Ellen Matthies
|
|
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3644-9742 Career
Ellen Matthies has been Professor of Environmental Psychology at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg since December 2011.
Her research interests are primarily in the area of human-environment interaction with a focus on environmentally relevant behaviour and decisions (energy use, car use), as well as theory-based development and evaluation of intervention measures to promote sustainable consumption.
From August 2009 to November 2011, Ellen Matthies was Professor of Environmental Psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. From 2001 to 2010, she was a university lecturer in applied psychology at the Ruhr University Bochum. There, Ellen Matthies completed her habilitation on the subject of "Coping with environmental threats and global environmental change" at the Institute of Psychology in 2001. She received her doctorate in 1993.
Ellen Matthies has led numerous research projects in the fields of applied social psychology and environmental psychology. Most of these projects have been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), but also by the Norwegian Research Council and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Among other things, the projects investigated the role of personal and social norms in resource use, the importance of habits in behavioural change and the development and evaluation of interventions to promote environmentally friendly behaviour.
Ellen Matthies' research findings have been published in various international psychological and interdisciplinary journals (e.g. Journal of Environmental Psychology, Applied Psychology, An international Review, Environment and Behaviour).
Since February 2022, Ellen Matthies has been spokesperson for the "Environmental Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society". She was previously a member of the spokesperson group from 2003 to 2009.
Ellen Matthies is co-founder of the journal Umweltpsychologie.
From May 2013 to October 2020, Ellen Matthies was a member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).
Merten, M. J., Bokowski, J. K., & Matthies, E. (2026). Are numbers necessary to identify low-emission lifestyles? An experimental study on heuristics and carbon competence. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 110: 102948. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2026.102948
Künzel, C., Rühmland, S., Kastner, K., Simon, C. E., & Matthies, E. (2025). Partizipative und innovative Ansätze zur Förderung der Klimaneutralität an Hochschulen: Das Projekt KlimaPlanReal als Modell für die DACH-Region. In W. Leal Filho (Hrsg.), Innovative Ansätze für die Nachhaltigkeitslehre und Forschung in der Hochschulbildung (S. 457–474). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-71601-4_26
Hofmann, W., Hosch, A.‑K., Huttarsch, J.‑H., Matthies, E., Brakemeier, E.‑L. & Betsch, C. (2025). Editorial: Policy Ultra-Briefs aus der Psychologie und angrenzenden Verhaltenswissenschaften. In W. Hofmann, A.-K. Hosch, J.-H. Huttarsch, E. Matthies, E.-L. Brakemeier & C. Betsch (Hrsg.), Policy Ultra-Briefs aus der Psychologie und angrenzenden Verhaltenswissenschaften, Reihe 1 - Klimaschutz. https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.21297
Huttarsch, J.-H., Hosch, A.-K., Matthies, E. & Hofmann, W. (2025). Verborgene Zustimmung: Die öffentliche Unterstützung für Klimaschutz wird systematisch unterschätzt. In W. Hofmann, A.-K. Hosch, J.-H. Huttarsch, E. Matthies, E.-L. Brakemeier & C. Betsch (Hrsg.), Policy Ultra-Briefs aus der Psychologie und angrenzenden Verhaltenswissenschaften, Reihe 1 - Klimaschutz. https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.21300
Berg, M., Suchotzki, K., Zimmermann, J., Merz, C. J., Szota, K., Brandt, H., Hartwigsen, G., Lincoln, T. M., Mokros, A., Gade, M., Niessen, C., Rauthmann, J., Hoehl, S., Kubiak, T., Franke, T., Frischlich, L., Degner, J., Matthies, E., Sparfeldt, J. R., Rief, W., & Haberkamp, A. (2025). A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Translation – Ideas for Fostering and Disseminating (Clinical) Translational Psychology. European Psychologist, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000555
Blöbaum, A., Schmidt, K., Böcher, M., Arlinghaus, J., Krause, F. & Matthies, E. (2025). Overcoming heuristics that hinder people’s acceptance of climate-change-mitigation technologies. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1433280. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1433280
Beer, K., Böcher, M., Ganzer, C., Blöbaum, A., Engel, L., De Paula Sieverding, T., Sundmacher, K., & Matthies, E. (2025) Forest-based bioeconomy and bio-based chemical production in the European Union: Policy issues, institutions, actors, and instruments in a changing forest policy subsystem. Forest Policy and Economics, 177: 103521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103521
Haefner, G., Kastner, I., Deuß, A., Meier, J. N., Beer, K., Schmidt, K., Lehmann, P. & Matthies, E. (2024). How can energy-relevant investment decisions be boosted? The role of events as initiators and drivers of the decision process. Energy Research & Social Science, 117, 103710. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103710
Matthies, E., Beer, K., Böcher, M., Sundmacher, K., König-Mattern, L., Arlinghaus, J., Blöbaum, A., Jaeger-Erben, M. & Schmidt, K. (2024). Framework conditions for the transformation toward a sustainable carbon-based chemical industry–A critical review of existing and potential contributions from the social sciences. Journal of Cleaner Production, 143279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.143279
Huttarsch, J. H., & Matthies, E. (2024). Perceived Carbon Pricing Effectiveness Impacts its Perceived Fairness–Applying and Extending a Theoretical Framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 102356.
Matthies, E., Reese, G., Mata, J., Fritsche, I., Hofmann, W., Geiger, S., Cohrs, J.C., Loy, L. & Henn, L. (2024). Wie kann die Psychologie zur Bewältigung der Klimakrise beitragen? Psychologische Rundschau, 75(2), 177-182. https://doi.org/10.1026/0033-3042/a000673
Schmidt, K, Kastner, I. & Matthies, E. (2024). Who can cope with a carbon tax? The role of financial consequences in policy acceptance among German homeowners. Energy Research & Social Science, 111, 103492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103492 
An overview over all publications can be found via Forschungsportal Sachen-Anhalt.