Using psychology to change environmental behaviours

The world is in a climate crisis, so research is needed to develop effective interventions to encourage behaviours that help rather than harm the environment. One possible approach to developing effective interventions to promote pro-environmental behaviours is to first try to understand why people do (or do not) engage in these behaviours, and then develop interventions that specifically target the relevant barriers or facilitators of behaviour. This PhD project will use Michie et al.’s COM-B model to understand people’s capability, opportunity and motivation to engage in a specific pro-environmental behaviour, and develop and evaluate interventions to encourage that behaviour. The project would target environment-related behaviours that interest the PhD candidate (e.g., use of reusable period products, reduction of single-use plastics, reduced consumption of high-carbon footprint foods (e.g. meat, dairy) etc.)