Floor M Kroese

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at Utrecht University

Background Vaccinations are a cornerstone of public health. However, reluctance to accepting vaccines is common. Using longitudinal data, we investigated which individual and contextual factors were associated with switching preferences from initial hesitancy or unwillingness toward acceptance of a first COVID-19 vaccination. Methods 12,512 partic...

Objectives Physical distancing and handwashing can be important infection prevention measures during an infectious disease outbreak such as the COVID‐19 pandemic. To stimulate these behaviours, knowledge of psychosocial determinants as well as contextual factors is vital. We present longitudinal, within‐person analyses of the impact of contextual a...

To inform future Dutch COVID-19 testing policies we did an experimental vignette study to investigate whether inclusion of the less reliable lateral flow tests (self-tests) would change test-uptake sufficiently to improve population-level test sensitivity. A representative sample (n = 3,270) participated in a 2-by-2 online experiment to evaluate th...

This ‘cohort profile’ aims to provide a description of the study design, methodology, and baseline characteristics of the participants in the Corona Behavioral Unit cohort. This cohort was established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and the regional public health serv...

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands, the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) established a longitudinal collaborative cohort study to examine adherence to COVID-19 behaviours, its psychosocial determinants, participant well-being, trust in the Dutch government, with additional attention for COVID-19 te...

Background The COVID-19 outbreak early 2020 was followed by an unprecedented package of measures. The relative calmness of the pandemic early 2022 provides a momentum to prepare for various scenarios. Objectives As acceptance of COVID-19 measures is key for public support we investigated citizens’ preferences towards imposing measures in four scen...

To inform future Dutch Covid-19 testing policies we did an experimental vignette study to investigate whether inclusion of the less reliable lateral flow tests (self-tests) would change test-uptake sufficiently to improve population-level test sensitivity. A representative sample (n = 3.270) participated in a 2-by-2 online experiment to evaluate th...

COVID-19 mitigation measures intend to protect public health, but their adverse psychological, social, and economic effects weaken popular support. Less favorable trade-offs may especially weaken support for more restrictive measures. Support for mitigation measures may also differ between population subgroups who experience different benefits and...

Nudges are behavioral interventions to subtly steer citizens’ choices toward “desirable” options. An important topic of debate concerns the legitimacy of nudging as a policy instrument, and there is a focus on issues relating to nudge transparency, the role of preexisting preferences people may have, and the premise that nudges primarily affect peo...

In previous studies, it has been demonstrated that, similar to general practitioners, veterinarians find it difficult to discuss overweight in dogs. This study aimed to provide insight in the barriers and motivators for veterinarians to discuss overweight in dogs and to compare the results with findings from human medicine. Sub‐hypotheses were post...

Introduction: Little has been published on the psychological bond between the owner and the pet, and how this might influence shared habits that could lead to overweight and obesity. Another factor that could improve the effectiveness of a weight loss plan, is that the owner would see the dog as a weight loss partner and therefore this could increa...

In this paper, we critically review three assumptions that govern the debate on the legitimacy of nudging interventions as a policy instrument: (1) nudges may violate autonomous decision-making; (2) nudges lend themselves to easy implementation in public policy; and (3) nudges are a simple and effective mean for steering individual choice in the ri...

Nudges have gained popularity as a behavioral change tool that aims to facilitate the selection of the sensible choice option by altering the way choice options are presented. Although nudges are designed to facilitate these choices without interfering with people’s prior preferences, both the relation between individuals’ prior preferences and nud...

Seemingly insignificant daily practices, such as sugar usage in tea, can have a great accumulated impact on societal issues, such as obesity. That is why these behaviours are often the target of nudge interventions. However, when these behaviours are performed frequently they may turn into habits that are difficult to change. The aim of the current...

High self-control is known to be related to the performance of behaviors that have long-term benefits, such as healthy eating. Recently, studies have suggested that people with high self-control may perform goal-directed behaviors not by exerting effortful control but rather by employing smart, effortless strategies. The current paper investigates...

Background: Overweight in children is a rising problem leading to serious consequences later in life. The Dutch guideline 'Obesity' for general practitioners recommends discussing obesity in children regardless of the reason of consultation and provides diagnostic and therapeutic tools. However, limited literature indicates that general practition...

Background: The current field experiment demonstrates the effectiveness of nudging to promote healthy food choices. Methods: Three types of nudges were implemented at a take-away food vendor: 1) an accessibility nudge that placed fruits at the front counter; 2) a salience nudge that presented healthy bread rolls to be more visually attractive; a...

In recent years there has been increased attention for nudging as a tool to alter consumer decisions. While nudges should in theory preserve freedom of choice by respecting consumers’ preferences, empirical scrutiny of this claim is sparse. This research investigates the effectiveness of a center-stage nudge to encourage the consumption of a small...

Inspired by some of current Western societies' most pressing problems, much research attention has been devoted to understanding self‐regulation failure. While this has yielded some very valuable insights, the current paper underlines that understanding self‐regulation failure does not mean that we also understand self‐regulation success. Whereas f...

Objective: The current study is a longitudinal conceptual replication of the study by Kroese et al. (2015) and aimed to investigate the effect of a food repositioning nudge on healthy food choice in a kiosk. Design: During eight weeks, sales data were collected. The former four weeks formed the baseline phase and the latter four weeks formed the nu...

Objective: This study assessed the effect of a default nudge to reduce sedentary behaviour at work over time. Design and main outcome measures: A field study was conducted at a governmental organisation. In the present study, the default setting of sit–stand desks (SSDs) was changed from sitting to standing height during a two-week intervention. St...

In this article we discuss recent findings in trait self-control research suggesting that successful self-control may rely on either handling the self-control dilemma in a smart and effortless way or on the effortfully inhibiting an immediate urge or an unwanted response. We then contrast these results with findings from ego-depletion research on s...

In recent years, psychologists have started to investigate the downstream consequences of nonconsciously activated behaviour (acting in an ‘explanatory vacuum’). Results have shown that when such behaviour is norm-violating, people experience a need to confabulate reasons for this behaviour. The present paper aims to add more convincing evidence fo...

The majority of existing research and conventional wisdom would advise against shopping on an empty stomach as hunger is assumed to encourage impulsive choices that typically lead to self-control failure (i.e., favouring short-term gratifications at the expense of long-term goals). Nonetheless, through two studies the current research aims to demon...

Objective: To discuss healthy diet from a psychological perspective by considering definitions of healthy diet in terms of consumer understanding; the health effects of specific dietary elements in terms of overweight and (chronic) illness; the prevalence of healthy diet; the psychological and environmental determinants of healthy diet; and the ps...

Nudging: next questions Nudging is generally considered to be an innovative and promising way to steer human behavior in the desired direction without imposing any choice. The concept of nudging is derived from insights into how humans typically make decisions and is thus potentially more effective than traditional policy measures. In recognition o...

Deviating from existing literature on self-control failure the current research examines self-control success and the role of motivation. Functional research suggests people visually perceive objects to be bigger when they are motivated to approach them. Using the size perception task, participants estimated the size of a healthy and an unhealthy f...

In the present chapter, we propose that there is a bidirectional nature between self-control and sleep behavior. Sleep deprivation may impair self-control, but people also need to exert self-control in order to be able to engage in sleep-promoting behaviors (e.g., going to bed in time). This implies that sleep deprivation may instigate a downward s...

Good self-control has been linked to adaptive outcomes such as better health, cohesive personal relationships, success in the workplace and at school, and less susceptibility to crime and addictions. In contrast, self-control failure is linked to maladaptive outcomes. Understanding the mechanisms by which self-control predicts behavior may assist i...

In this chapter, we discuss a specific domain of procrastination that significantly affects health and well-being, “bedtime procrastination”: the phenomenon of postponing going to bed, typically resulting in a lack of sleep. The chapter describes how a lack of sleep affects health and well-being, how bedtime procrastination plays a role in this reg...

Restrained eaters do not eat less than their unrestrained counterparts. Proposed underlying mechanisms are that restrained eaters are more reward sensitive and that they have worse inhibitory control. Although fMRI studies assessed these mechanisms, it is unknown how brain anatomy relates to dietary restraint. Voxel-based morphometry was performed...

Unlabelled: Pain automatically elicits escape-avoidance behavior to avert bodily harm. In patients with chronic pain, long-term escape-avoidance behavior may increase the risk of chronic disability. The aim of the presents study was to examine whether implementation intentions reduce escape-avoidance behavior during painful tasks in healthy indivi...

Low self-control is a state in which consumers are assumed to be vulnerable to making impulsive choices that hurt long-term goals. Rather than increasing self-control, the current research exploits the tendency for heuristic-based thinking in low self-control by employing scarcity heuristics to promote better consumption choices. Results indicate t...

In this paper, we highlight a novel perspective on health behavior failure by considering reasoned procrastination as a contributing factor. We argue that the failure to enact intentions does not necessarily occur because people are victims of their strong impulses, but that people may also knowingly and willfully postpone their intended actions. W...

Het zingt steeds meer rond onder beleidsmakers en gezondheidsprofessionals: Nudging, een strategie voor gedragsbeïnvloeding waarbij gebruik wordt gemaakt van de impulsieve, automatische processen die mensen gebruiken om keuzes te maken. Een ‘nudge’ kan mensen een duwtje geven in de richting van verstandige, gezonde keuzes. Hoewel deze aanpak veelbe...

Recognizing the mindless nature of many food decisions, it has been suggested that attempts to increase healthy eating should not focus on convincing people what is 'right' but rather aim to adjust the environment such that people are automatically directed toward healthy choices. This study investigated a nudge aiming to promote healthy food choic...

De diagnose type 2 diabetes gaat vaak gepaard met leefstijladvies gericht op gezonde voeding en voldoende beweging. Hoewel zelfmanagementinterventies die beogen de leefstijl van patiënten te verbeteren steeds populairder worden, werd in de literatuur gesuggereerd dat een dergelijke aanpak minder effectief zou kunnen zijn voor patiënten met obesitas...

Objective: Implementation intentions (if-then plans) are helpful to health behaviour change. As these plans specify only one goal-directed behaviour for one specific situation, however, their effectiveness may be limited when a planned behaviour is impossible to execute in situ. The present research examines whether and how planning more than one...

Objectives Proactive coping encompasses future-oriented self-regulatory skills that help people prepare for future difficulties before they occur, such as planning and monitoring. The aim of the present study was to examine the interplay between pre-treatment proactive coping skills and expected difficulties during weight loss in determining succes...

Three experimental studies examined the counterintuitive hypothesis that hunger improves strategic decision making, arguing that people in a hot state are better able to make favorable decisions involving uncertain outcomes. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that participants with more hunger or greater appetite made more advantageous choices in the Iow...

Background: While self-control has often been related to positive outcomes in life such as higher academic achievements and better health, recent insights reveal that people with high trait self-control (TSC) may even experience greater life satisfaction or happiness. Objective: The current study further scrutinizes this potential association betwe...

Getting insufficient sleep has serious consequences in terms of mental and physical health. The current study is the first to approach insufficient sleep from a self-regulation perspective by investigating the phenomenon of bedtime procrastination: going to bed later than intended, without having external reasons for doing so. Data from a represent...

Background: Procrastination is a prevalent and problematic phenomenon that has mostly been studied in the domain of academic behavior. The current study shows that procrastination may also lead to harmful outcomes in the area of health behavior, introducing bedtime procrastination as an important factor related to getting insufficient sleep and con...

In contrast to prevailing beliefs, recent research suggests that trait self-control promotes health behavior not because those high in self-control are more successful at resisting single temptations, but rather because they develop adaptive habits. The present paper presents a first empirical test of this novel suggestion by investigating the medi...

Objective: The study's aim was to investigate psychological, behavioral and medical long-term outcomes of an existing self-management intervention targeting the development of proactive coping skills (e.g. goal setting and identifying barriers) in type 2 diabetes patients. The study aimed to replicate prior research showing the intervention's effe...

Brief self-management interventions to engender successful weight maintenance are seldom tested in obese and overweight populations without diabetes. To test the efficacy of the intervention, aimed at improving proactive coping, in obese and overweight adults at risk for diabetes. Participants (N = 255) were randomly assigned to two experimental gr...

Previous research has shown that people tend to consume less from foods they consider more tempting. However, the underlying mechanism for these counterintuitive findings is still unknown. The current paper is the first to test the theoretically implied suggestion that the effect of food temptation strength on consumption is indirect and can be exp...

Objective: The aim of the current study was to compare obese and nonobese type 2 diabetes patients at baseline and after participating in an existing self-management intervention (i.e., Beyond Good Intentions) on cognitive, self-care, and behavioral measures to examine whether both groups are equally prepared and able to adopt self-management appr...

The current study explored the benefits of adding booster sessions to a validated and successful self-management intervention for type 2 diabetes patients (i.e. Beyond Good Intentions). Although the addition of booster sessions to self-management interventions is often recommended, it has not been empirically established to what extent booster sess...

Contrary to lay intuition, counteractive control theory posits that tempting food cues can help individuals to act in accordance with their long-term dieting goal. However, studies have shown that temptations trigger goal-directed behavior only in successful but not in unsuccessful self-regulators. The aim of the present study was to test whether i...

This series of studies examined the effect of temptation strength on self-regulation processes in the context of eating behavior. Based on the critical level model, it was hypothesized that weak, rather than strong, temptations yield the most unfavorable conditions for effective self-regulation, because the negative consequences of the former are u...

Implementation intentions specifying the replacement of a habitual response with an alternative response in a critical situation can overrule habits. In three experiments the cognitive effects of such counterhabitual implementation intentions were investigated. Results showed that implementation intentions eliminated the cognitive advantage of the...

In the Western rich food environment, people are constantly confronted with palatable but unhealthy food products. For those who would like to watch their weight, the appeal of immediate satisfaction is in conflict with their long-term weight watching goal, constituting a classic self-control dilemma. The current studies were designed to test the e...