Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis, Jan 21, 2016
In two experiments, we investigated the influence of numeracy on individuals' information pro... more In two experiments, we investigated the influence of numeracy on individuals' information processing of pictographs depending on numeracy via an eye-tracker. In two conditions, participants from the general population were presented with a scenario depicting the risk of having cancer and were asked to indicate their perceived risk. The risk level was high (63%) in experiment 1 (N = 70) and low (6%) in experiment 2 (N = 69). In the default condition, participants were free to use their default strategy for information processing. In the guiding-toward-the-number condition, they were prompted to count icons in the pictograph by answering with an explicit number. We used eye-tracking parameters related to the distance between sequential fixations to analyze participants' strategies for processing numerical information. In the default condition, the higher the numeracy was, the shorter the distances traversed in the pictograph were, indicating that participants counted the icons...
ABSTRACT "Two case studies with many actors attempted to create favorable conditions for... more ABSTRACT "Two case studies with many actors attempted to create favorable conditions for collective action through providing external organizational impetus and implementing novel action instruments. "In study 1, the task was to reduce, during a special action week, morning and evening traffic congestion that regularly formed at a highway tunnel near Zurich. Traffic back-ups result from local and temporal over-use of the common pool resource "traffic space." We attempted, by means of a publicity campaign and public collection of signed statements of self-commitment from a core group of about 18,000 regular commuters, to establish a kind of rotation system in avoiding travel at peak traffic times. This aimed to reduce the peak load and congestion. In spite of great media efforts, the widely dispersed target group could not be mobilized sufficiently. Compared to the baseline week, the total reduction of traffic back-up amounted to 10%, or two hours respectively. Per peak hour, 100 cars traveled at other, less busy times. We had aimed at a minimum goal of a reduction of 400 cars per hour. However, the study demonstrated that the contributions discussed were in fact effective and that the statistical leveling regular distribution of the uncoordinated contributions to reduce traffic during the periods of heavy traffic functioned reliably. The publicity and and public acceptance of this campaign based on voluntary contributions were large in scale. "In study 2, we aimed to reduce neighborhood driving speeds in a district of 10,000 residents. The goal was to stimulate enough cooperative behavior in the 4,000 registered car owners to clearly reduce average driving speeds. The reduced speed was the public good. The intervention succeeded in mobilizing a large group of drivers. A thousand drivers voluntarily committed themselves in writing to reduce driving speed during the four months of the experimental phase, and the measured average speed reduction was remarkable. The reduction in driving speed was comparable to that achieved elsewhere through compulsory, top-down measures, laws, and police control."
Many people fear that exposure to mobile phone base stations leads to severe health effects. In a... more Many people fear that exposure to mobile phone base stations leads to severe health effects. In addition to those fears, many citizens are unsatisfied or even angry about prevailing base station site-selection procedures. In the present study, it was investigated how these emotions, i.e. fear and anger, determine risk and benefit perceptions and the acceptance of mobile communication. Using structural equation modeling, we found that benefit perception and the acceptance of mobile phone base stations were primarily determined by anger. Risk perception, in contrast was influenced by both emotions. In addition, controllability and fairness emerged as important cognitive appraisals, or antecedents, of fear and anger, while certainty was not related to these emotions. In sum, our findings highlight that fear and anger have specific influences on risk, benefit, and acceptance of mobile communication. Furthermore, the study provides an in-depth understanding of the antecedents that lead to emotional responses within the context of mobile communication. Implications for risk communication will be derived.
In an obesogenic environment, people have to adopt effective weight management strategies to succ... more In an obesogenic environment, people have to adopt effective weight management strategies to successfully gain or maintain normal body weight. Little is known about the strategies used by the general population in daily life. Due to the lack of a comprehensive measurement instrument to assess conceptually different strategies with various scales, we developed the weight management strategies inventory (WMSI). In study 1, we collected 19 weight management strategies from research on self-regulation of food intake and successful weight loss and maintenance, as well as from expert interviews. We classified them under the five main categories of health self-regulation strategies - goal setting and monitoring, prospection and planning, automating behavior, construal, and inhibition. We formulated 93 items. In study 2, we developed the WMSI in a random sample from the general population (N = 658), using reliability and exploratory factor analysis. This resulted in 19 factors with 63 items...
Weight fluctuations pose serious challenges to people's health. Research suggests that the in... more Weight fluctuations pose serious challenges to people's health. Research suggests that the interplay between cognitive dietary restraint and counter-regulative overeating impairs weight control. In a random sample from the general population (N = 2733, 49% male), a longitudinal survey was conducted over 4 consecutive years (2010-2013). Self-reported weight was used to calculate the variance of three weight changes from one wave to the next. Separate regression analyses for women and men were conducted. The dependent variable was weight fluctuation, and the independent variables were eating styles (emotional, external, and restrained) and ambivalence toward palatable food. Age and weight changes between the fourth and first years were controlled. A significant positive effect of emotional eating for men and women, and a significant positive effect of ambivalence for women, were found. Participants who demonstrated high levels of emotional eating, and women who had high levels of ...
In a random sample (N = 951) from the general population, direct and indirect effects of the Big ... more In a random sample (N = 951) from the general population, direct and indirect effects of the Big Five personality traits on eating styles and food choices were examined. Path models revealed that high openness to experience were associated with higher fruit, vegetable and salad and lower meat and soft drink consumption. High agreeableness was associated with low meat consumption. Neuroticism, conscientiousness and extraversion significantly and directly influenced eating styles and significantly indirectly influenced food choices. Conscientiousness mainly promoted fruit consumption by promoting restrained eating and prevented meat consumption by reducing external eating. Conscientiousness prevented consumption of sweet and savory foods, and of sugar-sweetened soft drinks by promoting restrained eating and reducing external eating, and consumption of sweet and savory foods also by reducing emotional eating. Neuroticism promoted consumption of sweet and savory foods by promoting emoti...
In 2005, Swiss citizens endorsed a moratorium on gene technology, resulting in the prohibition of... more In 2005, Swiss citizens endorsed a moratorium on gene technology, resulting in the prohibition of the commercial cultivation of genetically modified crops and the growth of genetically modified animals until 2013. However, scientific research was not affected by this moratorium, and in 2008, GMO field experiments were conducted that allowed us to examine the factors that influence their acceptance by the public. In this study, trust and confidence items were analyzed using principal component analysis. The analysis revealed the following three factors: "economy/health and environment" (value similarity based trust), "trust and honesty of industry and scientists" (value similarity based trust), and "competence" (confidence). The results of a regression analysis showed that all the three factors significantly influenced the acceptance of GM field experiments. Furthermore, risk communication scholars have suggested that fairness also plays an important role in the acceptance of environmental hazards. We, therefore, included measures for outcome fairness and procedural fairness in our model. However, the impact of fairness may be moderated by moral conviction. That is, fairness may be significant for people for whom GMO is not an important issue, but not for people for whom GMO is an important issue. The regression analysis showed that, in addition to the trust and confidence factors, moral conviction, outcome fairness, and procedural fairness were significant predictors. The results suggest that the influence of procedural fairness is even stronger for persons having high moral convictions compared with persons having low moral convictions.
To date, no data exist on the agreement of food choice measured using an online tool with subsequ... more To date, no data exist on the agreement of food choice measured using an online tool with subsequent actual consumption. This needs to be shown before food choice, measured by means of an online tool, is used as a dependent variable to examine intake in the general population. A 'web-buffet' was developed to assess food choice. Choice was measured as planned meal composition from photographic material; respondents chose preferred foods and proportions for a main meal (out of a possible 144 combinations) online and the validity was assessed by comparison of a meal composed from a web-buffet with actual food intake 24-48 h later. Furthermore, correlations of food preferences, energy needs and health interest with meals chosen from the web-buffet were analysed. Students: n 106 (Study I), n 32 (Study II). Meals chosen from the web-buffet (mean=2998 kJ, sd=471 kJ) agreed with actual consumption (r s=0·63, P<0·001) but were on average 367 kJ (10·5 %) lower in energy than consumed meals (mean=3480 kJ, sd=755 kJ). Preferences were highly associated with chosen amounts and health interest was negatively correlated with the energy selected (r s=-0·40, P<0·001). Meal composition choice in the web-buffet agrees sufficiently well with actual intake to measure food choice as a dependent variable in online surveys. However, we found an average underestimation of subsequent consumption. High correlations of preferences with chosen amounts and an inverse association of health interest with total energy further indicate the validity of the tool. Applications in behavioural nutrition research are discussed.
This study examined the relationship between the content of spontaneous associations with nuclear... more This study examined the relationship between the content of spontaneous associations with nuclear power plants and the acceptance of using new-generation nuclear power plants to replace old ones. The study also considered gender as a variable. A representative sample of the German- and French-speaking population of Switzerland (N= 1,221) was used. Log-linear models revealed significant two-way interactions between the association content and acceptance, association content and gender, and gender and acceptance. Correspondence analysis revealed that participants who were opposed to nuclear power plants mainly associated nuclear power plants with risk, negative feelings, accidents, radioactivity, waste disposal, military use, and negative consequences for health and environment; whereas participants favoring nuclear power plants mainly associated them with energy, appearance descriptions of nuclear power plants, and necessity. Thus, individuals opposing nuclear power plants had both more concrete and more diverse associations with them than people who were in favor of nuclear power plants. In addition, participants who were undecided often mentioned similar associations to those participants who were in favor. Males more often expressed associations with energy, waste disposal, and negative health effects. Females more often made associations with appearance descriptions, negative feelings, and negative environmental effects. The results further suggest that acceptance of replacing nuclear power plants was higher in the German-speaking part of the country, where all of the Swiss nuclear power plants are physically located. Practical implications for risk communication are discussed.
ABSTRACT Different labeling systems that should help consumers make more balanced food decisions ... more ABSTRACT Different labeling systems that should help consumers make more balanced food decisions have been proposed and are currently in use. In the present study, the effectiveness of three different formats, the nutrition table format, the guideline daily amounts (GDAs) format, and the traffic light (TL) format, was examined. The eye-tracking method was combined with an experimental approach. The participants (N = 98) were randomly assigned to one of the three formats, and they were asked to evaluate the healthiness of five foods from different food categories. The eye-tracking data suggest that the participants needed more time to process the GDA format in comparison to the traffic light format and the nutrition table format. Moreover, the participants processed the traffic light format more efficiently than the nutrition table. In regard to information processing, the traffic light format was better than the other two formats. The participants were asked how they perceived the healthiness of the food products. The GDA, the TL and the nutrition table formats did not result in substantially different evaluations of the products. From an information processing perspective, the TL format has advantages over the other two formats. The TL format is a consumer-friendly way of communicating nutrition information.
ABSTRACT "Two case studies with many actors attempted to create favorable conditions for... more ABSTRACT "Two case studies with many actors attempted to create favorable conditions for collective action through providing external organizational impetus and implementing novel action instruments. "In study 1, the task was to reduce, during a special action week, morning and evening traffic congestion that regularly formed at a highway tunnel near Zurich. Traffic back-ups result from local and temporal over-use of the common pool resource "traffic space." We attempted, by means of a publicity campaign and public collection of signed statements of self-commitment from a core group of about 18,000 regular commuters, to establish a kind of rotation system in avoiding travel at peak traffic times. This aimed to reduce the peak load and congestion. In spite of great media efforts, the widely dispersed target group could not be mobilized sufficiently. Compared to the baseline week, the total reduction of traffic back-up amounted to 10%, or two hours respectively. Per peak hour, 100 cars traveled at other, less busy times. We had aimed at a minimum goal of a reduction of 400 cars per hour. However, the study demonstrated that the contributions discussed were in fact effective and that the statistical leveling regular distribution of the uncoordinated contributions to reduce traffic during the periods of heavy traffic functioned reliably. The publicity and and public acceptance of this campaign based on voluntary contributions were large in scale. "In study 2, we aimed to reduce neighborhood driving speeds in a district of 10,000 residents. The goal was to stimulate enough cooperative behavior in the 4,000 registered car owners to clearly reduce average driving speeds. The reduced speed was the public good. The intervention succeeded in mobilizing a large group of drivers. A thousand drivers voluntarily committed themselves in writing to reduce driving speed during the four months of the experimental phase, and the measured average speed reduction was remarkable. The reduction in driving speed was comparable to that achieved elsewhere through compulsory, top-down measures, laws, and police control."
Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis, Jan 21, 2016
In two experiments, we investigated the influence of numeracy on individuals' information pro... more In two experiments, we investigated the influence of numeracy on individuals' information processing of pictographs depending on numeracy via an eye-tracker. In two conditions, participants from the general population were presented with a scenario depicting the risk of having cancer and were asked to indicate their perceived risk. The risk level was high (63%) in experiment 1 (N = 70) and low (6%) in experiment 2 (N = 69). In the default condition, participants were free to use their default strategy for information processing. In the guiding-toward-the-number condition, they were prompted to count icons in the pictograph by answering with an explicit number. We used eye-tracking parameters related to the distance between sequential fixations to analyze participants' strategies for processing numerical information. In the default condition, the higher the numeracy was, the shorter the distances traversed in the pictograph were, indicating that participants counted the icons...
ABSTRACT "Two case studies with many actors attempted to create favorable conditions for... more ABSTRACT "Two case studies with many actors attempted to create favorable conditions for collective action through providing external organizational impetus and implementing novel action instruments. "In study 1, the task was to reduce, during a special action week, morning and evening traffic congestion that regularly formed at a highway tunnel near Zurich. Traffic back-ups result from local and temporal over-use of the common pool resource "traffic space." We attempted, by means of a publicity campaign and public collection of signed statements of self-commitment from a core group of about 18,000 regular commuters, to establish a kind of rotation system in avoiding travel at peak traffic times. This aimed to reduce the peak load and congestion. In spite of great media efforts, the widely dispersed target group could not be mobilized sufficiently. Compared to the baseline week, the total reduction of traffic back-up amounted to 10%, or two hours respectively. Per peak hour, 100 cars traveled at other, less busy times. We had aimed at a minimum goal of a reduction of 400 cars per hour. However, the study demonstrated that the contributions discussed were in fact effective and that the statistical leveling regular distribution of the uncoordinated contributions to reduce traffic during the periods of heavy traffic functioned reliably. The publicity and and public acceptance of this campaign based on voluntary contributions were large in scale. "In study 2, we aimed to reduce neighborhood driving speeds in a district of 10,000 residents. The goal was to stimulate enough cooperative behavior in the 4,000 registered car owners to clearly reduce average driving speeds. The reduced speed was the public good. The intervention succeeded in mobilizing a large group of drivers. A thousand drivers voluntarily committed themselves in writing to reduce driving speed during the four months of the experimental phase, and the measured average speed reduction was remarkable. The reduction in driving speed was comparable to that achieved elsewhere through compulsory, top-down measures, laws, and police control."
Many people fear that exposure to mobile phone base stations leads to severe health effects. In a... more Many people fear that exposure to mobile phone base stations leads to severe health effects. In addition to those fears, many citizens are unsatisfied or even angry about prevailing base station site-selection procedures. In the present study, it was investigated how these emotions, i.e. fear and anger, determine risk and benefit perceptions and the acceptance of mobile communication. Using structural equation modeling, we found that benefit perception and the acceptance of mobile phone base stations were primarily determined by anger. Risk perception, in contrast was influenced by both emotions. In addition, controllability and fairness emerged as important cognitive appraisals, or antecedents, of fear and anger, while certainty was not related to these emotions. In sum, our findings highlight that fear and anger have specific influences on risk, benefit, and acceptance of mobile communication. Furthermore, the study provides an in-depth understanding of the antecedents that lead to emotional responses within the context of mobile communication. Implications for risk communication will be derived.
In an obesogenic environment, people have to adopt effective weight management strategies to succ... more In an obesogenic environment, people have to adopt effective weight management strategies to successfully gain or maintain normal body weight. Little is known about the strategies used by the general population in daily life. Due to the lack of a comprehensive measurement instrument to assess conceptually different strategies with various scales, we developed the weight management strategies inventory (WMSI). In study 1, we collected 19 weight management strategies from research on self-regulation of food intake and successful weight loss and maintenance, as well as from expert interviews. We classified them under the five main categories of health self-regulation strategies - goal setting and monitoring, prospection and planning, automating behavior, construal, and inhibition. We formulated 93 items. In study 2, we developed the WMSI in a random sample from the general population (N = 658), using reliability and exploratory factor analysis. This resulted in 19 factors with 63 items...
Weight fluctuations pose serious challenges to people's health. Research suggests that the in... more Weight fluctuations pose serious challenges to people's health. Research suggests that the interplay between cognitive dietary restraint and counter-regulative overeating impairs weight control. In a random sample from the general population (N = 2733, 49% male), a longitudinal survey was conducted over 4 consecutive years (2010-2013). Self-reported weight was used to calculate the variance of three weight changes from one wave to the next. Separate regression analyses for women and men were conducted. The dependent variable was weight fluctuation, and the independent variables were eating styles (emotional, external, and restrained) and ambivalence toward palatable food. Age and weight changes between the fourth and first years were controlled. A significant positive effect of emotional eating for men and women, and a significant positive effect of ambivalence for women, were found. Participants who demonstrated high levels of emotional eating, and women who had high levels of ...
In a random sample (N = 951) from the general population, direct and indirect effects of the Big ... more In a random sample (N = 951) from the general population, direct and indirect effects of the Big Five personality traits on eating styles and food choices were examined. Path models revealed that high openness to experience were associated with higher fruit, vegetable and salad and lower meat and soft drink consumption. High agreeableness was associated with low meat consumption. Neuroticism, conscientiousness and extraversion significantly and directly influenced eating styles and significantly indirectly influenced food choices. Conscientiousness mainly promoted fruit consumption by promoting restrained eating and prevented meat consumption by reducing external eating. Conscientiousness prevented consumption of sweet and savory foods, and of sugar-sweetened soft drinks by promoting restrained eating and reducing external eating, and consumption of sweet and savory foods also by reducing emotional eating. Neuroticism promoted consumption of sweet and savory foods by promoting emoti...
In 2005, Swiss citizens endorsed a moratorium on gene technology, resulting in the prohibition of... more In 2005, Swiss citizens endorsed a moratorium on gene technology, resulting in the prohibition of the commercial cultivation of genetically modified crops and the growth of genetically modified animals until 2013. However, scientific research was not affected by this moratorium, and in 2008, GMO field experiments were conducted that allowed us to examine the factors that influence their acceptance by the public. In this study, trust and confidence items were analyzed using principal component analysis. The analysis revealed the following three factors: "economy/health and environment" (value similarity based trust), "trust and honesty of industry and scientists" (value similarity based trust), and "competence" (confidence). The results of a regression analysis showed that all the three factors significantly influenced the acceptance of GM field experiments. Furthermore, risk communication scholars have suggested that fairness also plays an important role in the acceptance of environmental hazards. We, therefore, included measures for outcome fairness and procedural fairness in our model. However, the impact of fairness may be moderated by moral conviction. That is, fairness may be significant for people for whom GMO is not an important issue, but not for people for whom GMO is an important issue. The regression analysis showed that, in addition to the trust and confidence factors, moral conviction, outcome fairness, and procedural fairness were significant predictors. The results suggest that the influence of procedural fairness is even stronger for persons having high moral convictions compared with persons having low moral convictions.
To date, no data exist on the agreement of food choice measured using an online tool with subsequ... more To date, no data exist on the agreement of food choice measured using an online tool with subsequent actual consumption. This needs to be shown before food choice, measured by means of an online tool, is used as a dependent variable to examine intake in the general population. A 'web-buffet' was developed to assess food choice. Choice was measured as planned meal composition from photographic material; respondents chose preferred foods and proportions for a main meal (out of a possible 144 combinations) online and the validity was assessed by comparison of a meal composed from a web-buffet with actual food intake 24-48 h later. Furthermore, correlations of food preferences, energy needs and health interest with meals chosen from the web-buffet were analysed. Students: n 106 (Study I), n 32 (Study II). Meals chosen from the web-buffet (mean=2998 kJ, sd=471 kJ) agreed with actual consumption (r s=0·63, P<0·001) but were on average 367 kJ (10·5 %) lower in energy than consumed meals (mean=3480 kJ, sd=755 kJ). Preferences were highly associated with chosen amounts and health interest was negatively correlated with the energy selected (r s=-0·40, P<0·001). Meal composition choice in the web-buffet agrees sufficiently well with actual intake to measure food choice as a dependent variable in online surveys. However, we found an average underestimation of subsequent consumption. High correlations of preferences with chosen amounts and an inverse association of health interest with total energy further indicate the validity of the tool. Applications in behavioural nutrition research are discussed.
This study examined the relationship between the content of spontaneous associations with nuclear... more This study examined the relationship between the content of spontaneous associations with nuclear power plants and the acceptance of using new-generation nuclear power plants to replace old ones. The study also considered gender as a variable. A representative sample of the German- and French-speaking population of Switzerland (N= 1,221) was used. Log-linear models revealed significant two-way interactions between the association content and acceptance, association content and gender, and gender and acceptance. Correspondence analysis revealed that participants who were opposed to nuclear power plants mainly associated nuclear power plants with risk, negative feelings, accidents, radioactivity, waste disposal, military use, and negative consequences for health and environment; whereas participants favoring nuclear power plants mainly associated them with energy, appearance descriptions of nuclear power plants, and necessity. Thus, individuals opposing nuclear power plants had both more concrete and more diverse associations with them than people who were in favor of nuclear power plants. In addition, participants who were undecided often mentioned similar associations to those participants who were in favor. Males more often expressed associations with energy, waste disposal, and negative health effects. Females more often made associations with appearance descriptions, negative feelings, and negative environmental effects. The results further suggest that acceptance of replacing nuclear power plants was higher in the German-speaking part of the country, where all of the Swiss nuclear power plants are physically located. Practical implications for risk communication are discussed.
ABSTRACT Different labeling systems that should help consumers make more balanced food decisions ... more ABSTRACT Different labeling systems that should help consumers make more balanced food decisions have been proposed and are currently in use. In the present study, the effectiveness of three different formats, the nutrition table format, the guideline daily amounts (GDAs) format, and the traffic light (TL) format, was examined. The eye-tracking method was combined with an experimental approach. The participants (N = 98) were randomly assigned to one of the three formats, and they were asked to evaluate the healthiness of five foods from different food categories. The eye-tracking data suggest that the participants needed more time to process the GDA format in comparison to the traffic light format and the nutrition table format. Moreover, the participants processed the traffic light format more efficiently than the nutrition table. In regard to information processing, the traffic light format was better than the other two formats. The participants were asked how they perceived the healthiness of the food products. The GDA, the TL and the nutrition table formats did not result in substantially different evaluations of the products. From an information processing perspective, the TL format has advantages over the other two formats. The TL format is a consumer-friendly way of communicating nutrition information.
ABSTRACT "Two case studies with many actors attempted to create favorable conditions for... more ABSTRACT "Two case studies with many actors attempted to create favorable conditions for collective action through providing external organizational impetus and implementing novel action instruments. "In study 1, the task was to reduce, during a special action week, morning and evening traffic congestion that regularly formed at a highway tunnel near Zurich. Traffic back-ups result from local and temporal over-use of the common pool resource "traffic space." We attempted, by means of a publicity campaign and public collection of signed statements of self-commitment from a core group of about 18,000 regular commuters, to establish a kind of rotation system in avoiding travel at peak traffic times. This aimed to reduce the peak load and congestion. In spite of great media efforts, the widely dispersed target group could not be mobilized sufficiently. Compared to the baseline week, the total reduction of traffic back-up amounted to 10%, or two hours respectively. Per peak hour, 100 cars traveled at other, less busy times. We had aimed at a minimum goal of a reduction of 400 cars per hour. However, the study demonstrated that the contributions discussed were in fact effective and that the statistical leveling regular distribution of the uncoordinated contributions to reduce traffic during the periods of heavy traffic functioned reliably. The publicity and and public acceptance of this campaign based on voluntary contributions were large in scale. "In study 2, we aimed to reduce neighborhood driving speeds in a district of 10,000 residents. The goal was to stimulate enough cooperative behavior in the 4,000 registered car owners to clearly reduce average driving speeds. The reduced speed was the public good. The intervention succeeded in mobilizing a large group of drivers. A thousand drivers voluntarily committed themselves in writing to reduce driving speed during the four months of the experimental phase, and the measured average speed reduction was remarkable. The reduction in driving speed was comparable to that achieved elsewhere through compulsory, top-down measures, laws, and police control."
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