2020-04-07, Visschers, Vivianne, Griesser, Simone

2019-09-27, Freivogel, Claudia, Visschers, Vivianne

2019, Feck, Vanessa, Herrmann, Anne, Visschers, Vivianne

Background: Food consumption affects individuals as well as our planet. How can a tailored app help people to make healthier and more sustainable meal choices? To answer this question, we contributed to the development of an evidence-based dietary app and evaluated its effects. The app offers personalized recipes and tips in order to reduce food waste and meat consumption, and increase the use of seasonal and plant-based products. Method: Using a mixed-methods approach, app usage data (N=2167) and quantitative data from a longitudinal online questionnaire (T1-T3: N=56) were combined with in-depth interviews with users (N=6) and app-developers (N=3). Findings: In the interviews, users evaluated the personalized recipe-suggestions positively. An additional search (e.g. recipes with certain ingredients) was often no longer necessary to find a suitable recipe. The app metrics showed positive correlations between frequent app usage and the motivation to reduce food waste (r=.06, p<.05) as well as the motivation to use seasonal products (r=.16, p<.01). The survey data showed that participants’ initial confidence to implement new dietary behavior was a strong predictor of the implementation of new dietary behavior after three weeks of app usage (β≥.49, p≤.01, R2 = .66). Last, the development team emphasized the benefits of an iterative approach in which regular user feedback informed the further development process of the app. Discussion: The results of this research show that it can be effective to combine health- and sustainability-focused diet interventions. These interventions should be personalized and aim to increase users’ confidence to perform new dietary behavior.

2018, Lazzarini, Gianna A., Visschers, Vivianne, Siegrist, Michael

Food production and consumption account for approximately one-third of households' environmental impact. Consumers thus play a major role in the shift towards more sustainable foods and diets. An overall sustainability label or simple guidelines may enable consumers to make more environmentally friendly food choices, but whether such information-based tools improve consumers' ability to choose environmentally sustainable foods has not been empirically investigated. This study's online choice task experiment shows that eco-labels and guidelines marginally increased consumers' accuracy in selecting environmentally friendly foods. Respondents adhered, however, more to guidelines than to eco-labels and led to choices with lower environmental impact. In addition, respondents showed several misconceptions related to the environmental performance of protein products, which were resistant to both eco-labels and guidelines. These findings suggest that new, costly labels may not improve consumers' environmental judgements. Instead, addressing consumers' misconceptions and finding ways to promote environmentally sustainable food purchases is essential.

2020-01-28, Visschers, Vivianne, Keller, Christoph

Wer im Winter Tomaten kauft, «erwirbt» pro Kilo Tomaten bis zu 9,2 Kilo CO2. CO2, das von der Heizung der Treibhäuser stammt, aus dem Transport, aus der Logistik. Das wissen die wenigsten, und die wenigsten reagieren überhaupt auf Labels, die Alternativen anbieten. Wer also trägt die Verantwortung - die Konsument*innen, die Grossvertreiler, der Staat? «treibhaus» befragt die Psychologin und Klimaexpertin Vivianne Visschers und Raphael Schilling, Nachhaltigkeitsverantwortlicher bei Coop Schweiz.

2019-09-06, Freivogel, Claudia, Visschers, Vivianne

2019, Jobin, Marilou, Visschers, Vivianne, Arvai, Joseph, Siegrist, Michael

The energy transition in Switzerland, as in many other countries, aims to increase the proportion of electricity produced using renewable energy technologies. In this context, governmental agencies and other institutions have attempted to communicate the implications of (domestic) electricity systems through the use of web-based and interactive decision support systems (DSSs). Studies show that, when no additional information is provided, preferences concerning the future electricity mix are mainly driven by the affective reactions that energy technologies evoke. A question remains, however, regarding how people engage with the information provided in a DSS, as well as whether such information is influential in terms of shaping people’s choices. We asked our participants to build an electricity portfolio using a DSS, which modeled the Swiss electricity system. The participants’ political orientation and their affective reactions to different energy technologies guided their information search, as well as the choice of energy technologies within their portfolio. The attention paid to the information provided was not directly related to the participants’ portfolio choices. The selective processing of information, which was based on the participants’ prior attitudes, suggests that they target information they are already familiar with in the DSS. However, this also illustrates a caveat previously identified in motivated political reasoning, since selective information processing, together with the tendency to disconfirm information that is incongruent with prior beliefs, can lead to the polarization of previously held views. As the information provided through the DSS we tested was unable to change the participants’ affective-cognitive evaluation of energy technologies, its use should be carefully considered in light of the possible effects of consolidating existing beliefs.

2020, Visschers, Vivianne, Gundlach, Daniela, Beretta, Claudio

Two interventions were systematically evaluated in two university canteens on their effectiveness to reduce visitors’ plate waste. The evaluation was theory-based and focused not only at the effects on the amount of plate waste, but also at the psychological predictors underlying plate waste behaviour. In Intervention A, visitors received information about food waste over a period of three weeks. In Intervention B, in addition to information, smaller servings were offered. The actual amount of plate waste and visitors’ attitudes, personal norms, beliefs, perceived behavioural control, intentions and plate waste reduction behaviour were measured before and after the interventions. Intervention B reduced the amount of plate waste by 20%, whereas no reduction was found after Intervention A. In both interventions, the provided information resulted in more positive beliefs and stronger personal norms regarding avoiding plate waste. The information also caused attitudes to have a stronger influence on plate waste reduction behaviour, whereas intention to reduce became less important for reducing plate waste. Personal norms regarding food waste were the strongest predictor of plate waste reduction behaviour, before and after the interventions. The provided information was thus insufficient to reduce plate waste, simply offering smaller servings could achieve this. Although our intervention study only included two university canteens and was conducted for a short period, our data seem to imply that a combination of both information and smaller servings reduces plate waste in the food service industry.

2019-03-28, Freivogel, Claudia, Lechner, Isabel, Visschers, Vivianne

2018, Backhans, Annette, Dewulf, Jeroen, Emanuelson, Ulf, Grosse Beilage, Elisabeth, Loesken, Svenja, Postma, Merel, Sjölund, Marie, Stärk, Katherina, Visschers, Vivianne, Belloc, Catherine, Collineau, Lucie, Bougeard, Stéphanie, Lehébel, Anne

Antimicrobial use in pig farming is influenced by a range of risk factors, including herd characteristics, biosecurity level, farm performance, occurrence of clinical signs and vaccination scheme, as well as farmers’ attitudes and habits towards antimicrobial use. So far, the effect of these risk factors has been explored separately. Using an innovative method called multiblock partial least-squares regression, this study aimed to investigate, in a sample of 207 farrow-to-finish farms from Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden, the relative importance of the six above mentioned categories or ‘blocks’ of risk factors for antimicrobial use in pig production. Four country separate models were developed; they showed that all six blocks provided useful contribution to explaining antimicrobial use in at least one country. The occurrence of clinical signs, especially of respiratory and nervous diseases in fatteners, was one of the largest contributing blocks in all four countries, whereas the effect of the other blocks differed between countries. In terms of risk management, it suggests that a holistic and country-specific mitigation strategy is likely to be more effective. However, further research is needed to validate our findings in larger and more representative samples, as well as in other countries.