Caroline Heydenbluth

Caroline Heydenbluth has been a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Political Psychology (SPP) at the Institute for Sustainability Education and Psychology (ISEP) at Leuphana University Lüneburg since May 2021. As part of the Negotiation Research Group (NRG) under the direction of Prof. Dr. Roman Trötschel, she is interested in decision-making processes in political and sustainability negotiations.

In her dissertation, she focuses on joint decision-making processes in transformative negotiations. In particular, Caroline looks at sequential negotiations such as the COP climate conferences, in which the short-term individual interests of the negotiating parties must be weighed against the long-term collective interest. This particular type of negotiation is characterized by its closeness to everyday life and relevance, for example with regard to the distribution of and contribution to collective - but limited - resources.

Representative negotiations form a second research focus. What decisions do agents make in their role as representatives with regard to the interests of the groups they represent? How do they make decisions when the represented group does not have a homogeneous opinion? Which interests are favored when the social dilemma between short-term self-interest and the interests of future generations comes into play? And what role does self-interest, e.g. the representatives' own (political) agenda, play?

Guided by the question of how a more sustainable society and resource use can be achieved, Caroline is interested in exploring the psychological processes that underlie decision-making in these transformative negotiations. She strives to apply her research to political and societal scenarios in order to derive practical implications from her research and contribute to a more sustainable and future-oriented society.