Seite - 6 - in options, Band winter 2019

News in brief Recent research has found that reducing meat consumption could help mitigate climate change and environmental degradation, while improving public health. If people limited their red meat consumption to one serving per week and white meat to half a portion per day, by 2050 the greenhouse gas emissions of the agriculture sector would be reduced by around 50%. It may seem like a simple change, but research shows that massive dietary shifts will be difficult to achieve due to the scale of behavioral change required. In a study published in Nature Sustainability, researchers from IIASA and the University of Koblenz-Landau used a new model to explore the drivers of diet change, which could help inform policy on the issue. They found that social norms (the unwritten rules of behavior that are considered acceptable in a group or society), and self-efficacy (a person’s confidence in their ability to control their environment) are the key drivers of population-wide dietary shifts. These two factors play an even more important role than either climate or health risk perception. “The human behavior aspect of such large scale diet changes have to our knowledge not been studied before in relation to the food system, although we need this information to understand how such a global change can be achieved,” explains IIASA researcher Sibel Eker, who led the study. Driving a shift to sustainable diets Sibel Eker: eker@iiasa.ac.atFurther info: pure.iiasa.ac.at/16000 Corruption comes in various guises, including favoritism, clientelism (the exchange of goods and services for political support), and embezzlement of public funds. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), researchers from IIASA, the University of Vienna, and two Japanese universities found that success in anti-corruption measures could actually lead to greater corruption. Using evolutionary game theory—a framework originally developed to describe biological evolution— the researchers created a new model capturing key dynamics of corruption, and used it to analyze the behavior of individual actors under various social conditions. The study identified a potential for feedback cycles of corruption that could spread through society. This feedback cycle occurs because successful anti-corruption measures create conditions under which cutting back on their costs seems rational. When anti-corruption measures are lacking on the other hand, corruption can spread, leading to a loss of trust and a breakdown in cooperation. That is to say, successful anti-corruption measures can undermine their own success. “Anti-corruption measures suffer from an inherent instability that must be recognized and remedied before measures have a chance to be successful in the long term. Transparency about the integrity of institutions is key to fighting corruption, and costly vigilance against corruption must be maintained even when corruption levels appear to be low,” explains IIASA researcher Ulf Dieckmann, one of the study authors. Why does corruption persist? Ulf Dieckmann: dieckmann@iiasa.ac.at Further info: pure.iiasa.ac.at/15945 6 Options www.iiasa.ac.atWinter 2019/20