Changing Pro-environmental Behavior: Evidence from (Un)Successful Intervention Studies
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 65985
Special Issue Editors
Interests: social influence; communication; decision making; climate change; pro-environmental behavior; meta-science
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We welcome submissions for a Special Issue of Sustainability on 'Changing Pro-Environmental Behavior: Evidence From (Un)Successful Intervention Studies'. Sustainability is a peer-reviewed international journal (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/about) published monthly by MDPI, since 2009 (ISSN 2071-1050), impact factor 2.6 (2018).
We primarily seek reports of interventions on behaviors that impact the natural environment, such as water or energy use, consumption, recycling, transportation, diet, investments, political behavior and activism, or other behaviors. Outcomes similar to behavior such as intentions will also be considered. Intervention studies should evaluate the effectiveness of behavior change techniques such as persuasive messages, changes to social context, nudging, incentives such as price, etc. The intervention results can be null, mixed, or positive. Replication studies are explicitly encouraged. We welcome papers that might be difficult to publish in standard environmental psychology outlets. Empirical papers with online, laboratory, or particularly field studies are welcome. Studies on potential side effects of interventions (e.g., spillover, rebound) or methodological challenges of intervention studies and systematic reviews and meta-analyses on intervention effects will also be considered. If you are uncertain about whether your paper fits into the scope of this special issue, please contact the guest editors.
Climate change and other environmental problems require societal and individual change, and those changes will be most successful when interventions and policies are informed by a solid understanding of what causes those behaviors. Intervention studies may further this understanding by studying the causal determinants of pro-environmental behavior through (quasi-)experimental manipulation. In addition, intervention studies are often relevant to organizational and governmental projects, in particular when studies examine the behavioral context. It is critical to learn which intervention components are effective across what contexts, but replication or null-findings studies may be difficult to publish in traditional outlets.
As part of the shift away from false-positive research (Simmons et al., 2011) and towards greater replicability and reproducibility (Munafò et al., 2017), submissions will be reviewed based on their methods and appropriate interpretation rather than on subjective novelty or positive findings. A secondary benefit of this approach is reducing a potential file-drawer problem in research on pro-environmental behavior. By offering a platform for otherwise unpublished intervention reports, we wish to contribute to unbiased research literature that can form the basis for more informative meta-analyses and reviews. Regardless of the results, authors are requested to interpret their findings with relation to earlier work and to provide advice for future research, communication, and/or corporate or public policy.
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/apc: Accepted articles will be charged 1800 CHF for gold open access.
https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap: Check if your institution gets a 10% discount.
We look forward to receiving your submission by 15 December, 2020.
Cameron Brick c.brick@uva.nl
Florian Lange florian.lange@kuleuven.be
Dr. Florian Lange
Dr. Cameron Brick
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- interventions
- pro-environmental behavior
- behavior change
- persuasive communication
- social psychology
- environmental psychology
- consumer behavior
- organizational behavior
- environmental education
- applied behavior analysis
- open science
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