Aktuelle Neuigkeiten

Neue Publikation: Explaining behavior with mental attributes: An exposition with environmental attitude

24.07.2025 -

Available free of charge at: https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000558

Kaiser, F. G. & Wilson, M. (2025). Explaining behavior with mental attributes: An exposition with environmental attitude. European Psychologist.

Abstract:

Replicability is one essential aspect of genuine explanations in empirical science, whereas valid measurement is another. Particularly when people seek strong evidence that some leverage can be applied to change behavior the measurement of the attribute supposedly operating as the cause needs to be valid. Thus, before attitudes can be tested as causes of behavior, measurements of the strength of these attitudes must be empirically validated to an extent that goes beyond what is conventionally done in psychology. Because attitude is a mental attribute, the numbers assigned to people through measurement cannot be validated with some manifest reference point, as is typically the case in physical measurement (e.g., freezing point of water). We demonstrate how measurements of people’s mental attributes can be substantiated. Only when equipped with valid measures is the stage finally set to build a cumulative network of replicable knowledge.

mehr ...

Interview mit WELT: Was tun gegen Vermüllung im öffentlichen Raum?

22.05.2025 -

Vermüllung im öffentlichen Raum: Wie lässt sich das verhindern?

Der Müll kommt nicht in die Tonne, sondern einfach auf die Straße: In vielen deutschen Großstädten nimmt die Vermüllung im öffentlichen Raum zu, zeigt eine WELT-Umfrage. Aber warum ist das so? Florian Kaiser im Interview zu Gründen und wirksamen Strategien. Artikel in WELT .

mehr ...

Interview mit dem Tagesspiegel: Beeinflusst das Wetter, wen wir wählen?

06.12.2024 -

Wählen im Winter: Das Wetter beeinflusst, für wen wir stimmen

Im Februar 2025 wird es Neuwahlen geben, im Winter statt wie sonst im Spätsommer. Ob sich die Jahreszeit auf das Wahlverhalten der Bürger*innen auswirkt und welche anderen Faktoren eine Rolle spielen, darüber sprechen Prof. Florian Kaiser und andere Kollegen in einem aktuellen Artikel im Tagesspiegel.

mehr ...

Neue Publikation: The role of attitude toward nature in learning about environmental issues

13.11.2024 -

Available free of charge at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1471026

Baierl, T.-M., Kaiser, F. G. & Bogner, F. X. (2024). The role of attitude toward nature in learning about environmental issues. Frontiers in Psychology: Environmental Psychology, 15, 1471026

Abstract:

Attitude toward nature and environmental attitude are two distinct propensities that both further learning about the environment. The present study builds upon prior research by investigating the role of attitude toward nature in learning about environmental issues. In a sample of 1,486 university, middle and high school students (M_age = 15.25, SD = 3.2), we first calibrated a pool of items expressing attitude toward nature. We found differences in how adolescents expressed their appreciation for nature at different ages. It is essential to consider these differences to accurately ascertain adolescents’ attitudes toward nature. We then conducted a mediation test. Whereas attitude toward nature determined the levels of knowledge students gained and retained, environmental attitude fully mediated the environmental knowledge subsequently demonstrated by the students. Our research suggests that researchers and educators may benefit from taking an experiential approach to learning about sustainable development by promoting appreciation for nature.

mehr ...

Neue Publikation: Wealth as an obstacle and a support for environmental protection

18.10.2024 -

Available free of charge at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102449

Kaiser, F. G. & Urban, J. (2024). Wealth as an obstacle and a support for environmental protection. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 100, 102449.

Abstract:

Wealthy populations appear prone to protecting the environment. By contrast, wealthy individuals appear prone to harming it. In other words, wealth appears to have opposing effects on the environmental protection efforts of individuals and populations. In our secondary analysis of Eurobarometer data (N = 27,998) from 28 countries, we demonstrate that wealth represents a behavioral benefit that supports populations' efforts to protect the environment (e.g., via government subsidies). Wealth also represents a behavioral benefit that supports individuals’ efforts to protect the environment (e.g., by making effective home insulation affordable), but it simultaneously represents a behavioral cost that appears to prevent individuals from protecting the environment (e.g., by making excessively large homes affordable). We conclude that when behavioral scientists recognize that wealth can be a cost and a benefit simultaneously, they will ultimately understand when and why populations and individuals engage in environmentally protective actions or fail to do so.

Highlights:

-Wealth effects are not perplexing when wealth's behavioral relevance is understood.

-When engaging in behavior, individuals typically have to incur costs.

-A population's behavior indicates how supportive the conditions are for action.

-For populations, a surplus in money helps furnish behavior-supportive conditions.

-Wealth helps populations protect the environment, but helps and hinders individuals.

mehr ...

RSS