Project description
When teenagers save the planet
Teenagers represent the future of the planet and can play an important role in creating a sustainable world. Within this scope, the EU-funded GREENTEENS project aims to promote eco-friendly behaviour among adolescents. The starting point of the project is based on the hypothesis that teenagers’ eco-friendly behaviour is driven by personal motivations. To confirm this, the project will conduct a cross-national investigation involving people aged 12–17 in the Netherlands, Colombia and China. The expected conclusion is that teenagers embrace the environmental cause if they see how it is in line with their personal motivations. Eventually, the project will help improve environmental policies, targeting millions of young people worldwide.
Objective
The world faces an unprecedented environmental crisis, and human activity is its root cause. This poses a call to action for psychology and the social sciences more broadly. GREENTEENS proposes that our adolescents—a segment of the population whose collective behavior will shape the future of the planet—can play a vital role in creating a more sustainable world. Adolescents, however, are “closet idealists”: As a group, they care about the environment but often fail to act on their concerns. The aim of the proposed research is to develop a new approach to understanding and promoting adolescents’ eco-friendly behavior. It will generate new understanding of what keeps adolescents from engaging in eco-friendly behavior, and devise methods to help youth contribute to a sustainable future for themselves and generations to come.
I have developed a new hypothesis for this project: the “Motive-Match Hypothesis”. It casts adolescents’ eco-friendly behavior as driven by their personal motives. Based on the hypothesis, I will design methods to transform the way adolescents construe eco-friendly behavior, from a low-priority chore to an activity that embodies what they deeply care about—developing autonomy and gaining peer status.
Building on my international network, I will pursue the research aim using a cross-national investigation involving adolescents (age 12-17) from The Netherlands, Colombia, and China. The project will integrate longitudinal research to understand how adolescents’ eco-friendly behavior develops over time, with experiments to understand how adolescents’ core motives can be harnessed as powerful motivating force for eco-friendly behavior. GREENTEENS will advance the science of adolescent behavior change beyond the state of the art. The payoff of the research promises to be high: It will yield fundamental understanding of what drives adolescents’ eco-friendly behavior and help improve pro-environmental policies targeting millions of youth worldwide.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2019-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3584 CS Utrecht
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.