Nadja Contzen

Eawag: Das Wasserforschungs-Institut des ETH-Bereichs | Eawag · Department of Environmental Social Sciences

Public acceptability of energy production does not only depend on people's opinions of energy projects but also on whether people trust those who are in charge of regulating them. Indeed, research shows that trust in regulating institutions is positively related to public acceptability of energy production, and more generally, to public acceptabili...

Decentralized water treatment technologies could help in addressing global key water issues. Their successful implementation, however, depends on users’ positive valuation and, depending on the technology, ‘passive’ use (rooted in acceptance), ‘engaged’ use (rooted in support) or ‘active’ use (rooted in behaviour change). Although users’ valuation...

Emotions may play an important role in how citizens respond to public policies, and energy policies in particular. Yet, little insights exist into causes of those emotions. This study investigates ethical concerns as the basis of emotions. We test whether people perceive an unequal distribution of negative outcomes of a local energy project as more...

Environmental frames are widely used in an effort to increase public support for energy sources in the sustainable energy transition. Research suggests that environmental frames are most effective when they are congruent with people's biospheric values. Yet, this value-congruence account has been mainly tested for promoting behaviors, policies or p...

Policies that mandate the adoption of renewable energy innovations could ensure their widespread adoption. Yet, such policies may not be implemented if they face strong opposition from the public, especially when strong negative emotions are at the core of opposition. In a field experiment (N = 97), we investigated people's emotional responses to t...

Public resistance to sustainable innovations is oftentimes accompanied by strong negative emotions. Therefore, it is essential to better understand the underlying factors of emotions toward sustainable innovations to facilitate their successful implementation. Based on the Value-Innovation-Congruence model of Emotional responses (VICE model), we ar...

Background Products made from recycled organic materials are an important part of a circular economy, but the question is whether they will be adopted by the public. Such products can elicit strong emotional responses and public resistance. As a case in point, we studied products made from sewage waste, such as recycled toilet paper, which can serv...

Increasing demands on ecosystems, decreasing biodiversity, and climate change are among the most pressing environmental issues of our time. As changing weather conditions are leading to increased vector-borne diseases and heat-and flood-related deaths, it is entering collective consciousness: environmental issues are human health issues. In public...

Unsafe sanitation practices are a major source of environmental pollution and are a leading cause of death in countries of the Global South. One of the most successful campaigns to eradicate open defecation is “Community-Led Total Sanitation” (CLTS). It aims at shifting social norms towards safe sanitation practices. However, the effectiveness of C...

Environmental issues in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) are manifold and often severe. This chapter illustrates the application of environmental psychological research in LMICs. It discusses environmental risk perception and concern, residential environment and well‐being, and behaviour. Environmental concern can foster pro‐environmental b...

Energy projects aimed at a sustainable energy transition can trigger strong negative emotions and resistance from the public. While practitioners are increasingly realising that they cannot simply ignore public emotions, they struggle with how to deal with people’s emotional responses and how to secure public acceptability of sustainable energy pro...

Unsafe water consumption is the environmental risk factor in sub-Saharan Africa contributing most to premature death. In urban slums and dispersed rural communities, where access to safe water is especially limited, water kiosks are a relevant safe water source. However, irregular use challenges their operational viability and may cause discontinua...

Handwashing effectively prevents from several communicable diseases. Handwashing interventions are a program priority in development aid. Intervention evaluations are rare because handwashing is difficult to measure with observations being valid but costly and self-reports being efficient but invalid due to over-reporting (OvR). While socially desi...

Handwashing interventions are a priority in development and emergency aid programs. Evaluation of these interventions is essential to assess the effectiveness of programs; however, measuring handwashing is quite difficult. Although observations are considered valid, they are time-consuming and cost-ineffective; self-reports are highly efficient but...

Handwashing with soap effectively prevents diarrhoea, a leading cause of death in infants. Theory-based interventions are expected to promote handwashing more successfully than standard approaches. The present article investigates the underlying change processes of theory-based handwashing interventions. A nonrandomised field study compared a stand...

Diarrheal disease kills around 760,000 infants every year. Many of these deaths could have been prevented by handwashing with soap. However, the whole range of psychological factors encouraging handwashing is not yet identified and handwashing campaigns are often limited to awareness-raising and education. The purpose of this article was to identif...

Improved hand hygiene efficiently prevents the major killers of children under the age of five years in Ethiopia and globally, namely diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases. Effective handwashing interventions are thus in great demand. Evidence- and theory-based interventions, especially when matched to the target population's needs, are expected to p...

Aim In a disaster context, where risk for diarrhoeal disease is elevated, personal hygiene, i.e. handwashing with soap, is especially relevant. However, to date, the promotion of hygiene in an emergency context has not been adequately addressed in the literature. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of hygiene promotions in...