Ellen Matthies

Vita

    Chair

    Prof. Dr. Ellen Matthies

     Institut für Psychologie
    G24, R301
    Postfach 4120
    39106 Magdeburg

    Phone: +49 391 67 58470
    Fax: +49 391 67 41963
    E-Mail: ellen.matthies@ovgu.de

Career

Ellen Matthies has been Professor of Environmental Psychology at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg since December 2011.

Her research interests are primarily in the area of human-environment interaction with a focus on environmentally relevant behaviour and decisions (energy use, car use), as well as theory-based development and evaluation of intervention measures to promote sustainable consumption.

From August 2009 to November 2011, Ellen Matthies was Professor of Environmental Psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. From 2001 to 2010, she was a university lecturer in applied psychology at the Ruhr University Bochum. There, Ellen Matthies completed her habilitation on the subject of "Coping with environmental threats and global environmental change" at the Institute of Psychology in 2001. She received her doctorate in 1993.

Ellen Matthies has led numerous research projects in the fields of applied social psychology and environmental psychology. Most of these projects have been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), but also by the Norwegian Research Council and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Among other things, the projects investigated the role of personal and social norms in resource use, the importance of habits in behavioural change and the development and evaluation of interventions to promote environmentally friendly behaviour.

Ellen Matthies' research findings have been published in various international psychological and interdisciplinary journals (e.g. Journal of Environmental Psychology, Applied Psychology, An international Review, Environment and Behaviour).

Since February 2022, Ellen Matthies has been spokesperson for the "Environmental Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society". She was previously a member of the spokesperson group from 2003 to 2009.

Ellen Matthies is co-founder of the journal Umweltpsychologie.

From May 2013 to October 2020, Ellen Matthies was a member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).

Current Publications

Huttarsch, J. H., & Matthies, E. (2024). Perceived Carbon Pricing Effectiveness Impacts its Perceived Fairness–Applying and Extending a Theoretical Framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 102356.

Matthies, E., Reese, G., Mata, J., Fritsche, I., Hofmann, W., Geiger, S., Cohrs, J.C., Loy, L. & Henn, L. (2024). Wie kann die Psychologie zur Bewältigung der Klimakrise beitragen? Psychologische Rundschau, 75(2), 177-182. https://doi.org/10.1026/0033-3042/a000673

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

Kastner, K., & Matthies, E. (2023). On the importance of solidarity for transforming social systems towards sustainability. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 102067. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102067

Blöbaum, A., Engel, L., Beer, K., Böcher, M. & Matthies, E. (2023): Nature Conservation versus Climate Protection: A Basic Conflict of Goals Regarding the Acceptance of Climate Protection Measures? Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1114677. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1114677

Matthies, E., de Paula Sieverding, T., Engel, L., & Blöbaum, A. (2023). Simple and Smart: Investigating Two Heuristics That Guide the Intention to Engage in Different Climate-Change-Mitigation Behaviors. Sustainability, 15(9), 7156. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097156

Wallis, H., Holzen, V., Sieverding, T., Matthies, E., & Schmidt, K. (2023) How do appraisal as threat or challenge, efficacy, and environmental quality affect well-being in the COVID-19 pandemic? Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13,2891. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1009977

Kastner, K., Schmidt, K. & Matthies, M. (2022) Ernährungsstile und Nachhaltigkeit - eine psychologische Perspektive. Einführung in das Schwerpunktthema. Umweltpsychologie, 25(2), 3-11.

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

Matthies, E., & Merten, M. J. (2022). High-income households—damned to consume or free to engage in high-impact energy-saving behaviours?. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 82, 101829. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101829

Merten, M. J., Becker, A. C., & Matthies, E. (2022). What explains German consumers’ acceptance of carbon pricing? Examining the roles of pro-environmental orientation and consumer coping style. Energy Research & Social Science, 85, 102367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102367

An overview over all publications can be found via Forschungsportal Sachen-Anhalt.