News

PSCA Lab Retreat 2026

©PSCA
©PSCA
©PSCA
©PSCA
©PSCA

At the end of April, we enjoyed a few beautiful spring days during our PSCA Lab retreat. Team members from Basel traveled to the charming town of Lüneburg, where we kicked things off with a delicious dinner together.

The next morning, Ulf led an engaging workshop on the use of AI bot participants in social science research, sparking inspiring discussions and new ideas across the team.

To step outside the university setting, we spent time exploring both nature and the city itself with a scenic walk and a guided tour through Lüneburg.

We wrapped up our wonderful retreat with well-deserved drinks and snacks at Schröders Garten. We are grateful for the time spent together and already looking forward to our next lab retreat!

TALK SERIES - INSTITUTE OF SUSTAINABILITY PSYCHOLOGY

WEDNESDAY MAY 13 2026, 14:00; HS 3

Climate risk is often broken down into three separate components: physical risks, transition risks, and liability risks. Our responses to all three of these components benefits immensely from an improved understanding of behavioural reactions to climate change.

In this talk Ben Newell will present a range of studies on individual and institutional-level responses that provide insight on the psychological impacts of physical risk, the preferences for and impacts of different kinds of transition risk, and the potential effectiveness of assessing and disclosing liability risks on changing behaviour. All while emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to addressing the behaviour-climate challenge.

Ben Newell is a Professor in the School of Psychology at UNSW Sydney and Director of the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response (ICRR). He is a member of the Academic Advisory Panel of the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA), and was part of the Chief Medical Officer’s advisory group for the National Health and Climate Strategy and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. His research focuses on the cognitive processes underlying judgment, choice and decision-making in general and specific to climate change.

RESEARCH VISIT COPENHAGEN

©PSCA
Last month, Ulf and Yuqi had a wonderful chance to visit Copenhagen Business School and catch up with our two amazing collaborators: Dr Kristian Nielsen at Copenhagen Business School and Dr Vedran Sekara at IT University of Copenhagen. It was great to connect in person! The meeting turned out to be really productive. The team dived into exciting ideas around combining large-scale, real-world datasets, like GPS-based mobility data, environmental attitude data, and political voting data. The goal? To study real-world environmental behaviour at scale, from airport visits to green space use. They also engaged in brainstorming around food carbon footprint research using large-scale scanning consumption data, with lots of exciting directions to explore there. Beyond the research conversations, Ulf and Yuqi also had great chats with colleagues at Copenhagen Business School. And of course, they made time for the good stuff: exploring the city, wandering through the parks, trying the fantastic Danish pastry. All in all, a fantastic and fruitful visiting trip. Looking forward to seeing where these collaborations take us!