Social norms and climate-friendly behavior of adolescents

Adolescents are the decision-makers of the future, and as educational research shows, behaviors, habits, and attitudes established at young age strongly shape behavior in adulthood. Therefore, it is important to understand what factors shape young people’s climate-relevant behavior. In this study, we examine how information about peer behavior affects adolescents’ perception of prevailing social norms and own decision-making. Experimentally, we manipulated whether adolescents received information about other young people’s (lack of) support for climate protection, operationalized as a donation to a CO2 offsetting scheme. We find that empirical expectations shifted for all age groups when the information revealed that peers donated nothing or only small amounts. Donation behavior and the normative assessment, however, changed only in the younger age groups. Our study illustrates the caution that must be exercised when others’ behavior becomes visible or is deliberatively made salient in order to induce behavioral change, especially among young individuals

Social norms and climate-friendly behavior of adolescents

Adolescents are the decision-makers of the future, and as educational research shows, behaviors, habits, and attitudes established at young age strongly shape behavior in adulthood. Therefore, it is important to understand what factors shape young people’s climate-relevant behavior. In this study, we examine how information about peer behavior affects adolescents’ perception of prevailing social norms and own decision-making. Experimentally, we manipulated whether adolescents received information about other young people’s (lack of) support for climate protection, operationalized as a donation to a CO2 offsetting scheme. We find that empirical expectations shifted for all age groups when the information revealed that peers donated nothing or only small amounts. Donation behavior and the normative assessment, however, changed only in the younger age groups. Our study illustrates the caution that must be exercised when others’ behavior becomes visible or is deliberatively made salient in order to induce behavioral change, especially among young individuals

Nature Relatedness and Environmental Concern of Young People in Ecuador and Germany

Today’s societies are confronted by a daily biodiversity loss, which will increase in the face of climate change and environmental pollution. Biodiversity loss is a particularly severe problem in so-called biodiversity hotspots. Ecuador is an example of a country that hosts two different biodiversity hotspots. Human behavior – in developing as well as in industrial countries such as Germany – must be considered as one of the most important direct and indirect drivers of this global trend and thus plays a crucial role in environmentalism and biodiversity conservation. Nature relatedness and environmental concern have been identified as important environmental psychological factors related to people’s pro-environmental behavior. However, the human–nature relationship depends on a variety of other factors, such as values, gender, nationality, qualities of environmental concern and time spent in nature. This study compared young people from Ecuador and Germany with regard to their nature relatedness and environmental concern. Furthermore, the role of the aforementioned factors was investigated. In total, we surveyed 2,173 high school students from Germany (Mage = 14.56 years, SD = 1.45; female: 55.1%) and 451 high school students from Ecuador (Mage = 14.63 years, SD = 1.77; female: 55.3%). We found that young Ecuadorians were more related to nature than young people from Germany. Additionally, we found country-specific differences in the structure of environmental concern and in the role of gender in the explanation of biospheric environmental concern and nature relatedness. In both samples, the self-transcendence value cluster was a significant positive predictor for biospheric environmental concern and nature relatedness. Time spent in nature was a significant positive predictor for nature relatedness in both samples. The results are an empirical basis for the assumption of culture-specific differences in human–nature relationships

Student conceptions of the production of cow's milk—An exploratory interview study with 6th- and 10th-grade students

The production of food and the associated livestock farming contribute significantly to climate change and the global loss of biodiversity, hindering the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To promote responsible consumption and production of food (SDG 12), ensuring that students understand the production of our food, the associated livestock farming, and the interrelatedness of production and consumption is essential. Thus, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is an important tool for achieving the SDGs. To develop effective teaching and learning strategies to educate students about the production of food from livestock, it is important to identify students' existing conceptions of this topic. Thus, this study examined sixth-grade (n = 4; MAge = 12 years; SDAge = 0.7 years; 50% female) and tenth-grade students' (n = 4; MAge = 16 years; SDAge = 0 years; 50% female) conceptions of milk production, focusing on dairy farming, the milking process and techniques, and the production of cow's milk. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students from Osnabrück (Lower Saxony) to elicit student conceptions. The evaluation of the students' conceptions was carried out using qualitative content analysis. The results largely indicated that both sixth and tenth graders had realistic conceptions of dairy farming and the milking process and techniques. However, some students also expressed romanticized conceptions of pasture grazing and calf rearing. In addition, unrealistic statements regarding the formation of milk were identified. The conceptions of the sixth and tenth graders were compared, and with a few exceptions, no significant differences were found between the two cohorts. However, the tenth graders tended to have more differentiated conceptions about milk production than the sixth graders. In conducting the analysis, it became clear that students' conceptions of the production of milk are influenced by individual primary experiences with dairy farms. Finally, based on these results, educational recommendations for the school teaching framework in the context of ESD and implications for further research are presented

Free word association analysis of German laypeople’s perception of biodiversity and its loss

Due to the dramatic biodiversity crisis, it is crucial to understand how people perceive biodiversity. Knowledge of how thoughts are organized around this concept can identify which ideas are best to focus on biodiversity conservation information campaigns. The primary aim of the present study was to identify social representations of the German public regarding the concept of biodiversity and its loss using a free word association test. Furthermore, unique association networks were analyzed. For this purpose, data collection was performed in September 2021 in Germany using an online questionnaire to assess participants’ associations with the prompt “biodiversity” (n  = 131) and “biodiversity loss” (n  = 130). Additionally, we used the social network software Gephi to create biodiversity (loss) association networks. The five most commonly mentioned associations for biodiversity were “animal,” “plant,” “nature,” “human,” and “flower.” For biodiversity loss, the five most commonly mentioned associations were “species extinction,” “climate change,” “plant,” “insect,” and “bee.” Neither “land use change” nor “invasive species,” as key drivers of biodiversity loss, were present in social representations of the German public. A difference was observed in the total number of mentioned associations between biodiversity and biodiversity loss. For both, the associations “plant” and “animal” were related. However, participants associated specific taxa only with animals, such as “insects” and “birds.” For plants, no specific taxa were named. Based on the network analysis, the most commonly mentioned word pairs for biodiversity and biodiversity loss were “plant – animal” and “species loss – climate change,” respectively. Based on our statistical network analysis, these associations were identified as the most central associations with the greatest influence in the network. Thus, they had the most connections and the function of predicting the flow in the network. In sum, the public’s multifaceted views on biodiversity and its loss, as well as the aforementioned central associations, hold great potential to be utilized more for the communication and education of biodiversity conservation. In addition, our findings contribute to the scientific community’s understanding of social representations and perceptions of biodiversity and its loss

Biology Teachers’ Worldviews on the Global Distribution and Loss of Biodiversity: A GIS-Based Mental-Mapping Approach

This paper explores (1) student teachers’ mental maps of the global distribution and loss of biodiversity and (2) their perception of threatened biodiversity at the national, transnational and global levels. Data was collected from a questionnaire study of student biology teachers from Germany (n = 868) and Costa Rica (n = 284). Student teachers’ mental maps matched quite well with the scientific view. Nevertheless, they clearly showed a “brazilisation bias,” meaning that the first and foremost country associated with high and threatened biodiversity was Brazil. Industrialized countries were often misconceived to have a particularly threatened biodiversity. Except for Brazil (and Costa Rica in the Costa Rican sample), most students neglected a connection between a country’s high biodiversity and its high threat as proposed by the biodiversity hotspots concept. Despite this common ground, major ethnocentric distortions merged in the composite mental maps for each sample: German students had a more global perspective on biodiversity and its loss, whereas Costa Ricans students had a more localized view. Student teachers from both countries have largely overestimated the percentage of threatened plant species on a national, transnational and global level (“overestimation bias”). In addition, the estimated percentage of threatened plant species have correspondingly increased with a greater distance from the students’ home country (“spatial optimism bias”). Results will be discussed in terms of educational implications

Welchen Einfluss haben primäre Naturerfahrungen und 360° Naturvideos auf das Wohlbefinden von Studierenden? Eine Pilotstudie im Tropenhaus eines Botanischen Gartens

Eckes A, Fiebelkorn F. Welchen Einfluss haben primäre Naturerfahrungen und 360° Naturvideos auf das Wohlbefinden von Studierenden? Eine Pilotstudie im Tropenhaus eines Botanischen Gartens

Acceptance of Cultured Meat in Germany—Application of an Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour

This study examines the willingness to consume a cultured meat burger in Germany. Based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), we assessed attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms via an online questionnaire. Attitudes were operationalized in this research as general attitudes towards cultured meat and specific attitudes towards a cultured meat burger. Furthermore, the TPB was extended with nutritional-psychological variables including food (technology) neophobia, food disgust, sensation seeking, and green consumption values. In total, 58.4% of the participants reported being willing to consume a cultured meat burger. Using a path model, the extended TPB accounted for 77.8% of the variance in willingness to consume a cultured meat burger. All components of the TPB were significant predictors except general attitudes. The influence of general attitudes was completely mediated by specific attitudes. All nutritional-psychological variables influenced general attitudes. Food technology neophobia was the strongest negative, and green consumption values were the strongest positive predictor of general attitudes. Marketing strategies should therefore target the attitudes of consumers by encouraging the natural perception of cultured meat, using a less technological product name, enabling transparency about the production, and creating a dialogue about both the fears and the environmental benefits of the new technology

Students’ Conceptions of Sustainable Nutrition

In Education for Sustainable Development, the topic of sustainable nutrition offers an excellent learning topic as it combines the five dimensions of health, environment, economy, society, and culture, unlike most topics with a regional-global scope. The identification of existing students’ conceptions of this topic is important for the development of effective teaching and learning arrangements. This study aimed to understand students’ conceptions of sustainable nutrition and the relevance that students attribute to the five dimensions. For this purpose, we conducted semi-structured individual interviews with 10th-grade students at secondary schools in Germany (n = 46; female = 47.8%; MAge = 15.59, SD = 0.78). We found that the health dimension prevailed in students’ conceptions of sustainable nutrition; however, the more dimensions the students considered, the less importance was attached to the health dimension. The ecological dimension, in turn, became more prominent as the students’ conceptions became more elaborate. Many students neglected the social, economic, and especially the cultural dimensions. Furthermore, alternative conceptions of the terminology of sustainable nutrition, which did not correspond to the scientific concept, were identified. Students had difficulties linking the ecological, social, economic, and cultural dimensions to sustainable nutrition due to a predominant egocentric perspective on nutrition, which primarily entails focusing on one’s own body

Plant-based milk alternatives:

Die derzeitige Produktion und der weltweit hohe Konsum von Milch tragen erheblich zum Klimawandel und zum Biodiversitätsverlust bei. Dies führt dazu, dass die Ressourcen unseres Planeten für die erforderliche Versorgung der wachsenden Bevölkerung mit tierischen Produkten wie Milch in Zukunft nicht ausreichen werden. Gleichzeitig besteht seit einigen Jahren weltweit großes Interesse an einer überwiegend pflanzlichen Ernährung, was sich auch in einer hohen Nachfrage nach pflanzlichen Milchalternativen zeigt. Letztere stellen insofern eine potenzielle Alternative zur tierischen Milch dar, da ihr Herstellungsprozess im Vergleich mit dem von Kuhmilch nachhaltiger ist. Auch wenn pflanzliche Milchalternativen aufgrund ihrer großen Spannbreite an Makro- und Mikronährstoffen von Natur aus nicht das exakte Nährwertäquivalent zur Kuhmilch darstellen, sind sie das am häufigsten verkaufte vegane Alternativprodukt in Europa und Deutschland. Auch auf globaler Ebene wächst der Markt für pflanzliche Milchalternativen derzeit rasant. Die Gründe für den Konsum von pflanzlichen Milchalternativen basieren im Wesentlichen auf den drei Aspekten: Gesundheit, Nachhaltigkeit und Tierschutz. Dabei wird die Kaufentscheidung insbesondere durch den Geschmack und den Preis der pflanzlichen Milchalternativen beeinflusst. Dementsprechend entwickeln sich das Angebot und Sortiment von pflanzlichen Milchalternativen stetig weiter. Darüber hinaus wird derzeit intensiv an der Entwicklung neuer Milchalternativen durch Präzisionsfermentation gearbeitet.The current production and high consumption of milk worldwide contribute significantly to climate change and biodiversity loss. As a result, the resources of our planet will not be sufficient to feed the growing population with animal products such as milk in the future. At the same time, for some years now, there has been a high interest worldwide in a predominantly plant-based diet, which is also reflected in a high demand for plant-based milk alternatives. They represent a potential alternative to animal milk in so far as their production process is more sustainable in comparison to that one of cow’s milk. Even though plant-based milk alternatives are by nature not the exact nutritional equivalent of cow’s milk due to a wide range of macro and micronutrients, they are the most sold vegan alternative products in Europe and Germany. Also at a global level, the market for plant-based milk alternatives is currently growing rapidly. The reasons for the consumption of plant-based milk alternatives are essentially based on three aspects: health, sustainability and animal welfare. At the same time, the purchase decision is especially influenced by the taste and price of the plant-based milk alternatives. Correspondingly, the offer and assortment of plant-based milk alternatives constantly develop. Furthermore, intensive work is currently being done on the development of new milk alternatives through precision fermentation