Linda Steg (born 1965) is a Dutch psychologist who is Professor of Environmental Psychology at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

. She studies the interaction between people and their environment and how people influence their local ecosystems. She was awarded the 2020 Dutch Research Council Stevin Prize.

Early life and education

Steg was born in Ooststellingwerf. She studied adult education at the

, remaining there for doctoral research, where she studied behaviour surrounding car use. She then worked at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research, where she studied the factors that motivate environmentally friendly behaviour.

Research and career

Steg works in behavioural psychology, looking to understand environmental behaviour including car use, energy consumption in homes, sustainable food and reducing waste. She has sought to understand the personal and situational factors that impact pro-environmental actions. In 2013, she was made Scientific Director of the Kurt Lewin Institute. Steg has united policymakers,

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s, companies and consumers, and was the first to highlight that people's intrinsic motivations were key to evaluate acceptance of climate policy. In 2015, Steg was supported by the European Energy Research Alliance to evaluate public opinion on shale gas. She found that the more strongly people endorsed positive values toward the environment and other people, the more negatively they evaluated gas extraction efforts. She contributed to the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...

Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prep ...

. She stasbished PERSON, a platform that unites social scientists who are researching energy.

Awards and honours

* 2017 Member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

* 2019 Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion * 2020 Stevin Prize

Selected publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steg, Linda 1965 births Living people Dutch women psychologists Dutch psychologists 20th-century psychologists 21st-century psychologists Environmental psychologists People from Ooststellingwerf University of Groningen alumni Academic staff of the University of Groningen Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion