In this Psych Forum, Alessandro Tavoni (University of Bologna) and Ted Jan Post (UvA IAS/POLDER) will discuss their policy-related research, as well as experiences and insights on collaborating with policymakers, and lessons for researchers looking to increase the impact of their work. Below you can find abstracts from the two speakers. We look forward to seeing you there!

About the speakers

• Alessandro Tavoni, Professor of Environmental Economics, University of Bologna

Alessandro Tavoni will discuss potential conceptual limitations and fruitful avenues for increasing the robustness of STI (social tipping interventions) assessments beyond theory and small-scale experimentation.

'The net-zero transition poses unprecedented societal challenges that cannot be tackled with technology and markets alone. It requires complementary behavioral and social change on the demand side. Abandoning entrenched detrimental norms, including those that perpetuate the fossil-fueled lock-in, is notoriously difficult, preventing change and limiting policy efficacy. A nascent literature tackles STI, aiming at cost-effective disproportionate change by pushing behaviors past an adoption threshold beyond which further uptake is self-reinforcing. Intervening on target groups can greatly reduce the societal cost of a policy and thus holds promise for precipitating change. This presentation takes stock of the potential of STI to scale climate action by first reviewing the theoretical insights arising from behavioral public policy based on applications of threshold models from sociology and economics; then, it assesses the initial evidence on the effectiveness of STI, in light of the outcomes of laboratory and online experiments that were designed to study coordination on an emergent alternative to the initial status quo.'

• Ted Jan Post, Impact Manager at POLDER and SEVEN, UvA

Ted Jan is impact developer for two interdisciplinary initiatives at the UvA, respectively POLDER, housed at the Institute for Advanced Study and SEVEN, the new climate institute at the UvA. In his work he explores how to make impactful research, yet retaining academic curiosity and integrity. He will talk about his experiences in shaping new research on complex systems together with policymakers and the lessons learned in connecting these worlds. What is needed to reach policymakers? And can a participatory method help you connect to stakeholders in a meaningful way?