Potential projects for graduate students

Below are some potential projects, but please speak with your potential supervisor regarding topics.

Environment

• Master's Encouraging sustainable food choices Dr Wokje Abrahamse
• Master's Spill-over in environmental behaviours Dr Wokje Abrahamse
• Master's Social influence and pro-environmental behaviour Dr Wokje Abrahamse
• Master's/PhD Potential of urban policies (e.g. on urban growth) to contribute to climate change mitigation Dr Ralph Chapman
• Master's/PhD The scope for strengthening pro-cycling policies in Wellington Dr Ralph Chapman
• Master's/PhD Parking requirements in district plans, and their effect on use of cars in Wellington Dr Ralph Chapman
• Master's/PhD How much have VUW and other major employers in Wgtn done to reduce transport emissions and encourage active travel? Dr Ralph Chapman

Encouraging sustainable food choices

This project would examine how to encourage sustainable food choices, such as encouraging the purchase of organic foods, or the uptake of vegetarian diets. The first part of the project would comprise of an in-depth literature review of the main barriers to the uptake of sustainable food choices, such as a lack of knowledge or the influence of other people (social norms). The second part of the research would be aimed at developing and testing the effectiveness of an intervention to encourage sustainable food choices. This intervention would specifically target the main barriers to behaviour change identified in the literature review, for example, by providing information about the environmental impacts of certain food choices.

Spill-over in environmental behaviours

The spill-over effect refers to the observation that engagement in one pro-environmental behaviour can lead to engagement in other, similar behaviours. For example, if somebody starts recycling, they may start to see themselves as an environmentally conscious person and start doing other things as well, such as conserving energy at home. This project could take a quantitative (via a survey) or qualitative approach (via in-depth interviews) to uncover why and how environmental awareness affects daily pro-environmental behaviours and how engagement in one environmental behaviour might affect engagement in other behaviours.

Social influence and pro-environmental behaviour

Often, we are influenced by what other people do or think. This is referred to as social influence. An increasing body of research indicates that the use of social influence can be effective in encouraging pro-environmental behaviour. For example, people are less likely to litter in clean environments because a clean environment conveys a social norm that it is not OK to litter. However, social influence can also have the opposite effect. For example, people are more likely to litter in a littered environments, presumably because a littered environment conveys a social norm that everybody litters. This project would examine the use of social influence to encourage pro-environmental behaviour and examines under which conditions it is most effective and when it might backfire.