Ongoing Projects
Education Strategies for Environmental Literacy
The main overall objective of the project is the development of educational activities aimed at promoting behavioral changes in individual and collective choices and in consumption habits through innovative strategies and methodologies applied to the environment and climate goals.
The specific objective is to raise awareness - among secondary school students - of critical aspects of environmental literacy, while at the same time enhance their ability to evaluate risk and manage uncertainty
Partners: University of Milano-Bicocca, Liceo Cavalleri, Ludwigsburg University, Wildermuth-Gymnasium Tübingen, Universidad de Granada, IES Virgen de las Nieves, Université de Paris 8, CMAR Paca.
Energy saving behaviours in Italian households
The overall aim of the project is to examine ways in which people try to save energy (electricity, gas) in their homes and potentially propose behaviourally-informed interventions to make their efforts more efficient. A first diagnostic study has been conducted in February 2023 to assess people’s current awareness of energy-saving actions, perceptions of their efficiency, motivations to save energy in their homes, and their actual and planned energy-saving behaviours.
The Institutional Discounting Effect
RESEARCH QUESTION
The study analyzed the role of two institutions (University and AVIS) in promoting prosocial behavior among students, specifically on blood donation, through the use of behavioral norms: social norms or norms prototypical of the institution. The project has been conducted in collaboration with AVIS Milano and at the moment an international cooperation is being activated with the Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil).
RESULTS
The results showed that when the norm used is incorporated into the mission and values of the institution, the message loses salience and is less effective in promoting blood donation, showing what we can define as an Institutional Discounting Effect. The stimuli that have proved to be the most persuasive are the less typical ones, but still consistent with the mission of the institution, since they do not suffer the redundancy determined by the characteristics of the institution that is the promoter of the message.
THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CONTRIBUTION
This work has highlighted the importance of not considering the Nudge as a general "recipe" of universal validity. Research on the promotion of prosocial behavior should take into account the relationship between the message, the source and the degree of identification with the source in the construction of the architecture of choice.
Nudge & Boost for Startups
Application of behavioral sciences to the development of new entrepreneurship. Identification of the cognitive variables that can promote entrepreneurial behavior for the startups.
Partner: INAPP - National Institute for Public Policy Analysis
Nudge & Social Norms
Empirical studies on the effectiveness of social norms in guiding individual behavior in relation to different cultural contexts (blood donation, alcohol consumption, waste recycling).
Partners: Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil; Tsinghua University, Beijing; Chinese Academy of Science; LSE, London
Erasmus+ KA107 Project (2020-2023)
Decision Making as Problem Solving
Theoretical analysis of the cognitive dimension inclusive of problem solving models compared to decisional ones to explain the causal determinants of action.
Partners: Oxford University - Said Business School