Conditional cooperation and costly monitoring explain success in forest commons management.

Recent evidence suggests that prosocial behaviors like conditional cooperation and costly norm enforcement can stabilize large-scale cooperation for commons management. However, field evidence on the extent to which variation in these behaviors among actual commons users accounts for natural commons outcomes is altogether missing. Here, we combine experimental measures of conditional cooperation and survey measures on costly monitoring among 49 forest user groups in Ethiopia with measures of natural forest commons outcomes to show that (i) groups vary in conditional cooperator share, (ii) groups with larger conditional cooperator share are more successful in forest commons management, and (iii) costly monitoring is a key instrument with which conditional cooperators enforce cooperation.

Ready-meal consumption: associations with weight status and cooking skills.

Objective: The ready-meal market has grown considerably in recent years. At the same time, a degradation of traditional cooking skills has been observed. Ready meals are often rich in energy, fat and sugar and lack vegetables; however, studies investigating associations between ready-meal consumption, overweight and cooking skills are lacking.

Cell phones and health concerns: impact of knowledge and voluntary precautionary recommendations.

The article explores how voluntary precautionary recommendations for cell phone usage influence people's health concerns and behavior. An experimental study using a sample of Swiss citizens (N=408) was conducted. Three different versions of a newly developed booklet, which focused on common misconceptions in regard to mobile communication, and an existing booklet were tested.

When reduced fat increases preference. How fat reduction in nutrition tables and numeracy skills affect food choices.

Zero-fat products may be good alternatives to regular-fat products for consumers who are watching their health. In a choice experiment, we investigated whether consumers were willing to consume zero-fat products on the basis of nutrition tables and whether numeracy skills affected this decision. We presented respondents with the same two products in three choice tasks, reducing the fat content at each choice.

How weight-related cues affect food intake in a modeling situation.

In a standard modeling experiment, a naïve participant eats in the presence of an experimental confederate who has been instructed to eat a lot or a little. Results from such experiments show that people eat more when eating companions eat more and less when eating companions eat less. This modeling effect has been shown to be highly powerful.

Convenience food products. Drivers for consumption.

Convenience is one of the big trends in the food business. The demand for convenience food products is steadily increasing; therefore, understanding convenience food consumption is an important issue. Despite being vital properties of convenience food, saving time and effort have not been very successful constructs for predicting convenience food consumption.

Impact of knowledge and misconceptions on benefit and risk perception of CCS.

Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) is assumed to be one of the key technologies in the mitigation of climate change. Public acceptance may have a strong impact on the progress of this technology. Benefit perception and risk perception are known to be important determinants of public acceptance of CCS.

Residents' reasons for specialty choice: influence of gender, time, patient and career.

OBJECTIVE This study examined reasons for specialty choice among Swiss residents (post graduate doctors training in specialties). METHODS In 2006, a questionnaire was sent to 8626 Swiss residents registered in postgraduate medical training programmes to obtain specialist qualifications. The response rate was 65% (n = 5631).

Examining the relationship between affect and implicit associations: implications for risk perception.

It has been suggested that affect may play an important role in risk perception. Slovic et al. argued that people make use of the "affect heuristic" when assessing risks because it is easier and more efficient to rely on spontaneous affective reactions than to analyze all available information.

Health motivation and product design determine consumers' visual attention to nutrition information on food products.

Objective: In the present study we investigated consumers' visual attention to nutrition information on food products using an indirect instrument, an eye tracker. In addition, we looked at whether people with a health motivation focus on nutrition information on food products more than people with a taste motivation.

Design: Respondents were instructed to choose one of five cereals for either the kindergarten (health motivation) or the student cafeteria (taste motivation).

A mechanistic model of infection: why duration and intensity of contacts should be included in models of disease spread.

Background: Mathematical models and simulations of disease spread often assume a constant per-contact transmission probability. This assumption ignores the heterogeneity in transmission probabilities, e.g.

Effect of risk ladder format on risk perception in high- and low-numerate individuals.

Utilizing a random sample from the general population (N= 257), we examined the effect of the radon risk ladder on risk perception, as qualified by respondents' numeracy. The radon risk ladder provides comparative risk information about the radon equivalent of smoking risk. We compared a risk ladder providing smoking risk information with a risk ladder not providing this information.

Models of epidemics: when contact repetition and clustering should be included.

Background: The spread of infectious disease is determined by biological factors, e.g. the duration of the infectious period, and social factors, e.

Expectations influence sensory experience in a wine tasting.

Information about a product may shape consumers' taste experience. In a wine tasting experiment, participants received (positive or negative) information about the wine prior to or after the tasting. When the information was given prior to the tasting, negative information about the wine resulted in lower ratings compared to the group that received positive information.

Restorative qualities of indoor and outdoor exercise settings as predictors of exercise frequency.

Positive environmental determinants of exercise frequency remain poorly understood. Knowing that people often value exercise for psychological restoration, we investigated the restorative quality of indoor and outdoor exercise settings as predictors of exercise frequency. We surveyed 319 members of fitness centers in Zurich that offer indoor and outdoor exercise alternatives.

Phthalate exposure through food and consumers' risk perception of chemicals in food.

Phthalates have been detected in various types of retail foods. Consumers' exposure to phthalates is common. Consumers are concerned about chemicals in food.

Natural hazards and motivation for mitigation behavior: people cannot predict the affect evoked by a severe flood.

Past research indicates that personal flood experience is an important factor in motivating mitigation behavior. It is not fully clear, however, why such experience is so important. This study tested the hypothesis that people without flooding experience underestimate the negative affect evoked by such an event.

The effect of graphical and numerical presentation of hypothetical prenatal diagnosis results on risk perception.

Objective: To evaluate various formats for the communication of prenatal test results.

Design: In study 1 (N=400), female students completed a questionnaire assessing risk perception, affect, and perceived usefulness of prenatal test results. A randomized, 2 (risk level; low, high) x 4 (format; ratio with numerator 1, ratio with denominator 1000, Paling Perspective Scale, pictograms) design was used.

Consumers' willingness to buy functional foods. The influence of carrier, benefit and trust.

The goal of the present study was to examine factors that influence willingness to buy functional foods. Data were collected from a representative mail survey in Switzerland (n=249). Results suggest that consumers are more inclined to buy functional foods with physiological health claims compared with psychological health claims.

Perceived risks and perceived benefits of different nanotechnology foods and nanotechnology food packaging.

Nanotechnology has the potential to generate new food products and new food packaging. In a mail survey in the German speaking part of Switzerland, lay people's (N=337) perceptions of 19 nanotechnology applications were examined. The goal was to identify food applications that are more likely and food applications that are less likely to be accepted by the public.

Measuring societal effects of transdisciplinary research projects: design and application of an evaluation method.

Most Transdisciplinary Research (TdR) projects combine scientific research with the building of decision making capacity for the involved stakeholders. These projects usually deal with complex, societally relevant, real-world problems. This paper focuses on TdR projects, which integrate the knowledge of researchers and stakeholders in a collaborative transdisciplinary process through structured methods of mutual learning.

Public acceptance of nanotechnology foods and food packaging: the influence of affect and trust.

Nanotechnology is increasingly being employed in the areas of food production and packaging. Public perception will be crucial to the realization of these technological advances. We examined how lay people (N=153) perceive nanotechnology foods and nanotechnology food packaging, and we examined the factors that influence willingness to buy these products.