1)
Presenter: Matteo Marini (University of Bologna)
Title: Narratives, personal norms, and green investments: An experimental study
Abstract: This study investigates the impact of narratives on sustainable investments, and whether this relationship is moderated by personal norms. To this end, we conduct a two-phase laboratory experiment. In the first phase, we elicit participants’ personal norms related to a portfolio choice task. In the second phase – conducted approximately four weeks later – the same participants perform a repeated portfolio choice task after being randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: (i) exposure to negative (pro-dirty) narratives, (ii) exposure to positive (pro-green) narratives, (iii) exposure to mixed narratives, or (iv) a baseline condition with no narratives. Empirical expectations for the initial portfolio choice are held constant across all conditions, except for a fifth pre-baseline group that only serves to generate empirical expectations and narratives to be shown in the other treatments. We find a short-term positive effect of positive narratives on sustainable investments, but no evidence that positive or negative narratives alter these investments in the long period. Personal (and social) norms – rather than green externalities - are found to be the key drivers of the initial portfolio choice. We discuss possible interpretations of our findings.
2)
Presenter: Susann Adloff (Kiel Institute)
2)
Presenter: Susann Adloff (Kiel Institute)
Title: Adaptation Take-up and Contagion in Networks
Abstract: The resilience of any system hinges on the adaptive capacity of its components. In light of a multitude of present-day external pressures on social ecological systems globally, it thus becomes crucial to understand barriers for community-wide adaptation. Broadly, to what extent individuals can promote change within a community depends on the willingness of an individual to change behaviors and on the likelihood of this individual-level change to spread across the community. While both of these processes can be plausibly influenced by the social network position of an individual, the misalignment of this influence might pose a barrier to community-wide adaptation in itself, if those most likely to engage in adaptation are those with the lowest spreading capacity. To investigate this claim, this study empirically tests the role of social network position on adaptation take up and contagion of behaviors conjointly combining survey and lab in the field experiments on environmental adaptation in village communities on Mount Kilimanjaro, TZ.