Modeling multi-level mechanisms of environmental attitudes and behaviours: The example of carsharing in Berlin

Psychological research practices are often prone to individualistic biases, emphasizing individual-level mechanisms of attitudes, behaviour, and persuasion, while neglecting the dynamics of communication in social networks. We illustrate with our InnoMind simulation model how agent-based modeling as a research method can account for the multi-level interactions between information processing in individual brains and flows of information in societies. InnoMind is based on theories of emotional cognition from cognitive science, theories of attitudes and persuasion from social psychology, and theories of social networks from sociology. In a case study, we show how the model can be used to address practical research questions in environmental psychology: We describe computer simulations with InnoMind that can serve as ex-ante evaluations of suitable campaign strategies for the promotion of carsharing as an innovative means of sustainable urban transportation. We discuss how empirical/experimental versus computational/theoretical research strategies in environmental psychology can and should be regarded as mutually informative.