Dr. Fabian Thomas

When and why do people behave in environmentally friendly ways, and how can we foster these types of behaviours in a targeted manner? Much of my research addresses these questions in the context of agriculture. I am interested in the psychological, economic, social and institutional factors affecting environmentally relevant decisions of farmers and their implications for the design of effective agricultural policies. For this purpose, I mainly use the methods and concepts of experimental economics and behavioural economics.

With a training as a biologist and environmental systems scientist, I understand myself as an interdisciplinary scholar and try to increase the relevance of my research through inter- and transdisciplinary exchange. In my reserach, I therefore try to build bridges to social and environmental psychology, environmental and ecological economics, agroecology,  rural sociology and agricultural policy, and in general to systems science and transformation research.

A major concern of mine is the exchange with decision-makers, practitioners and stakeholders. I believe that without a two-way communication of science and scientific evidence, the potential for change all too often remains unused.

Since 2019 and together with my family, I live on a farm with horse husbandry.

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