Karolin Schmidt
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Career
Karolin Schmidt has been a research assistant in the Department of Environmental Psychology at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg since October 2015. On the one hand, she supervises various courses and theses as part of the Master's degree programme in Psychology with a focus on environmental psychology/ human-technology interaction. She also conducts research into various areas of human-environment interaction. Her research activities focus on the psychological factors influencing sustainable (consumer) behaviour of individuals, as well as on the theory-based development and evaluation of intervention measures to promote this in terms of global climate and environmental protection.
As part of her doctoral project, Karolin Schmidt investigated the psychological factors influencing the avoidance of food overconsumption and food waste in German private households from 2016 to 2020. In February 2020, she successfully completed her doctorate with the cumulative dissertation "The avoidance of food overconsumption in households as a key area for promoting conscious and climate-friendly food consumption".
Karolin Schmidt has also been involved in various third-party funded research projects: For example, in the project "The Corona Crisis as a 'Gamechanger' for the Transformation to Sustainability?" funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation, she investigated the sustainability-relevant social change processes of individuals in their role as consumers, citizens and niche players in the Great Transformation to Sustainability triggered by the corona pandemic. In the interdisciplinary joint project "Environ - Development and Evaluation of an Intervention to Avoid Rebound Effects Triggered by Energy-Related Refurbishment", she is dedicated to the empirical evaluation of various intervention measures to reduce rebound effects in the heating behaviour of private consumers.
In addition, since completing her doctorate, Karolin Schmidt has steadily expanded her previous research focus beyond the problem areas of food overconsumption and waste in private households, both in relation to other areas of sustainable food consumption behaviour and in relation to other sustainability-relevant areas of action to promote global climate and environmental protection.
Karolin Schmidt has worked in the Department of Environmental Psychology as a student and research assistant since 2012. As part of this work, she was involved in various energy-saving projects, among other things. She completed both her Bachelor's and Master's degree (specialising in environmental psychology/ human-technology interaction) at OvGU. Her master's thesis was entitled "Keep calm and cook on! An intervention study on food waste in private households". In it, she analysed relevant determinants for the generation of avoidable food waste in households and the effect of target group-specific information on how to reduce it.
Haefner, G., Kastner, I., Deuß, A., Meier, J. N., Beer, K., Schmidt, K., Lehmann, P. & Matthies, E. (2024). How can energy-relevant investment decisions be boosted? The role of events as initiators and drivers of the decision process. Energy Research & Social Science, 117, 103710. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103710
Matthies, E., Beer, K., Böcher, M., Sundmacher, K., König-Mattern, L., Arlinghaus, J., Blöbaum, A., Jaeger-Erben, M. & Schmidt, K. (2024). Framework conditions for the transformation toward a sustainable carbon-based chemical industry–A critical review of existing and potential contributions from the social sciences. Journal of Cleaner Production, 143279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.143279
de Paula Sieverding, T., Kulcar, V. & Schmidt, K. (2024). Act like There Is a Tomorrow—Contact and Affinity with Younger People and Legacy Motivation as Predictors of Climate Protection among Older People. Sustainability, 16(4), 1477. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16041477
Schmidt, K, Kastner, I. & Matthies, E. (2024). Who can cope with a carbon tax? The role of financial consequences in policy acceptance among German homeowners. Energy Research & Social Science, 111, 103492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103492
Wallis, H., Holzen, V., Sieverding, T., Matthies, E., & Schmidt, K. (2023). How do appraisal as threat or challenge, efficacy, and environmental quality affect wellbeing in the COVID-19 pandemic?. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 1009977. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1009977
Schmidt, K. & Chmielewski, L. (2022) Was passiert, wenn wir der Wahrheit wirklich ins Auge sehen? Evaluation der vielfältigen Wirkungen bildlicher Hinweise auf Produktverpackungen für die Förderung eines nachhaltigen Fleischkonsums in Deutschland. Umweltpsychologie, 25(2), 32-62.
Schmidt, K., Kösling, P., Bamberg, S., & Blöbaum, A. (2022). A Prospect Theory-based experimental vignette methodology for exploring rebound effects and rebound-damping interventions. Ecological Economics, 193, 107302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107302
Schmidt, K., Wallis, H., Sieverding, T., & Matthies, E. (2022). Examining COVID-19-related changes toward more climate-friendly food consumption in Germany. Sustainability, 14(7), 4267. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074267
Wallis, H., Sieverding, T., Schmidt, K., & Matthies, E. (2022). # Fighteverycrisis: A psychological perspective on motivators of the support of mitigation measures in the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 84, 101898. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101898
Kastner, K., Schmidt, K. & Matthies, M. (2022) Ernährungsstile und Nachhaltigkeit - eine psychologische Perspektive. Einführung in das Schwerpunktthema. Umweltpsychologie, 25(2), 3-11.
Matthies, E., Holzen, V., Schmidt, K., Wallis, H. & Sieverding, T. (2022). Die Coronakrise als "Gamechanger" für die Transformation zur Nachhaltigkeit. In C. Soetbeerg & M. G. Ophoff (Hrsg.): Corona und Nachhaltigkeit. Lernen aus der Krise für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung. DBU-Umweltkommunikation / Band 16 (S.87-94). Oekom.
Schmidt, M., Kastner, I., Schmidt, K., Kastner, K. & Schmidt, S. (2023). Developing with People in Mind - A Multidisciplinary Challenge for an Autonomous Cargo Bike (Konferenzbeitrag). 4th International Scientific Convention UCLV 2023, Central University "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas.
An overview over all publications can be found via Forschungsportal Sachsen-Anhalt.