Michael Siegrist

• PhD
• Head of Department 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....

Culture can have a major impact on how we perceive different hazards. In the Romantic period, nature was described and portrayed as mysterious and benevolent. A deep connection to nature was perceived as important. We proposed that this romantic view would be positively related to people's risk perceptions of man‐made hazards and, more specifically...

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...

Background Recent studies reported how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the medical education community. However, little is known about the further influence of the pandemic over time and about the impact across the different medical disciplines. Objective Our objective was to investigate how residents working in different disciplines and on differ...

As the share of renewable energy sources, which are weather dependent and consequently volatile, continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to explore strategies for organising both electricity production and consumption to ensure system stability. People’s flexibility in their energy consumption is one option to regulate the system. To b...

The call to replace animal food products with plant-based products is increasing, mainly for environmental, ethical, and health reasons. To develop plant-based alternatives that will be accepted and consumed, it is important to understand how consumers perceive them. Many studies have examined consumers’ perceptions of meat and meat alternatives, a...

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...

Intuitive eating (IE) is an adaptive eating behavior that involves paying attention to the body's physiological signals, including eating when hungry and stopping when feeling full. A growing body of literature has examined the effect of IE on the development of maladaptive eating behaviors and body weight, even though IE is not centered around the...

Previous observational research showed that one of the most common strategies used to lose weight is to avoid or restrict the consumption of specific food items. However, the question of how people behave and implement strategies in actual decision-making situations involving food choices for weight-loss purposes remains inconclusive. This experime...

This chapter reviews consumer attitudes to cultured meat products, focusing on improving understanding and acceptance of these products. Chapter 12 begins by examining the challenges regarding consumer acceptance of novel food technologies and cultured meat, drawing specific attention to perceived naturalness and disgust, trust in the industry and...

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...

Demand for processed food is increasing, but at the same time, some of these products have been strongly criticised for causing non-communicable diseases. Only a few studies have analysed consumers’ perceptions of food processing and, especially, ultra-processed foods. We examined consumers’ associations with processed foods, as well as how their p...

Farm animal welfare has become a frequently discussed issue. However, the consumption of animal-friendly products remains a small part of total meat consumption. This study investigated whether providing consumers with more detailed information about animal husbandry systems could influence their product choices at a virtual supermarket. Participan...

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...

The production of food, especially meat, has a high environmental impact. Many believe that the introduction of alternative proteins could substantially reduce animal meat consumption, resulting in a more sustainable food system. In this review, we critically evaluate the challenges and barriers that need to be overcome to ensure that these alterna...

To further investigate the effects of positive eating on health, the present study focused on associations of the Positive Eating Scale (PES, the Pleasure when Eating and Satisfaction with Eating subscales) with eating behaviors, food intake, and body mass index (BMI) in a large sample of the general Swiss population. Participants (T1: n = 2795, 46...

Background To ensure high qualification standards in medical institutions, a questionnaire has been developed to evaluate the postgraduate medical education in Switzerland. Aim This article describes the development and longitudinal analysis of a questionnaire using eight scales to assess the quality of postgraduate medical education. Method The...

Background Processed foods, and particularly “ultra-processed foods” (UPFs), as categorized by NOVA (Monteiro et al., 2016), have been highly criticized over the last few years. At the same time, consumers consistently perceive processed foods as less healthy and less natural than unprocessed foods. Scope and approach This commentary aimed to exam...

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...

It has been shown that the COVID-19 pandemic affected some agricultural systems more than others, and even within geographic regions, not all farms were affected to the same extent. To build resilience of agricultural systems to future shocks, it is key to understand which farms were affected and why. In this study, we examined farmers' perceived r...

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...

Excess weight is caused by multiple factors and has increased sharply in Switzerland since the 1990s. Its consequences represent a major challenge for Switzerland, both in terms of health and the economy. Until now, there has been no cross-dataset overview study on excess weight in adults in Switzerland. Therefore, our aim was to conduct the first...

Background: Subjective well-being is an important target in the COVID-19 pandemic. Residential greenness may help cope with stress and hence influence subjective well-being during this mentally and physically challenging time. Methods: We analysed the association between residential greenness and life satisfaction in 9,444 adults in the COVCO-Ba...

Palm oil is commonly and increasingly used in many products, despite its association with various problematic ecological, social, and health-related issues. The international Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) label is intended to guide consumers toward more sustainable palm oil product purchases. Unfortunately, it is often the case that con...

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...

People infer what someone is like from what they eat or drink. Such stereotypes can also influence behavior, since consumers’ choices reflect how they wish to be perceived. Beer is one of the most widely consumed alcoholic beverages worldwide but particularly in Germany. Although one may avoid the negative effects of alcohol by consuming non-alcoho...

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...

Yam (Discorea spp.) is a staple food crop in Africa that requires fertile soils and an annual rainfall of about 1,500 mm. However, in the semi-arid North-West of Burkina Faso, farmers produce yam in continuous rotation on degraded soils with annual rainfall of 610–960 mm. Understanding this local know-how can help improve yam cultivation in other r...

Experts worldwide point to the challenges our world is facing (e.g., land degradation, resource scarcity, global warming) as described by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Many studies have analyzed how to cope with these challenges. Aside from promoting pro-environmental behaviors, it was proposed that technological innovations might...

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...

Purpose The purpose of this research paper was to examine difficulties that consumers have when choosing wine in a restaurant and whether structuring a wine list according to taste rather than origin facilitates decision-making. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted two online studies in Switzerland to assess whether a wine list organi...

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...

There is broad agreement that agriculture has to become more sustainable in order to provide enough affordable, healthy food at minimal environmental and social costs. But what is "more sustainable"? More often than not, different stakeholders have opposing opinions on what a more sustainable future should look like. This normative dimension is rar...

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...

Background Wine consumption has a particular place in the culture of many European countries, and beliefs that wine offers health benefits are widespread. High consumption of wine and other alcoholic beverages among many Europeans correlates with alcohol-related accidents and disease burdens. Health warning labels (HWLs) on alcohol containers have...

Research has reported that both men and women experience body dissatisfaction. Among other instruments, a widely used method to assess perceived body size and body dissatisfaction are figure rating scales. Although a variety of illustration methods (e.g., three-dimensional, or 3D, models and line-drawing models) have been used to create these figur...

In an attempt to move consumers toward a more sustainable and healthy diet, meat substitute products have flooded the market. However, consumers tend to be conservative about new food products and technologies that are supposed to replace traditional ones. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether consumers see the benefits of consuming these new p...

Changes in household consumption patterns to low-carbon alternatives are needed to decrease global greenhouse gas emissions. Accurate perceptions about the CO2 mitigation potential of different behaviours can help consumers to reduce their emissions. With a sample of N = 547 Swiss participants, we analysed to what extent participants correctly judg...

Purpose Cross-cultural studies on differences in eating and consumer behavior have several limitations due to differences between countries, for example, in national health policies. Switzerland combines cultural diversity between the language regions, but with a common national health policy. Therefore, Switzerland provides an ideal framework to i...

Wine is an essential part of European culture. Unfortunately, the consumption of alcohol, such as wine, can have negative health effects. Health warning labels (HWLs) are increasingly presented as a measure to warn consumers of the threat alcohol poses to their health. At present, only a few countries in Europe have introduced mandatory HWLs on win...

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 (...

Our daily food choices have a huge impact on the environment. However, most consumers are not aware of the environmental impact of food production and consumption. Since there is no valid and reliable measure of knowledge regarding food's environmental impact, a 16-item multiple-choice knowledge questionnaire was developed. An example item reads: “...

Consumers' food choices play a crucial role in the shift toward increased sustainability. However, consumers' knowledge about daily food items is not sufficient to evoke environmentally friendly food choices. To facilitate a shift towards more sustainable food consumption, providing understandable information about the environmental impact of produ...

This study examined the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on risk prioritisation. Participants ranked 28 hazards according to how risky they considered them to be for the South African society. The results showed SES had an influence on hazard prioritisation, e.g., alcohol was considered the most significant societal hazard by low SES individ...

Background The development of virtual reality (VR) technology has the potential to provide enormous opportunities for food and consumer behavior research to further explore current research methodologies and establish new ones. VR is different from the environment we experience in daily life. Therefore, the extent to which VR can be applied in food...

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...

Food processing influences perceptions of its naturalness. However, previously advanced theses on the effect of processing do not adequately explain consumers’ perceptions e.g., for irradiated food. Further, while production type (organic versus conventional production), and scale (large versus small scale) also influence this attribute, it is not...

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...

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...

For many consumers, it is important that food products be natural. Naturalness is a perceived property of food, but in the present study, we demonstrate that an objectively defined Food Naturalness Index (FNI) predicts perceived naturalness with a high degree of accuracy. A sample of 179 participants ranked 28 snacks, ranging from least natural to...

Although insects are a sustainable meat alternative, the willingness to consume (WTC) them remains generally low. We synthesised the effects of WTC correlates reported in 37 studies and also investigated the moderating effects of certain study characteristics. Across a large number of studies, affect-based factors, such as ‘food neophobia’, ‘disgus...

Additive manufacturing enables the production of complex structures with emerging approaches showing great promise in the food industry for design customization. Three-dimensional food printing has benefits for providing personalized health and shape fabrication for consumers. Past studies have demonstrated positive consumer perceptions for 3D food...

Background Understanding how people perceive and value health aspects of wine may help to promote sustainable consumer behaviour and the development of healthier wine products. Scope and approach In this scoping review a structured overview of the literature published since 2012 about consumer behaviour related to wine and health, is provided. A s...

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...

Scientists' role in outreach and advocacy has been debated extensively, but empirical evidence on its perceived legitimacy is scarce. We contacted scientists researching climate change to investigate scientists' engagement levels, as well as expectations regarding political and public engagement. We then compared how scientists (N = 1,107) and Germ...

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...

Within recent years, demand as well as supply of products to replace meat, so called meat alternatives, have increased. For future products, new plant-based protein sources are of high interest. Protein from pea and especially from algae provide huge potential for human nutrition as well as for the environment. To provide insight on consumers' opin...

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...

Tampering with nature has been shown to be a strong, and sometimes even the strongest, predictor of the risk perception and acceptance of various technologies and behaviors, including environmental technologies, such as geoengineering. It is therefore helpful to understand what tampering with nature is as a construct, to which factors it relates, a...

The huge amount of food wasted at the consumer or household level has severe environmental and economic consequences. In the present work, we compared two self-report measures for the assessment of food waste quantities at the household level in Switzerland. Participants (N = 223) were asked to complete an online food waste questionnaire (FWQ), in...