R&D Unplugged #14 – discover our research

Conférence
Événement ouvert à tous
Hybride

Date : 12/06/2025

Horaires : De 11:00 à 12:00 CET

Learning Planet Institute - 8bis rue Charles V - 75004 Paris
Métro 7 Sully-Morland / Métro 1 Saint-Paul / Métro 5 & 8 Bastille

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Join us for R&D Unplugged #14 with Carina Castagna

Why We Fear Ugly Fruit—And How to Unlearn It

Why do we reject fruits and vegetables just because they look imperfect?

This talk explores the invisible biases in our brains that drive food waste—and how learning can help shift them.
Drawing from six psychological experiments and a neuroscience study using eye-tracking, Carina will share how aesthetic imperfections trigger risk aversion in the brain’s more primitive regions, leading to the unnecessary disposal of edible produce.

But there’s a powerful insight: when people are encouraged to think abstractly, this wasteful bias drops significantly.

We’ll explore what this means for education, behavior change, and sustainability transitions. The talk offers practical implications for teaching sustainability and reframing how young people—and adults—learn to care about food and waste.

open to everyone !

→ Watch the video (coming soon)

→ Listen to the podcast (coming soon)

More about the speaker

Speaker Presentation:

Carina Castagna explores how our brains influence mental health, sustainability, and the way we learn.
She’s a behavioral scientist at the Learning Planet Institute, where her work bridges psychology, education, and environmental responsibility to uncover the hidden drivers behind how we think, feel, and act.

She holds a PhD in Behavioral Science from NOVA IMS (Portugal) and the City University of New York (CUNY). In 2023, her research on scarcity mindsets and psychological well-being earned her the Best Dissertation Award from the Society for Consumer Psychology. Her work has been published in leading academic journals and presented at international conferences across Europe and North America.

R&D Unplugged is organized by the Research Unit Learning Transitions. For more details about the format of R&D Unplugged, along with information on past and upcoming events, please visit our website.

Accès

Adresse :
Learning Planet Institute
8bis rue Charles V
75004 Paris

Accès métro :
Sully-Morland (Ligne 7)
Saint-Paul (Ligne 1)
Bastille (Lignes 5 et 8)

Nous suivre & nous relayer

8 bis Rue Charles V
75004 Paris
France

L’association Learning Planet Institute explore, expérimente et partage des nouvelles manières d’apprendre et de coopérer afin de répondre aux besoins de la jeunesse et de la planète.
Via ses activités, l’Institut crée des programmes de recherche et d’enseignement basés sur l’interdisciplinarité, la diversité et l’initiative.