05/30/2025

New project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV)
How are discrimination, emotions, and consumer behavior connected?

Social diversity and the associated negotiation processes have gained increasing societal and political relevance in recent years. Nevertheless, experiences of discrimination remain a daily reality for many people – including in the context of consumption. Supported by the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV), ConPolicy and Freie Universität Berlin are, for the first time, jointly investigating how experiences of discrimination in consumer contexts can lead to emotional distress and influence consumer behavior. The aim of the DEVGAV project is to establish a scientific foundation and develop practical recommendations for a discrimination- and emotion-sensitive approach to consumer advice.

The project examines existing strategies of consumer organizations in several work packages, develops a target model for anti-discrimination practice, and ensures the dissemination of findings through a scientific conference and open-access publications. ConPolicy is responsible for analyzing existing practices and developing concrete policy recommendations.

Further information about the project can be found here.

05/28/2025

Reality checks as a tool for better regulation
Germany should become faster, simpler and fairer

In his first speech in the Bundestag as Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister of Finance, Lars Klingbeil called for Germany to become simpler. But what does 'simpler' actually mean?

The OECD's Regulatory Policy Outlook provides an answer: legislation must be designed with people in mind. As part of the OECD Berlin Center's webinar 'Good rules - less burden: paths to a state that enables action', a high-ranking panel discussed the potential for improvement in the German legislative process.

One instrument that was frequently mentioned was the reality check. Reality checks aim to take into account the perspectives of the affected groups of people when drafting laws. The coalition agreement calls for 'reality checks to be carried out in the early stages of the legislative process [...] and for those affected and enforcement experts [...] to be involved.' In future, the federal ministries should 'carry out several reality checks per year'. 

In order for this to succeed, the ConPolicy Institute for Consumer Policy supports political decision-makers in the planning, implementation and evaluation of reality checks, even beyond consumer policy issues. Because for us, the focus is on people - regardless of their role as practitioners, citizens, civil servants, entrepreneurs or consumers.

You can find more information on the reality checks conducted by our institute here.

05/20/2025

New Publication for the Federal Office for Radiation Protection
How do different types of information affect risk perception in radiation protection contexts?

UV rays, electromagnetic fields or natural radioactivity such as radon are almost omnipresent, but invisible to us humans. The Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) therefore has the task of informing the public comprehensively about radiation and promoting protective measures.

Our research project investigated the effects of different information materials on the risk perception and risk understanding of recipients for the BfS. The aim was to understand how the information materials work and whether they need to be adapted. This was done using selected BfS information materials and maps as examples.

First, the current state of research was reviewed and the effects of selected BfS materials were evaluated and tested in qualitative analyses and two behavioural experiments.

The first experiment showed that the information materials had a positive effect on the recipients: Their knowledge increased as a result of viewing, risk perception was sharpened and high levels of protective intentions were reported. It was of secondary importance which information material (PDF brochure, (interactive) website or Instagram post) was viewed. It is therefore important that target groups are reached with BfS information materials; the quality of the materials already seems appropriate.

In the second experiment, the revised BfS maps were able to further sharpen risk perception and promote map comprehension. Here, too, the most important thing was that the maps reached the recipients at all.

More information on the project is available here.

The final report is available here.