SECOND SUMMER SCHOOL ON THEORIES IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC PSYCHOLOGY Aarhus University, 2 – 6 July, 2012

Aarhus University Business and Social Sciences Department of Business Administration

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

2

Content  

Introduction  ......................................................................................................................................  3  Overview  of  STEEP  workshops  ...................................................................................................  4  Values,  norms,  and  sustainable  food  ..........................................................................................................  4  Changing  behaviour  via  community  approaches  .................................................................................  6  Reducing  household  energy  consumption  ...............................................................................................  8  Breaking  car  habits:  promoting  bicycling  and  public  transport  ................................................  10  Stress  and  the  city:  restorative  environments  .....................................................................................  12  

Overview  of  STEEP  keynote  lecturers  ...................................................................................  14  Linda  Steg,  University  of  Groningen,  the  Netherlands  ....................................................................  14  Normative  considerations  encouraging  pro-­‐environmental  action  ...............................  14  

Ellen  Matthies,  University  of  Magdeburg,  Germany  .........................................................................  14  Changing  sustainability  relevant  routines  in  organizations  -­‐  from  intervention  studies  to  diffusion  of  change  ..........................................................................................................  14  

Henk  Staats,  Leiden  University,  Netherlands  ......................................................................................  15  Stress  and  the  city:  How  to  allow  for  restoration  ...................................................................  15  

Geertje  Schuitema,  Aarhus  University,  Denmark  ...............................................................................  15  Policy  acceptance  and  adoption  of  environmental  technologies  ....................................  15  

Bas  Verplanken,  University  of  Bath,  UK  .................................................................................................  16  Habit:  From  overt  action  to  mental  events  ................................................................................  16  

Anders  Biel,  University  of  Gothenburg,  Sweden  .................................................................................  16  Habitual  and  Value-­‐Guided  Behaviour  ........................................................................................  16  

Annika  Nordlund,  Umeå  University,  Sweden  .......................................................................................  16  Factors  influencing  environmentally  relevant  behaviours  ................................................  16  

Marino  Bonaiuto,  Sapienza  University  of  Rome,  Italy  .....................................................................  17  Food  reputation  .....................................................................................................................................  17  

Agnes  van  den  Berg,  University  of  Groningen,  Netherlands  .........................................................  18  Health  benefits  of  nature  ...................................................................................................................  18  

John  Thøgersen,  Aarhus  University,  Denmark  ....................................................................................  18  Spillover  of  pro-­‐environmental  behaviour:  Generalizing,  a  license  to  anti-­‐social  behaviour,  or  neither?  ........................................................................................................................  18  

Evaluations  and  experiences  ...................................................................................................  19  Students’  evaluations  and  experiences  ...................................................................................................  19  Lecturers’  experiences  ...................................................................................................................................  22  Issue  sponsors’  experiences  .........................................................................................................................  23  

Sponsors  ..........................................................................................................................................  24  Links  and  next  summer  school  ................................................................................................  25  

 

   

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

3

Introduction

The first Summer school on Theories in Environmental Psychology (FirstSTEP) was

organised in 2009 by the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. The FirstSTEP

turned out to be a great succes. We accepted the challenge to organise the second

Summer school on Theories in Environmental and Economic Psychology (STEEP).

STEEP took place in Aarhus, Denmark from 2 till 6 July, 2012.

One aim of the summer school was to involve young scholars actively in the field,

and teach them relevant theories and skills in applying theories to address societal

problems in the area of sustainability and consumption. Students were working on

real-life sustainability problems that were presented by five Danish organisations that

deal with sustainability-related problems in their organisation. Students worked in

workshops on a research proposal to address these problems. The workshops were

lead by ten well-known scholars, who also each gave a keynote presentation during

the week, to provide students with an overview of what is currently happening at the

research front within this field.

Another aim was to create opportunities for PhD students to collaborate with senior

scholars in their field of research and to meet with other PhD students that work in the

same area. A mixed and very international group of students attended the summer

school: 50 PhD students from 18 different countries (including New Zealand, Canada

and Mexico) came to Aarhus. We see this as a great achievement in itself, because it

shows that sustainability is still a topic that has a world wide interest.

Looking back to the summer school, we had a fantastic week and the summer school

was a great succes! Especially, the enthousiasm and dedication of students and

lecturers made this summer school a fantastic experience. As organizers, we are also

extremely grateful for the great ground work that was done for the FirstSTEP in

Groningen and the invaluable experience and guidance we could draw on from here.

We thank all participants, lecturers, issue sponsors, financial sponsors and supporters

who contributed to the success of this summer school!

On behalf the organising STEEP committee,

Geertje Schuitema, John Thøgersen and Alice Grønhøj

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

4

Overview of STEEP workshops

On the first day of the summer school, representatives of five Danish organisations,

called ‘issue sponsors’, presented a real-life sustainability-related issue they deal with

in their daily business. In five different workshops, students worked on a research

proposal to address the issues raised by the organisation. On the last day, the students

presented their research proposal to all participants, lecturers and the issue sponsors.

Below we describe briefly the issues that were presented and the approach in each

workshop to address the issues.

Values, norms, and sustainable food

Lecturers: Linda Steg and Marino Bonaiuto

Participants: Livia Marian, Susanne Pedersen, Toula Perrea, Chad Baum, Marilia

Bonzanini Bossle, Anna Evangelista, Angelika Kufleitner, Marleen Onwezen, Zeinab

Rezvani, Angela Ruepert, Muriel Verain

Issue sponsor: Danish Agriculture and Food Council

According to the Danish National Plan for Organic Farming and Food production, the

organic farmed land area in Denmark should be doubled by 2020, compared to 2007.

This implies that consumers should switch food consumption from conventional food

to organic food. The questions raised by the Danish Agriculture and Food Council in

this connection were: How can we influence public opinion and behaviour about

organic farming and organic consumption? What kind of values and norms must we

appeal to? What is the smartest way to act in general and when the debate is going

on?

The workgroups’ point of departure was to discuss various behavioural models which

include norms, values, opinions and behaviour, among others. It ended up with Figure

1, emphasising that efficacy (the ability to perform a certain behaviour) and habit

(automaticity, context cued behaviour) influence behaviour, together with the

person’s values and opinions or attitude.

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

5

Figure 1. Conceptual model

With Figure 1 in mind, the work group developed a number of research questions,

which are relevant to answer on the way to answering the questions raised by The

Danish Agriculture and Food Council:

• RQ1: What are the current opinions of organic food? Opinons are here

understood as the trade-off between perceived positive and negative

consequences of purchasing organic food.

• RQ2: Which values predict opinions of organic food? Values are defined as

desirable goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in

people’s lives (i.e., biospheric (nature/environment), altruistic (others),

egoistic (self) and hedonic (pleasure) values).

• RQ3: Are there any differences between consumer groups and product

categories?

• RQ4: Which interventions are effective in increasing organic food purchase?

The intervention can be information or change of context when performing the

behaviour targeting specific consumers or products.

The workgroup felt it needed more knowledge about the current opinions and

behaviours in the Danish population before it could advice The Danish Agriculture

and Food Council on how it should act in the public debate on the subject.

The workgroup did a small pilot study interviewing 15 consumers of both organic and

conventional food, asking them about their view on organic foods and the rationale

behind their own behaviour. Based on this, the workgroup suggested four phases in

the data collection; the first one being a pilot study to get more initial information

about Danes’ values and norms linked to opinion and behaviour in relation to

consumption of organic food. In order to get into depth with this, the second phase

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

6

was to consist of a number of focus groups with different segments in order to

understand rationales for behaviour (i.e., consumers of conventional and organic

foods). The third phase involved collecting purchase data (i.e., receipts) and surveys

from a large number of consumers to get input for possible segmentation and making

profiles of consumer groups. The fifth and last phase consisted of an

experiment/intervention, building on knowledge from the previous phases targeting

different consumer groups’ values, norms, opinion and behaviours in order to make

them buy more organic food.

Changing behaviour via community approaches

Lecturers: Ellen Matthies and John Thøgersen

Participants: Madeleine Broman Toft, Charlotte Blythe, Anna Nordén, Piermario

Pattitoni, Wenceslao Unanue, Kerstin Weimer, Karina Landeros-Mugica, Vanja

Međugorac, Marko Milovanović, Hilda Zara

Issue sponsor: ProjectZero

ProjectZero is a project of the municipality of Sønderborg to be CO2 neutral in 2029.

To reach their goal, infrastructural changes are made for example by installing wind

turbines and solar panels. In addition, efforts are made to change the mindset of the

inhabitants of Sønderborg, which succesfully result in increasing involvement of the

society in the project. Currently, ProjectZero intends to expand the amount of on-

shore wind turbines in the area, which leads to some resistance by the public. The

question raised here was that even though people seem to favour visible solutions in

general to reduce CO2 emmission, they tend to be against large visible solutions such

as wind turbines. How can the organisation of ProjectZero influence the mind-set and

behaviour of the inhabitants in Sønderborg in order to create a positive attitude

towards the project and the changes needed to become CO2 neutral, such as increasing

the number of wind turbines?

This workshop focused on the acceptance of windpower, as this was expressed as an

urging problem in order to achieve the goal of reducing Sønderborg´s CO2 emissions

25% by 2015. The point of departure was to study earlier research conducted on wind

power acceptance. A literature study showed that people’s evaluation of the positive

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

7

and negative outcomes of the installation of wind turbines and their location (i.e., they

prefer minimal visibility) has a large impact on the acceptance of wind turbines.

Furthermore, studies showed that people’s participation in their community in terms

of place identity, sense of ownership, fairness and trust influence acceptances levels

of wind turbines.

Based on the literature about spillover effects, in this workshop a study to test the

potential relation between people’s pro-environmental behaviours and the likelihood

of accepting implementation of wind turbines was suggested. If such a spillover effect

would be found, projectZERO could expand their work, increasing Sønderborg’s

citizens’ pro-environmental behaviour in order to increase acceptance of windpower.

We proposed a study design in two phases starting with a qualitative exploration of

anticipated consequences and experienced participation among the citizens of

Sønderborg. This should be followed by a panel survey to investigate the current

acceptance or resistance, towards the installation of wind turbines in certain areas of

Sønderborg. The panel study should also explore people’s pro-environmental

behaviour.

To increase people’s participation in their community (i.e., trust, sense of ownership,

participation and fairness) we suggested a path that built on projectZERO’s already

running projects.

Figure 2: Possible path to acceptance of wind power in the municipality of Sønderborg

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

8

Reducing household energy consumption

Lecturers: Annika Nordlund and Geertje Schuitema

Participants: Ellen Van der Werff, Richard Bret, Danny Taufik, Peter Jacobsson,

Goytom Abraha Kahsay, Malte Nachreiner, Arnold Oliver, Richard Vann, Ikerne

Aguirre-Bielschowsky, Johanna Le Conte

Issue sponsor: NRGi

NRGi is the main electricity company in Aarhus and its surroundings. NRGi is

actively trying to involve its customers in their own electricity consumption, because

it is assumed that knowledge and awareness in one’s own electricity consumption

leads to electricity conservation. Electricity conservation is important for NRGi to

reach the national targets and to prepare households for the Smart Grid. To increase

the knowledge and awareness of their customers in their electricity use, NRGi is

installing smart meters in the homes of their customers. This is why NRGi asks: what

are the preconditions for customers to engage in their electricity consumption? Can

smart meters be used to involve customers and increase their knowledge and perhaps

change their attitudes? Which features or services can be linked to the smart meter

and how should they be promoted?

Point of departure of the study that was proposed in this workshop was the suggestion

that the information presented by smart meters is a way to increase consumer

involvement with their energy consumption. Following the literature, involvement is

defined as the extent of an individual’s perceived importance or personal relevance

towards an entity (i.e., energy consumption). Involvement is assumed to lead to

behavioural change. We propose a study that examines how tailored information can

be used to increase consumers’ involvement in their energy use by tailoring the

information to their value orientation.

Goal Framing theory states that people have different motivations (goals) to be

involved in their energy consumption. People can be motivated by their hedonic

goals, aimed at making them feel bettter (e.g., reducing my energy use makes me feel

good), their personal gains (e.g., reducing my energy use saves me money) or because

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

9

the environment and other people benefit (i.e., normative goal, e.g., reducing my

energy use is good for the environment).

Which motivation goal is most salient differs for people. Therefore, we propose an

intervention study in which we start with assessing which motivation (goal frame) is

most salient for each individual customer of NRGi, which will result in four

conditions (based on different goal frames). Based on this assessment, tailored

information is provided to them via a Smart Meter, for example, people who mainly

focus on the gain goal will be given information on the financial consequences of

conservation and people in the normative goal frame will receive informtion on the

consequences of conservation for future generations. In addition, four control groups

will be created, to test the result of the intervention.

During the data collection, involvement, energy use and webactivity will be

measured. Data collection will be done in three points in time: one week after the

onset of the intervention program (t+1 week), to capture immediate effects from the

intervention. One month after the onset of the intervention program (t+1 month) and

six months after the onset of the intervention program (t+6 months) to measure the

long-term effects of the intervention (see Figure 3).

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3. Research design

Immediate Measure

t + 1 Week

1. Involvement Index (Subjective)

2. Web Activity In-dex (Objective)

3. Energy Usage

(Objective)

Intermediate Measure

t + 1 Month

1. Involvement Index (Subjective)

2. Web Activity Index (Objective)

3. Energy Usage (Ob-

jective)

Long-Term Measure

t + 6 Months

1. Involvement In-dex (Subjective)

2. Web Activity In-dex (Objective)

3. Energy Usage

(Objective)

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

10

Breaking car habits: promoting bicycling and public transport

Lecturers: Bas Verplanken and Anders Biel

Participants: Pietro Lanzini, Stefan Baumeister, Christine Boomsma, Angela

Francke, Ines Thronicker, Joseph Kantenbacher, Ingo Kastner, Christiane Kramer,

Ernst Noppers, Ayca Berfu Unal, Nicole Aitken

Issue sponsor: Midttrafik

This workshop was sponsored by Midttrafik, the company who is responsible for

public transport in the area of Mid Jutland and the city of Aarhus. Midttrafik is an

active organisation in running campaigns and implementing different measures to

encourage people to make a modal shift from car to public transport. For example,

they have improved bus schedueles, the coordination between different transportation

modes and their services for example in terms of travel information, internet on

busses and improved comfort. In addition, they run marketing campains, mainly

aimed at getting a better image as an environmentally friendly company, such as the

‘Verdens Redder’ (‘save-the-world’) campaign. Midttrafik specifically asks if their

communication with their customers is effective to attract new and keep existing

customers and how their communication can be improved.

In the workshop, a very practical approach was adopted in order to give the sponsor

an answer to very specific questions. Participants of the workshop opted for the

following methodology: a) assess the effectiveness of past campaigns of Midttrafik,

b) collect and process information about citizens´perception about public transport, as

the basis of a segmentation of (potential) Midttrafik customers.

To collect the required information, workshop participants undertook a pilot study in

the city of Aarhus, to test their theoretical assessment. Interviews with a convenience

sample of around 70 citizens were conducted. Questions included an evaluation of

awareness and perceived effectiveness of the ‘Verdens Redder’ campaign, statements

of perceived strengths and weaknesses of public transport system in Aarhus,

suggestions for improvements and mental associations with transport by bus (i.e.,

respondents indicated the first thing that came up to mind hearing the word ‘bus’).

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

11

The assessment of past campaigns of Midttrafik resulted in the conclusion that a

thorough assessment of the effectiveness of past promotional and current

communicational campaigns (e.g. the ‘Verdens Redder’ campaign) are lacking at the

moment. Further reasearch cannot be developed untill there is a deep understanding of

the reaction of current and potential future customers to previous campaigns that they

have been exposed to.

Results of this pilot also gave input for an assessment of the information that

customers of Midtraffik need. Consumers’ need for information was based on their

position on two dimensions: motivation to change transport patterns and effective

ability to change transport patterns. This leads to four main customer segments, who

have need for a specific type of information (Figure 4)

Guidelines for the sponsor included specific suggestions on how to tailor future

communication campaigns to the four separate segments. In addittion, a toolkit was

provided with examples of best practices implemented by other public transport

organisations.

Figure 4. Segmentation of (potential) customers of Midttrafik Note: Y=Youth, M=Middle-age, O=Old

Ability to Use Bus

Motivation to Use Bus

!"#$

!"#$

%&'%$

%&'%$

!!"

!"

!"

!"

#

!

$$

$

$

$

#

#

#!

!

!! ! !!!

!

!

!! !

!

$

!!

! !!

$$

$! !$

%&'"""""""""()*+%&'"

""($

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

12

Stress and the city: restorative environments

Lecturers: Agnes van den Berg and Henk Staats

Participants: Goda Peraviciute, Elina Lice, Yanhui Mao, Kathrin Röderer, Sarah

Lilian Stephen, Leonie Venhoeven, Kayleigh Wyles

Issue sponsor: COWI

COWI is an international consulting firm that provides state-of-the-art services within

the fields of engineering, environmental science and economics. COWI’s main focus

is on a sustainable urban development. Part of their focus is on the creation of

restorative environments in urban areas, because this is assumed to reduce stress

levels and improve people’s health. In general, COWI’s question was: do restorative

environments indeed result in reduced stress levels and improved public health and

what are the economic benefits of restorative environments? In addition, COWI has

introduced a concept of a ‘Slow city’, which refers to an innovative development in

urban design and planning with the key aim to increase the restorative potential of

cities. Developed as a response to a stressful and hectic life in modern cities, the

concept of slow cities is assumed to be a key to restorative urban life. But is that

really so? Are slow cities indeed restorative? Although being widely accepted, the

assumption that slow cities are restorative cities has not yet been tested. These

questions became the core focus of the workgroup.

To start off, a thorough literature review was carried out on the concept of slow cities.

This gave a broader overview of how slow cities have been defined so far, and

provided examples of the recent developments of slow cities. This step was

particularly important, as, being yet at its infancy stage, the concept of a slow city

needs to be clearly defined. Besides a literature review, a pilot study was carried out

in order to disclose how non-experts define slow cities and what associations they

hold regarding such a development. The findings were interesting and demonstrated

that, although ascribing similar characteristics to slow cities (e.g., much greenery,

much public space), people anticipated different affective experiences if living in such

a city. There was a lack of consensus among participants of whether slow cities can

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

13

indeed be restorative cities, which highlighted the importance of studying this

question more in depth.

Restorative potential is a complex entity to study and can become a real challenge for

practitioners. Therefore, attempts were made in the workgroup to provide COWI with

the most relevant theoretical background and with potential methods for measuring

restorativness of slow cities. The Attention Restoration Theory (ART, Kaplan &

Kaplan, 1989) was proposed, and its relevance to the current purposes was explained.

Specifically, ART defines what kind of characteristics an environment should contain

in order to be restorative, and how one could measure these characteristics. In line

with the theory, we described two potential experiments that would allow

practitioners to actually measure the restorative potential of slow cities. As the end

result of the workgroup, theoretical background and a tool package for experiments

were combined in a detailed research proposal, which was handed in to COWI.

 

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

14

Overview of STEEP keynote lecturers

During the week all ten lecturers gave a keynote lecture. Below an overview of the

abstracts from their presentations. These presentations can be viewed online.

Linda Steg, University of Groningen, the Netherlands

Normative  considerations  encouraging  pro-­‐environmental  action  

Acting pro-environmentally is often associated with higher costs (e.g., money, time,

or effort). Therefore, it is important to understand how to motivate people to act pro-

environmentally, even though this might be costly in the short term. Research

conducted by our group on how normative considerations can be strengthened to

promote pro-environmental actions is presented. Among others, it is discussed to what

extent and how values and norms affect pro-environmental choices.

Ellen Matthies, University of Magdeburg, Germany

Changing  sustainability  relevant  routines  in  organizations  -­‐  from  intervention  studies  

to  diffusion  of  change  

Already in the early 1990s, Paul Stern encouraged further research about energy using

behaviour and energy-related decision making in organizations. However, there are

only few empirical approaches in this area until today, and there seems still a lack of

systematic knowledge concerning psychological interventions in the organisational

context. Given the situation that a relevant part of CO2-emissions stems from the

public sector, in 2008 we launched the transdisciplinary project “change” (together

with engineers, sociologists and practitioners) focusing on the potential of energy

relevant routines at universities and other organizations of the public sector. A pre-

study identified the importance to provide decision makers with knowledge

concerning potentials in user behaviour and perspectives for standardized campaigns.

After five years of data collection at 20 organizations, we are able to draw

conclusions about the potentials of psychological interventions, standardized

campaigns, and acceptance of psychological approaches in the public sector.

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

15

Henk Staats, Leiden University, Netherlands

Stress  and  the  city:  How  to  allow  for  restoration  

We live in an urbanizing world. As of 2010 more people in the world live in cities

than in rural areas, and this trend will continue and intensify (United Nations Habitat,

2010): more people will live in bigger cities. Many psychological studies of urban

city life emphasize that life in the city is more taxing than life in more rural

settlements (Lederbogen et al. 2011). Amount of stimulation, information overload

(Milgram, 1970), noise and crowding in and around the home (e.g., Guite, Clark, &

Ackrill, 2006), in public transportation (Evans & Wener, 2007), and in public places

in general (Moser & Corroyer, 2001), are all more prevalent in urban than in suburban

or rural environments. One way or another, city life imposes demands on its

population that periodically need compensation. Compensation is here referred to as

psychological restoration, the process that helps to renew the capabilities a person

ordinarily possesses but has depleted.

In this lecture, examples are given of research, partly by others, partly by the

presenter, that look at options to increase the restorative quality of different urban

settings. Examples will be the home, the neighbourhood, urban parks, a forest, the

city centre in general and cafés in particular. The main argument is that both physical

and social factors in the environment together create conditions for restoration.

Geertje Schuitema, Aarhus University, Denmark

Policy  acceptance  and  adoption  of  environmental  technologies    

Environmental policies are generally policies that are aimed at improving the

environmental quality, by targeting either curtailment behaviour (changes in user

behaviour that typically have to be made on a frequent basis) or efficiency behaivour

(referring to the adoption of energy-efficient solutions). An important precondition for

environmental policies to be implemented is the public acceptability of policies, and,

in case of changing efficiency behaviour, consumers’ adoption of new technologies.

This presentation focuses on different factors that explain the acceptability of

environmental policies and consumers’ adoption of new energy-efficient

technologies.

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

16

Bas Verplanken, University of Bath, UK

Habit:  From  overt  action  to  mental  events  

Habits are almost "unseen" elements of everyday life. In spite of the fact that many of

the behaviours which are of interest to social, health, consumer and environmental

psychologists are highly repetitive, habit has not received the attention it deserves.

This presentation focuses on questions such as why habits are important to study, how

habits relate to prevalent attitude-behaviour models, and which implications habits

may have for interventions to change behaviours. It then moves on to habits of

thinking, and present some research that demonstrates why such habits matter and

relate to a range of issues, such as body image and eating disorder problems, self-

esteem, job stress, or worry and anxiety. This talk ends with a flavour of Buddhism,

and discusses mindfulness as a promising avenue to deal with dysfunctional mental

habits.

Anders Biel, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Habitual  and  Value-­‐Guided  Behaviour  

Society increasingly requests that individuals adopt environmentally benign

behaviour. Information campaigns purported to change people’s attitudes are often

regarded as a prerequisite to installing such changes. While such information may be

a necessary step, it is not sufficient by itself. We argue that much everyday behaviour

with environmental consequences is habitual, and that little attention is given to

information directed toward changing these habitual behaviours. In other instances,

behaviour is guided by values in a more reflective process. However, other

information besides environmental issues may draw attention and affect behavioural

choice. Based on research, implications for behavioural change are discussed.

Annika Nordlund, Umeå University, Sweden

Factors  influencing  environmentally  relevant  behaviours  

This keynote lecture presents results from research on how mainly attitudinal factors,

but also personal capabilities, habits, and contextual factors function as motivating

and/or hindering factors in relation to different types of environmentally relevant

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

17

behaviours. Examples of behavioural scenes covered in the keynote are general pro-

environmental behaviour, more specific behaviours related to car use, train use,

alternative fuels vehicles, and lastly issues related to forest management, the urban

fringe forest, and preferences of forests scenes and the preferred activities in these

forest scenes.

Marino Bonaiuto, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Food  reputation  

Reputation, typically studied on more traditional social agents (e.g., individuals,

companies, countries) is extended to food: conceiving food and drink as social agents

with a reputation implies accounting for their perceived impacts on people, society,

environment. Food reputation (FR) is defined as the individual representation about

current characteristics of food as a social agent: it corresponds to all the

representations about that food that a person has - i.e., beliefs, attitudes, values,

attributions of causality, etc. - with particular attention to its antecedents and its

consequences, its production and its effects.

Hypothetically, FR may be based on direct and indirect (i.e., more or less socially

mediated) past experience the individual has of that the food, and on the consequent

future expectations developed about its effects. Conversely, FR might determine its

overall attractiveness, also with reference to possible alternatives.

23 specific indicators, integrated into 6 synthetic indicators and accompanied by 2

general indicators, constitute a modular measuring tool, the “Food Reputation Map".

By means of Kiviat diagrams, the instrument can be used to identify the reputational

profile of single food targets at different possible levels, such as products or

stakeholders (e.g., stakeholder categories, food brands, food products, food

categories, food regions or districts, etc.). This can be used to carry out synchronous

comparisons (different targets at the same time) or diachronic monitoring (the same

target at a later date). Furthermore, relationships among the specific or synthetic

dimensions and the general ones can be analyzed.

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

18

Agnes van den Berg, University of Groningen, Netherlands

Health  benefits  of  nature  

The idea that contact with nature can promote health and well-being has a long

history in Western as well as non-Western cultures. This lecture gives an overview of

empirical research on health benefits of nature. The lecture starts with an introduction

to the concepts of ‘health’ and ‘nature’, followed by some examples of historical and

contemporary practices in the use of nature for health purposes. Then the empirical

evidence for health-nature relationships is reviewed, along with a discussion of the

possible mechanisms underlying these relationships. Particular focus is on stress

reduction as the most important and well-documented explanation of health benefits

of nature. Reflections on the practical value of this emerging research area and its

relevance for theoretical and methodological issues in environmental psychology

concludes the talk.

John Thøgersen, Aarhus University, Denmark

Spillover  of  pro-­‐environmental  behaviour:  Generalizing,  a  license  to  anti-­‐social  be-­‐

haviour,  or  neither?  

This presentation introduces the phenomenon of spillover of pro-environmental

behaviour and its theoretical foundations, summarizes the evidence

supporting/challenging spillover, and discusses possibilities for optimizing the

chances of positive spillover effects. It ends with a discussion on future research on

spillover including key research questions and promising research designs.

 

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

19

Evaluations and experiences

In this part we summarise how STEEP was evaluated and experienced by the

participants, lectures and issue sponsors.

Students’ evaluations and experiences

After the final session, students filled in an evaluation form with open questions and

evaluation statements on 5-point scales from 1 (completely disagree/ very

dissatisfying) to 5 (completely agree/ very satisfying).

Students generally expressed satisfaction with the content of the summer school and

the reading material that was provided (Figure 5). Responding to the open questions, a

majority of students mentioned that the summer school was well balanced in terms of

keynote lecturers, workshops and social events. Some felt that there had perhaps been

a too strong focus on quantitative reasearch methods and too little discussion of

qualitative methods.

Figure 5. Overall evaluation of the summer school

Next, we asked students to evaluate the content of the workshops and the keynote

lectures (Figure 6). Overall, students were satisfied with the content of the workshops

and they generally felt that there had been a pleasant working atmosphere. The

1  

2  

3  

4  

5  

The  content  of  the  

summer  school  

corresponded  with  what  

was  outlined  beforehand  

The  content  of  the  

summer  school  was  easy  

to  follow  

The  duration  of  the  

summer  school  was  

sufOicient  

The  used  material  was  

satisfactory  

The  scope  of  the  used  

material  was  good  

Overall,  how  satisOied  are  

you  with  the  summer  

school?  

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

20

assessment of the workload in the workshops differed. Some students suggested that

the summer school should have lasted 1 or 2 days more. The keynote lectures were

positively evaluated, ranging from 3.8 till 4.8 on the 5 point scale.

Figure 6. Satisfaction with the workshops and keynote lectures

In general, students thought the summer school was stimulating, inspiring and useful

for their future projects (Figure 7). This is a very positive result, as one of the aims of

the summer school was to provide PhD students with the opportunity to collaborate

with senior scholars in their research field and to meet with other PhD students who

are working in the same area. A vast majority of the students mentioned that meeting

other PhD students and lecturers was one of the most positive aspects of the summer

school.

1  

2  

3  

4  

5  Overall  content  of  the  

workshop  

Balance  between  theory  

and  em

pirical  

application  

Pleasant  work  

atmosphere  

Keynote  lectures  

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

21

Figure 7. Experiences and usefulnes of summer school

The organisation and provided facilities were in general positively evalated, although

there are some points of attention (Figure 8). First of all, the availability of wireless

Internet and printing facilities was problematic during the week. Moreover, students

felt that their accomodation was located too far from the summer school venue.

Figure 8. Satisfaction with organisation of summer school

1  

2  

3  

4  

5  

The  summer  school  was  

stimulating  

I  enjoyed  the  summer  

school  

The  summer  school  

broadened  my  future  

perspectives  

My  learning  outcome  

The  usefulness  for  m

y  PhD  project  

The  inspiration  for  

future  projects  

1  

2  

3  

4  

5  

Accomodation  

Workshop  room

s  

Access  to  facilities  

Lecture  hall  

Num

ber  of  breaks  

General  information  that  

was  provided  

Availability  of  contact  

persons  

Information  on  the  

website  

Overall  organisation  

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

22

Finally, the food and social programme were in general evaluated positively (Figure

9). Regarding breakfast, there is room for improvement, mainly because breakfast

was not provided at the accomodation, but at the venue of the summer school. For

four evenings a social evening programme had been organised, to make sure students

and lecturers had the opportunity to interact informally.

Figure 9. Evaluation of food and social programme

Lecturers’ experiences

We received a letter of one of the lecturers, Linda Steg, describing her expiriences of

the summer school. We print the letter below, to illustrate how inspiring the summer

school was from the lecturer’s perspective.

“The  Summer  School  on  Theories  on  Environmental  and  Economic  Psychology  

(STEEP)   was   an   inspiring   event.   Like   the   first   Summer   School   on   Theories   on  

Environmental   Psychology   (STEP),   which   was   organized   in   Groningen,   many  

PhD   students  applied   for  participating   in   the  STEEP,  and   the  organizers   could  

not  admit  all  those  interested.  It  was  a  real  pleasure  and  very  inspiring  to  work  

with  a  group  of  very  talented  students,  and  to  develop  a  research  plan  that  was  

put  forward  by  practitioners  from  Denmark.  As  a  teacher,  I  enjoyed  to  see  that  

students   are   well   able   to   develop   a   broad   set   of   initial   ideas   in   a   coherent  

research  plan  within  a  week,  and  to  build  on  the  expertise  of  the  different  PhD  

1  

2  

3  

4  

5  

Breakfast  

Lunch  

Social  program

me  

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

23

students  in  the  group.  Besides,  the  STEEP  offered  a  nice  social  program,  so  that  

students  and  lectures  had  time  to  get  to  know  each  other,  and  to  set  a  basis  for  

future  collaborations.   I  am  very  happy  that  various  scholars  have   indicated  to  

be  interested  in  organizing  the  next  STEP,  and  I  am  confident  that  the  next  STEP  

will  again  be  a  great  and  inspiring  event.”  

Issue sponsors’ experiences

The issue sponsors respondend very positively after the summer school. In the

following are some quotes to illustrate how useful sponsors saw the day for them and

that it opens potential possibilities for future collaborations:

“(…)   It   was   a   very   interesting   presentation,   you   could   really   see   that   the  

participants  had  worked  hard  to  reach  a  good  result.  Looking  at  the  future  of  

our   project,   the   most   interesting   thing   about   the   presentation   was   perhaps  

that  many  of  the  presented  ideas  are  things  we  are  planning  to  do  or  are  doing  

right  now.  It  is  really  nice  to  be    confirmed  that  we  are  thinking  along  the  right  

lines  and  are  moving  in  the  right  direction”  (Christian  Eriksen,  project  manager  

from  ProjectZero,  translated  from  Danish)  

“Again,   thanks   for  an   interesting  day,  we  hope   that  we   can  maintain  a  good  

relationship   and   keep   each   other   informed   about   the   many   exciting  

opportunities,   something   that   we   are   always   open   for”   (Christian   Eriksen,  

project  manager  from  ProjectZero,  translated  from  Danish)  

“Thank   you   so   much   for   your   work   on   the   Midttrafik   project!   It   was   very  

interesting   and   useful   to   hear   the   Phd-­‐students’   research   into   the   public  

transport  subject.  (…)  I   intend  to  take  their  work  further  to  my  marketing  and  

planning   departments,   and   use   the   findings   in   our   further   work.”   (Kristiana  

Stoyanova,  Midttrafik)    

   

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

24

Sponsors

The aim of this summer school is to enable PhD students who work in the field of

Environmental and Economic Psychology to meet and to collaborate. We are pround

that 50 PhD students from 18 different countries (including New Zealand, Canada and

Mexico) attended the summer school. One of the reasons why students from all over

the world were able to attend the summer school is that we could keep the tuition fees

low. The low tuition fee was only possible due to the (financial) support of our

sponsors. We would like to express our gratitute to:

Aarhus University, Department of Business Administration

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

International Association for Applied Psychology (IAAP), Division

4: Environmental Psychology

The International Confederation for the Advancement of Behavioral

Economics and Economic Psychology (ICABEEP), which is the

umbrella organisaition of the International Association for Research

in Economic Psychology (IAREP) and Society for the Advancement

of Behavioral Economics (SABE)

The Environmental Psychology Division of the German

Psychological Association (DGPs)

The International Association People-Environment Studies (IAPS)

 

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

25

Links and next summer school

More information about STEEP can be found on our website, including the full

programme, videos of the keynote lecturers and pictures of the week.

STEEP was organised by the Virtual Community on Sustainability and Consumption,

which is a community of reserachers that joins in collaborations to help reduce the

tension between sustainability and consumption. To find more information about the

Virtual Community or to become a member, please visit the website.

The first Summer school on Theories in Environmental Psychology (FirstSTEP) was

organised in 2009 by the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. More information

about this summer school (e.g., programme, keynote lectures) can be found on the

website of the FirstSTEP.

The next STEEP will be held in the summer of 2014 or 2015. As soon as we know

where this event will be hosted, we will announce it on our website. If you are

interested in organising or sponsoring the next summer school, please feel free to

contact Linda Steg.