The Workshop’s theme focused on the current debate about the role of social preferences in promoting conservation behaviour. This included the association between experimental measures for social preferences to environmental behaviour, the role of social preferences in understanding the performance of conservation policies (such as payments for environmental services and protected areas), and the potential for policy interventions based on social norm messages to promote or activate environmental preferences.

Leading scholars from several disciplines including behavioral and environmental economics presented their current research on these issues. Speakers included, amongst others, Matteo Galizzi from LSE, Giovanna d’Adda from University of Milan, Daan van Soest from Tilburg University and Alex Pfaff from Duke University. In addition, practitioners from the UK’s Behavioural Insight Team and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Germany) gave their perspective on how experimental evidence on social preferences can be used in actual policy formation. The original programme can be viewed here  .

Participants and speakers came from a range of scientific disciplines including economics and psychology as well as from local, national and EU level policy institutes. The aim of the Workshop was to share research insights, to reflect on each other’s work to date and to promote cross-fertilization between different scientific disciplines and policy practitioners beyond academia.

 The Workshop was held on the 12th of September 2018 at the University of Cambridge, King’s College, UK and was linked to the annually held BIOECON   (Biodiversity and Economics for Conservation) Conference, which is an interdisciplinary network aiming to advance economic theory and policy for biodiversity conservation. Here   you can also access a blog post from the Editor of Nature Sustainability on more detailed impressions about the workshop & conference.