Laura Henn - Research Information System | University of Kassel

Dr. phil. Laura Henn

Research Areas

Psychology

Research Interest

As an environmental psychologist, I am dedicated to the overarching question of how psychological knowledge about the interaction of humans and their environment can help to promote sustainable lifestyles. People act pro-environmentally if their environmental attitude is sufficiently high to overcome the effort necessary to perform the pro-environmental behavior in question. Therefore, I am interested to find out how the environmental attitude can be increased on the one hand because this would lead to a person showing more effortful pro-environmental behavior. On the other hand, I am interested in how the behavioral environment can be designed in such a way that pro-environmental behavior is easier, requires less effort, and thus more people will engage in it.

In my research, I address topics like spillover phenomena, attitude measurement, behavioral engineering, defining sufficiency as a psychological construct, behavioral costs, 'nudging', and the ecological relevance of psychological constructs (e.g., relationship between sufficiency and natural resource consumption).

Thematically my research encompasses various fields such as sustainable consumption and non-consumption, energy saving, smart-meter-feedback, mobility (e.g., airplane travel, car sharing), recycling behavior (e.g., waste separation, electronic waste), sustainable food, consumer behavior in bioeconomy, and ecological footprint.

Work Experience

09/2014 - 09/2020	Research assistant at Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Department for Personality and Social Psychology (Prof. Florian G. Kaiser),
05/2014 - 08/2014	Scientific Research Assistant, Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Germany
10/2013 - 03/2015	Contract teacher at Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) Stuttgart, Germany

Academic background

since 10/2020
Post-Doctoral Researcher at CESR (University of Kassel; Prof. Andreas Ernst)

10/2020
PhD (Dr. phil.) in Psychology at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (Prof. Florian Kaiser), Germany

08/2013
Master (M. Sc.) in Psychology, University of Freiburg, Germany

08/2011
Bachelor (B. Sc.) Psychology, University of Freiburg, Germany

Memberships and non-academic activities

since 07/2021	Journal of Environmental Psychology Member of Early Career Advisory Board
since 12/2020	Task Force 'Humans, Climate, Sustainability' of the DGPs appointed member
since 01/2015	German Psychological Association (DGPs) Full member

Projects as Principal Investigator

05/2022 - 04/2023

Growth vs. sustainability: The politics and psychology of a goal conflict in international organisations

Publications

1 of 2

2023	Lange, F., Berger, S., Byrka, K., Brügger, A., Henn, L., Sparks, A.C., Steensen Nielsen, K., Urban, J., 2023. Beyond self-reports: A call for more behavior in environmental psychology. Journal of Environmental Psychology 101965. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.101965
2021	Otto, S., Beer, K., Henn, L., Overbeck, A., 2021. Das Individuum in der nachhaltigen Wirtschaft: Konsum in digitalen, algorithmenbasierten Entscheidungsarchitekturen, in: Matheis, A., Schwender, C. (Hrsg.), Als gäbe es ein Morgen. Nachhaltigkeit wollen, sollen, können. Metropolis, Marburg, S. 409–426.
2021	Taube, O., Ranney, M.A., Henn, L., Kaiser, F.G., 2021. Increasing people’s acceptance of anthropogenic climate change with scientific facts: Is mechanistic information more effective for environmentalists? Journal of Environmental Psychology 73, 101549. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101549
2021	Otto, S., Hildebrandt, J., Will, M., Henn, L., Beer, K., 2021. Tying Up Loose Ends. Integrating Consumers’ Psychology into a Broad Interdisciplinary Perspective on a Circular Sustainable Bioeconomy. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 34, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-021-09851-6
2020	Kaiser, F.G., Henn, L., Marschke, B., 2020. Financial rewards for long-term environmental protection. Journal of Environmental Psychology 68, 101411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101411
2020	Henn, L., 2020. Handeln im Kontext mit ökologischen Folgen: Das Campbell-Paradigma als Beitrag zur Umweltpsychologie und zur Umweltschutzpsychologie. [Dissertationsschrift, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg]. https://doi.org/10.25673/35254
2020	Warning, B., Henn, L., 2020. Machen ist wie Wollen, nur krasser: Meinungs- und verhaltensbasierte Messung der Umwelteinstellung im Rahmen des Campbell-Paradigmas. Kurzbericht. Umweltpsychologie 24, 173–182.
2020	Henn, L., Otto, S., Kaiser, F.G., 2020. Positive spillover: The result of attitude change. Journal of Environmental Psychology 69, 101429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101429
2019	Verfuerth, C., Henn, L., Becker, S., 2019. Is it up to them? Individual leverages for sufficiency. GAiA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society x 28, 374–380. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.28.4.9.
2019	Yakovenko, V., Henn, L., Bettendorf, M., Zelinska, N., Soloviova, G., Hoffmann, G.F., Grulich-Henn, J., 2019. Risk Factors for Childhood Overweight and Obesity in Ukraine and Germany. J Clin Res Pediatr Endocrinol 11, 247–252. https://doi.org/10.4274/jcrpe.galenos.2019.2018.0157

Lectures

09/2022	Behavioral manifestations of pro-environmental orientation – a multidimensional construct? 17th Conference of the Swiss Psychological Society. , Zürich
09/2022	Understanding proenvironmental orientation from the perspective of basic psychological motives 17th Conference of the Swiss Psychological Society
09/2022	Beyond materialism: Sufficiency, time wealth and body-mind practices as a promising way to more sustainable lifstyles. 52nd Congress of the German Psychological Association (DGPs), Hildesheim