interdisciplinary research collaborations"