Our latest publications

People’s perception of biodiversity loss: Validation of a scale in Germany

How do people perceive this urgent but hidden crisis, and what determines their perceptions? To address this question, we developed and validated the Biodiversity Loss Perception Scale (BiLoPS), which measures people’s perceptions of the reality, causes, and consequences of biodiversity loss.

Good intentions, limited action: when do farmers’ intentions to adopt sustainable farming practices turn into actual behaviour?

Past use and knowledge of cover crops, perceived need for adaptation, being risk seeking in farming, and using advisory services predicted intentions, whereas only past use of cover crops predicted both intention and actual adoption. Moreover, only the strongest level of reported intentions had some value in predicting actual behaviour.

Featured publications

People’s perception of biodiversity loss: Validation of a scale in Germany

How do people perceive this urgent but hidden crisis, and what determines their perceptions? To address this question, we developed and validated the Biodiversity Loss Perception Scale (BiLoPS), which measures people’s perceptions of the reality, causes, and consequences of biodiversity loss.

Good intentions, limited action: when do farmers’ intentions to adopt sustainable farming practices turn into actual behaviour?

Past use and knowledge of cover crops, perceived need for adaptation, being risk seeking in farming, and using advisory services predicted intentions, whereas only past use of cover crops predicted both intention and actual adoption. Moreover, only the strongest level of reported intentions had some value in predicting actual behaviour.

‘Yes, we care’: pro-environmental social identity framing to promote acceptance of decentralized wastewater treatment systems

Decentralized wastewater treatment systems can help mitigate the water crisis. Their successful implementation depends not only on their technological design but also on the level of public support.

The climate anxiety compass: A framework to map the solution space for coping with climate anxiety

We introduce the Climate Anxiety Compass: a framework that classifies strategies individuals can use to cope with climate anxiety along three dimensions: (a) problem-focused or emotion-focused, (b) mitigation or adaptation, and (c) individually oriented or collectively oriented.

The public demands more climate action, not less

We explain in this essay why votes for new-right political parties should not be interpreted as votes against governmental climate action.

Social Tipping Games: Experimental Paradigms for Studying Consumer Movements

We introduce a collection of experimental paradigms that allow researchers to examine when and how consumer movements can provoke a change across a social network over time: social tipping paradigms grounded in game theory.

Unveiling citizens’ perspective on citizen assemblies among participants and non-participants of a citizen assembly on energy

In contrast to conventional wisdom, decision-making power was not the key driver of public acceptability of the Dutch Citizen Assembly on Energy — engaging in dialogue and deliberation might be more important to citizens than having more power per se.

How bottom-up and top-down governance of community energy initiatives affects citizens’ perceptions, acceptability, and willingness to join

Results of three experimental studies and surveys (Ntotal = 3135) conducted in four EU countries show that community members' involvement, but not external parties' involvement, in CEI governance promotes perceived efficacy and identity leadership of the CEI, and thereby its acceptability and people's willingness to join.

A social network approach to community energy initiative participation

This perspective paper argues how a social network approach can contribute to creating a more comprehensive picture of how individual and community characteristics influence participation in community energy initiatives (CEIs).

Responsible carbon dioxide removals and the EU’s 2040 climate target

All carbon dioxide removal options come with varying environmental externalities, costs, and social implications, thus requiring a multidisciplinary approach for the analysis. The NEGEM project15 has taken many of these necessary steps to study the deployment of responsible negative emissions and their contribution to achieving climate neutrality.

Are we on the same page? Understanding value similarity and its impact on public trust in institutions of the energy sector

Perceived value similarity and trust in institutions are higher when people perceive institutions to have stronger biospheric values than themselves and when they expect institutions to be less egoistic than themselves.

Citizen assemblies should involve citizens as experts on their own values

Associate professor Goda Perlaviciute proposes a paradigm shift that creates explicit room for citizens’ values in citizen assemblies (CAs). Using concrete examples, she illustrates how every step of CAs could be transformed to elicit citizens’ values: from citizen selection, to setting the remit, facilitating the discussion, and shaping and institutionalizing policy recommendations.

Energy citizenship as people’s perceived (collective) rights and responsibilities in a just and sustainable energy transition – scale development and validation

The aim of this paper is to develop and validate a scale to reliably measure people's level of energy citizenship.

Do I Perceive That We as a Community Can Persist, Adapt Flexibly, and Positively Transform? The Relationship Between Collective Transilience and Community-Based Adaptation

Collective transilience reflects the extent to which people perceive they can persist, adapt flexibly, and positively transform as a community in the face of climate change.

Perceived distributive fairness and public acceptance of a policy mandating on-site wastewater treatment and reuse

On the example of Bengaluru, India, where such a policy exists, this online study (N = 350) analysed whether policy acceptance can be explained by the perceived policy outcome for different groups of society (i.e. the distribution of the policy’s costs, risks, and benefits among these groups), and whether this relation is mediated by perceived fairness.

Our publications

People’s perception of biodiversity loss: Validation of a scale in Germany

Good intentions, limited action: when do farmers’ intentions to adopt sustainable farming practices turn into actual behaviour?

‘Yes, we care’: pro-environmental social identity framing to promote acceptance of decentralized wastewater treatment systems

The climate anxiety compass: A framework to map the solution space for coping with climate anxiety

The public demands more climate action, not less

Social Tipping Games: Experimental Paradigms for Studying Consumer Movements

Unveiling citizens’ perspective on citizen assemblies among participants and non-participants of a citizen assembly on energy

How bottom-up and top-down governance of community energy initiatives affects citizens’ perceptions, acceptability, and willingness to join

A social network approach to community energy initiative participation

Responsible carbon dioxide removals and the EU’s 2040 climate target

Are we on the same page? Understanding value similarity and its impact on public trust in institutions of the energy sector

Citizen assemblies should involve citizens as experts on their own values

Energy citizenship as people’s perceived (collective) rights and responsibilities in a just and sustainable energy transition – scale development and validation

Do I Perceive That We as a Community Can Persist, Adapt Flexibly, and Positively Transform? The Relationship Between Collective Transilience and Community-Based Adaptation

Perceived distributive fairness and public acceptance of a policy mandating on-site wastewater treatment and reuse

Accelerating social tipping points in sustainable behaviors: Insights from a dynamic model of moralized social change

Consumer resistance diminishes environmental gains of dietary change

Trusting the minister or trusting the mayor? Perceived competence and integrity of central and local Dutch institutions governing energy matters

Tasting and labeling meat substitute products can affect consumers’ product evaluations and preferences

Public opinion about solar radiation management: A cross-cultural study in 20 countries around the world

Acceptability of connected automated vehicles: Attributes, perceived behavioural control, and perceived adoption norm

Exploring energy geography: Data insights on household consumption

Circular consumption to reduce environmental pressure: Potential of behavioural change in the Netherlands

Exploration of children’s value patterns in relation to environmental education programmes

Individual Transilience in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Climate anxiety is not a mental health problem. But we should still treat it as one

Are we on the same page? Exploring the relationships between environmental values, self-identity, personal norms and behavior in parent-adolescent dyads

The group dynamics sparking social change: how group value in diversity predicts interactions with a deviant

Time to talk about values, time to say no: What drives public participation in decision-making on abstract versus concrete energy projects?

Climate Anxiety: A Research Agenda Inspired by Emotion Research

From believing in climate change to adapting to climate change: The role of risk perception and efficacy beliefs

Climate anxiety is about more than just personal risks

Gendered geography of energy consumption in the Netherlands

Which policy measures can motivate active mobility in rural and semi-rural areas?

The psychological distance of climate change is overestimated

Environmental Decision-Making in Times of Polarization

The role of partners, parents and friends in shaping young women’s reproductive choices in Peri-urban Nairobi: a qualitative study

An interdisciplinary understanding of energy citizenship: Integrating psychological, legal, and economic perspectives on a citizen-centred sustainable energy transition

Can we do more than “bounce back”? Transilience in the face of climate change risks

Cooking a pro-veg*n social identity: the influence of vegan cooking workshops on children’s pro-veg*n social identities, attitudes, and dietary intentions

An Integrated Human–Cyber–Physical Framework for Control of Microgrids

The importance of user acceptance, support, and behaviour change for the implementation of decentralized water technologies

When others control risks: Others-focused coping with risks from energy projects

Trust in institutions and public acceptability of risky energy production: Testing the causal relationships in the context of Groningen earthquakes

De Gruyter Handbook of Sustainable Entrepreneurship Research

Context matters: The role of perceived ease and feasibility vis-à-vis biospheric values in recycling behaviour

A social network perspective on involvement in community energy initiatives: The role of direct and extended social ties to initiators

A method to identify barriers to and enablers of implementing climate change mitigation options

To select effective interventions for pro-environmental behaviour change, we need to consider determinants of behaviour

Opposing out loud versus supporting in silence: who wants to participate in decision-making about energy projects?

Profiles of an Ideal Society: The Utopian Visions of Ordinary People

The politicisation of climate change attitudes in Europe

A spiral of (in)action: Empowering people to translate their values in climate action

The Importance of Institutional Capacity and Negotiation Capacity in Affordable Housing Agreements: The Potential for Collective Action in Melbourne, Australia

Distributed control of DC grids: Integrating prosumers’ motives

Corporate environmental responsibility leads to more pro-environmental behavior at work by strengthening intrinsic pro-environmental motivation

Unequal means more unfair means more negative emotions? Ethical concerns and emotions about an unequal distribution of negative outcomes of a local energy project

Designing for value-behaviour consistency: ethical choice architecture to stimulate sustainable meat purchase

Adding Dynamic Norm to Environmental Information in Messages Promoting the Reduction of Meat Consumption

Relationships between climate change perceptions and climate adaptation actions: policy support, information seeking, and behaviour

The role of trust in public acceptability of energy projects: Integrity versus competence

The role of trust in public acceptability of energy projects: Integrity versus competence

The impact of COVID-19 related regulations and restrictions on mobility and potential for sustained climate mitigation across the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK

The Role of Community in Understanding Involvement in Community Energy Initiatives

Towards Circular Economy for More Sustainable Apparel Consumption: Testing the Value-Belief-Norm theory in Brazil and in The Netherlands

Are subsidies for climate action effective? Two case studies in the Netherlands

Dietary behaviour as a form of collective action: A social identity model of vegan activism

De rol van menselijk gedrag is cruciaal voor een soepele landbouwtransitie

Demand-side solutions to climate change mitigation consistent with high levels of well-being

Contested climate policies and the four Ds of public participation: From normative standards to what people want

Engaging city residents in climate action: Addressing the personal and group value-base behind residents’ climate actions

Moral hypocrisy and the hedonic shift: A goal-framing approach

Limiting climate change requires research on climate action

Can community energy initiatives motivate sustainable energy behaviours? The role of initiative involvement and personal pro-environmental motivation

Beyond purchasing: Electric vehicle adoption motivation and consistent sustainable energy behaviour in The Netherlands

Measuring Values in Environmental Research: A Test of an Environmental Portrait Value Questionnaire

Emotional Responses to Energy Projects: Insights for Responsible Decision Making in a Sustainable Energy Transition

Corruption in Organizations: Ethical Climate and Individual Motives

Consumer Behavior: Why Engineers Need to Read About It [Guest Editorial]

Changing Household Energy Usage: The Downsides of Incentives and How to Overcome Them

At the Heart of a Sustainable Energy Transition: The Public Acceptability of Energy Projects

A Part of the Energy “In Crowd”: Changing People’s Energy Behavior via Group-Based Approaches

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