Angela Bearth

• Doctor of Science ETH Zurich
• Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich

Introduction Data-driven strategies might combat the spreading of infectious pig disease and improve the early detection of potential pig health problems. The current study aimed to explore individual views on data recording and use of data tools for pig health management by recruiting stakeholders (N = 202) in Spain, Ireland, and the Netherlands....

Background Application of data-driven strategies may support veterinarians’ decision-making, benefitting pig disease prevention and control. However, little is known about veterinarians’ need for data utilisation to support their decision-making process. The current study used qualitative methods, specifically focus group discussions, to explore ve...

Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human-like qualities to non-human entities, can influence comprehension of the surrounding world. Going beyond previous research on the general assessment of anthropomorphism, the current study aimed to explore how anthropomorphising a specific animal species influences public acceptance of livestock keeping pra...

Due to their inherent properties, biocidal products might pose a risk to human and animal health and the environment. In risk management, there exists uncertainty about private users' comprehension of and willingness-to-adhere to use instructions that mitigate these risks (e.g., limit frequency of use or application area). This study aimed at provi...

Three decades ago, several articles on the subjectivity in chemical risk judgments (i.e., labeled “intuitive toxicology”) measured the divide between the public and toxicologists with different backgrounds regarding the validity of predicting health effects based on in vivo studies. Similar divides with impacts on societal discourse and chemical ri...

Demands to manage the risks of artificial intelligence (AI) are growing. These demands and the government standards arising from them both call for trustworthy AI. In response, we adopt a convergent approach to review, evaluate, and synthesize research on the trust and trustworthiness of AI in the environmental sciences and propose a research agend...

This study investigated preschool children's categorization and risk perception of products with ambiguous product characteristics (e.g., food‐like packaging). These characteristics make it difficult for preschool children to categorize household chemicals correctly. This, therefore, increases the risk of unintentional poisoning. We hypothesized th...

Warnings on the labels of hazardous household chemicals (e.g. warning pictograms and use instructions) should create risk awareness and thus encourage safe storage, handling and disposal. However, scientific findings have called into question the effectiveness of warnings to prevent accidents, albeit mostly based on consumers' self-reports. This st...

In the coronavirus disease 2019 era, biocidal products are increasingly used for controlling harmful organisms, including microorganisms. However, assuring safety against adverse health effects is a critical issue from a public health standpoint. This study aimed to provide an overview of key aspects of risk assessment, management, and communicatio...

Farmers, veterinarians and other animal health managers in the livestock sector are currently missing sufficient information on prevalence and burden of contagious endemic animal diseases. They need adequate tools for risk assessment and prioritization of control measures for these diseases. The DECIDE project develops data-driven decision-support...

Prior research on how to improve the effectiveness of information security warnings has predominantly focused on either the informational content of warnings or their visual saliency. In an online experiment (N = 1'486), we disentangle the effect of both manipulations and demonstrate that both factors simultaneously influence decision making. Our d...

Chemical products are present in most households and can endanger the health of humans, particularly toddlers and pre-school children. With a focus on accident prevention, this article investigates parents and other caretakers’ beliefs and perspectives on risks and responsibilities. A mixed method approach was applied, combining in-depth qualitativ...

Introduction: Children who encounter household chemicals run the risk of unintentional injury. The aim of this study was to understand which factors heighten children's attention or misguide their decision-making concerning household chemicals. We hypothesized that certain product attributes (i.e., label, packaging, closure types), storage context...

Biotechnology might contribute to solving food safety and security challenges. However, gene technology has been under public scrutiny, linked to the framing of the media and public discourse. The study aims to investigate people’s perceptions and acceptance of food biotechnology with focus on transgenic genetic modification versus genome editing....

In this study, we investigated the occurrence of direct and indirect infectious disease transmission pathways among pig farms in Switzerland, as well as their specific relevance for the spread of African swine fever, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), and enzootic pneumonia. Data were collected using an adapted mental models appr...

In this study, we investigated the occurrence of direct and indirect infectious disease transmission pathways between pig farms in Switzerland, as well as their specific relevance for the spread of African swine fever (ASF), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), and enzootic pneumonia (EP). Data were collected using an adapted Menta...

Due to the increase in air travel seen in recent decades, regular airport security checks have reached their capacity limits. Identifying efficient and cost-effective security procedures that do not inconvenience passengers more than conventional procedures represents a major challenge and an important endeavor. One approach that has been discussed...

Chemical household products are found in most households. If consumers are to safely handle such products, they need to be aware of the risks posed by the particular product they are using. Although most countries require that chemical household products feature warning labels (e.g. the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of...

Encouraging people to wear a facemask in situations where social distance is not possible is a relatively low-cost and low-impact measure to protect people from infections with SARS-CoV-2. Thus, the present study investigated various barriers and drivers regarding people’s self-reported wearing of protective facemasks in mandatory and non-mandatory...

Pandemics, such as the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, represents a health threat to humans worldwide. During times of heightened health risks, the public’s perceptions, and acceptance of evidence-based preventive measures, such as vaccines, is of high relevance. Moreover, people might seek other preventive remedies to protect themselves from getting...

Chemical household products are a common cause of accidents in the domestic sphere. Despite such products being associated with certain risks in the event of swallowing or contact with the skin or eyes, they are used in nearly every household worldwide for hygiene purposes. In most European countries, chemical household products feature warnings of...

In this study, we investigated the occurrence of direct and indirect infectious disease transmission pathways between pig farms in Switzerland, as well as their specific relevance for the spread of African swine fever (ASF), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), and enzootic pneumonia (EP). Data were collected using an adapted Menta...

Selective security screenings are discussed as a potential strategy to reduce costs and waiting times at airports, while keeping security high. However, the limited literature suggests that traditional security screenings, where all passengers are screened, are perceived as more deterrent for criminal activity and more secure from passengers’ persp...

In the age of digitalization, customer and consumer data have become a valuable source of information for companies. However, to obtain these data, companies depend on peoples' willingness to share (WTS) their private data with them. By means of a large-scale online experiment with more than 20,000 participants, we investigated the extent to which...

This study examined the effects of psychological traits and nutrition knowledge on perceived risks related to food and nutrition. A sample of Swiss adults (N = 2,319) indicated their perceptions of a broad set of food and nutrition-related risks (e.g., contamination, pathogens, high salt consumption). These data were collected in two survey waves (...

Significance The successful implementation of measures aimed at reducing the number of people infected with COVID-19 crucially depends on public acceptance of these measures. We show that it is not gender or age but psychological variables, such as trust and worldviews, that strongly influence people’s risk perceptions and acceptance of the measure...

Public trust is being lamented as the central victim of our new, digital information environment, a notion that is depicted in labeling our society as “posttruth” or “posttrust.” Within this article, we aim to call this deficit view of public trust into question and kindle a more positive outlook in future research. For this, we utilize the Social...

Toxicologists face several challenges when communicating with the public about the potential risks of chemical substances in consumer products. However, based on the consumers' scepticism and detachment from the use of chemical substances in the manufacturing of consumer goods, evidence is needed on how this communication can be improved. Hence, th...

Rationale An important public health strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic was the protection of people at risk of severe progressions of an infection; namely, older people and people with pre-existing conditions. Objective To improve public health communication, it is vital to understand, which sociodemographic and psychological factors drive old...

Satisfying the global demand for proteins and avoiding food waste are global challenges. Promoting the consumption of animal by-products might contribute to the solution. The goal of our study was to investigate the role that different factors play for consumers’ willingness to engage with animal by-products. For this, an online survey and experime...

Due to the increasing number of passengers at airports, regular security checks reached their capacity limits. Thus, alternative security checks are being discussed to increase their efficiency. For example, instead of screening all passengers briefly, a randomly selected sample of passengers could be screened thoroughly. However, such randomizatio...

Protecting crops from infestations is critical to ensuring stable, safe food production. However, many consumers are concerned about the use of pesticides and agricultural biotechnology (agri-biotech) applications. A lack of consumer acceptance can prevent potentially beneficial applications from being utilized. This study examines consumer accepta...

The SARS‐CoV‐2 virus that causes COVID‐19 has had a large impact on the lives of many people worldwide. At the peak of confirmed COVID‐19 cases during the first wave in Switzerland (March–April 2020), we conducted a survey in the German‐speaking part of the country (N = 1,585). The results suggest that the implemented measures are accepted. The sur...

Many consumer products are manufactured or synthesized from chemicals. However, consumers may be hesitant to purchase consumer products that are perceived as synthetic or derived with chemical substances. Prior studies suggested a preference for chemicals of natural origin and an irrational fear of synthetic chemicals, a phenomenon that is referred...

Accidents with chemical household products are prevalent worldwide and often involve young children. Previous research has shown that consumers use both analytical factors (e.g., warning symbols) and potentially misleading heuristics to evaluate the riskiness. However, it remains unclear whether consumers intuitively think of the specific risks of...

Both the increase in traveler numbers and the heightened threat posed by terrorism in recent years represent significant challenges to airport security measures. To ensure that a high level of security is maintained, randomized security checks have been proposed as a promising alternative to traditional security approaches. The use of randomized ch...

Two survey studies, one conducted in Switzerland and the other in nine countries, suggest that food disgust sensitivity is a personality variable that influences the perception of food hazards. For a large Swiss sample (N = 2813), we found that participants having higher food disgust sensitivity perceived more risks compared with participants havin...

This study investigated the effect of two communication strategies (informational and affect-based) in reducing chemophobia, the irrational fear of chemicals. In an online experiment, participants (N = 448) were randomly assigned to one of three groups (“control”, “knowledge”, or “affect” group). The following dependent variables were assessed: che...

Of all the information that we share, health and genetic data might be among the most valuable for researchers. As data are handled as particularly sensitive information, a number of pressing issues regarding people's preferences and privacy concerns are raised. The goal of the present study was to contribute to an understanding of people's reporte...

Very few consumers are aware that chemistry and synthetic chemicals are indispensable in making everyday goods because the products that people buy — such as cell phones, cars and processed foods — are typically far removed from the raw chemicals used in their production.

Chemical household products, such as cleaning and washing products or pest control and garden chemicals, are frequently involved in poisonings in private households. Consumer research has identified a number of barriers that impede the safe use of these products, ranging from unfamiliarity, to misconceptions and a lack of risk perception, to behavi...

Our daily food choices have a huge impact on the environment and on climate change. Animal based protein production in particular is very resource consuming. To satisfy the growing meat hunger in the world, alternative protein sources are needed that both have a smaller environmental impact and are readily accepted by consumers. Compared to beef an...

This mixed‐methods study investigated consumers’ knowledge of chemicals in terms of basic principles of toxicology and then related this knowledge, in addition to other factors, to their fear of chemical substances (i.e., chemophobia). Both qualitative interviews and a large‐scale online survey were conducted in the German‐speaking part of Switzerl...

The procedures of risk assessment related to substances consumed or used by consumers (e.g., food additives, cleaning products) are highly complex and there exists some controversy between experts in regards to the uncertainty linked to it. This contributes to the well documented divergence in experts and lay-people's judgments, particularly for sy...

In Europe, the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) provides a system for hazard communication for consumer products that includes a signal word, hazard pictograms, and hazard and precautionary statements. However, it is yet unclear whether consumers consider the pictograms as part of their interpretation of...

An important responsibility of airport security is to make passengers feel safe during their travel and give airport staff the feeling of a secure work environment. Recently, the concept of unpredictability, originating in the social sciences, is discussed as prevention against insider threats. The assumption is that by being less predictable about...

Sportsponsoring hat als Marketing-Tool gegenüber aktuellen und potenziellen Mitarbeitern an Aufmerksamkeit gewonnen. Wir konnten nachweisen, dass das hier vorgestellte Sponsoring-Engagement signifikante Auswirkungen auf das wahrgenomme Image, das Commitment gegenüber dem Unternehmen und die Arbeitszufriedenheit der Mitarbeiter hat.

Innovative microbial decontamination strategies, such as food irradiation or treatment of foods with protective cultures, offer solutions for today's food industry to produce safe food with appropriate shelf-life and quality. However, consumers frequently exhibit strong aversions towards highly processed foods and unfamiliar and artificially-soundi...

As many consumers have neither sufficient time nor the cognitive and motivational resources to deal with complex insurance decisions, the mere provision of information might not be enough to influence consumer perception and choice. The way such information is presented might also affect any decision made. This paper focuses on the risk of becoming...

A large share of accidental and nonaccidental poisonings are caused by household cleaning and washing products, such as drain cleaner or laundry detergent. The main goal of this article was to investigate consumers’ risk perception and misconceptions of a variety of cleaning and washing products in order to inform future risk communication efforts....

Daten von Kunden und Konsumenten erhalten in der digitalisierten Welt eine immer größere Bedeutung für Unternehmen. Targeting, standortbasiertes Marketing und Predictive Analytics sind nur einige der Begriffe, welche die zahlreichen wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Potenziale der Digitalisierung umschreiben. In die Entwicklung und Umsetzung...

Research goal: This paper pursued two goals: first, to investigate the much disputed question of whether risk or benefit perceptions are more influential in people's acceptance of food technologies and second, to shed light on the relationship between the two perceptions. Scope and approach: In total, 26 studies were selected for a random-effects m...

Intensive risk assessment is required before the approval of food additives. During this process, based on the toxicological principle of "the dose makes the poison,ˮ maximum usage doses are assessed. However, most consumers are not aware of these efforts to ensure the safety of food additives and are therefore sceptical, even though food additives...

Campylobacteriosis rates are on the rise, and many cases originate from the consumption of inadequately prepared poultry dishes. Thus, it is important to sensitise consumers to unsafe poultry preparation and inform them about measures to prevent foodborne illness, such as avoiding cross-contamination. This paper's main aim was to expand current ins...

The goal of this longitudinal study was to investigate the efficacy of an intervention to increase awareness of food safety during the preparation of raw poultry in a sample of first year college students. At the first measurement point, baseline variables were assessed, and participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: two experi...