Recent work
Abstract. Behavioural science has yielded insights about the actions of individuals, particularly as consumers, that affect climate change. Behaviours in other spheres of life remain understudied. In this Perspective, we propose a collaborative research agenda that integrates behavioural science insights across multiple disciplines. To this end, we offer six recommendations for optimizing the quality and impact of research on individual climate behaviour. The recommendations are united by a shift towards more solutions-focused research that is directly useful to citizens, policymakers and other change agents. Achieving this vision will require overcoming challenges such as the limited funding for behavioural and social sciences and structural barriers within and beyond the academic system that impede collaborations across disciplines.
Abstract. Extensive research highlights global and within-country inequality in personal carbon footprints. However, the extent to which people are aware of these inequalities remains unclear. Here we use an online survey distributed across four diverse countries: Denmark, India, Nigeria and the USA, to show widespread underestimation of carbon footprint inequality, irrespective of participants’ country and income segment. Of the 4,003 participants, within each country, 50% of participants were sampled from the top 10% income group. Our results show links between carbon footprint inequality perceptions and climate policy support, but with significant variations observed across the four countries and with participants’ income segments. Furthermore, there are links to the perceived fairness of actual carbon footprint inequality, highlighting the need to raise awareness about carbon footprint inequality and further unpack its implications for climate justice and policy.
Xia, Z., Ye, J., Ding, J., Geiger, N., Hahnel, U., Debnath, R., Constantino, S., Zhang, C., & Nielsen, K. S. (2025). Predicting climate policy support with large language models: Assessing accuracy and bias in AI-simulated policy support. [Link].
Ding, J., Xia, Z., Geiger, N., Ye, J., Zhang, C., Constantino, S., & Nielsen, K. S. (2025). A meta-analysis of the real-world impact of sustainability labeling on consumer choices. [Link].
Frings, N. L., Nielsen, K. S., Rahmani Azad, Z., & Hahnel, U. J. (2025). National context shapes climate impact perceptions and their effects on climate policy support and behavior. [Link].
Lundgaard, D., Nielsen, K. S., Harjani, T., Roozenbeek, J., Hofmann, W., Linden, S., … Nicholas, K. (2024). Public and scientific climate action messaging on Twitter. [Link].
Nielsen, K. S., Dablander, F., Debnath, R., Emogor, C. A., Ghai, S., Gwozdz, W., Hahnel, U. J. J., Hofmann, W., & Bauer, J. M. (2024). Perceived plasticity of climate-relevant behaviors and policy support among high- and lower-income individuals. [Link].
Stoeckli, S., Merian, S., Holenweger, G., Nielsen, K. S., & Natter, M. (2023). Public perceptions of food’s biodiversity footprints. [Link]
Goldwert, D., Patel, Y., Nielsen, K. S., Goldberg, M. H., & Vlasceanu, M. (2025). Climate action literacy interventions increase commitments to more effective mitigation behaviors. PNAS Nexus. [Link]
Günther, A., Engel, L., Hornsey, M. J., Nielsen, K. S., Roy, J., Steg, L., Tam, K.-P., Van Valkengoed, A. M., Wolske, K. S., Wong-Parodi, G., & Hahnel, U. J. J. (2025). Psychological and contextual determinants of clean energy technology adoption. Nature Reviews Clean Technology. [Link]
Grelle, S., Nielsen, K. S., Kukowski, C. A., Hofmann, W., & Bauer, J. M. (2024). Is dietary goal failure associated with goal-supportive policy attitudes? Behavioural Public Policy. [Link]
Nielsen, K. S., Bauer, J. M., Debnath, R., Emogor, C. A., Geiger, S. M., Ghai, S., Gwozdz, W. & Hahnel, U. J. (2024). Underestimation of personal carbon footprint inequality in four diverse countries. Nature Climate Change. [Link]
Pienkowski, T., Jagadish, A., Battista, W., Blaise, G. C., Christie, A. P., Clark, M., Emenyu, A. P., Joglekar, A., Nielsen, K. S., Powell, T., White, T., & Mills, M. (2024). Five lessons to avoid failing at scaling in conservation, Nature Ecology & Evolution. [Link]
Hofmann, W., Grelle, S., Nielsen, K. S., & Kukowski, C. A. (2024). Self-control and behavioral public policy. Current Opinion in Psychology. [Link]
Brick, C., Nielsen, K. S., Berger, S., Henn, L., Wolske, K. S., Lange, F., ... & Cologna, V. (2024). Current research practices on pro-environmental behavior: A survey of environmental psychologists. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 102375.
Nielsen, K. S., Cologna, V., Bauer, J. M., Berger, S., Brick, C., Dietz, T., ... & Wolske, K. S. (2024). Realizing the full potential of behavioural science for climate change mitigation. Nature Climate Change, 14, 322-330.
Papies, E. K., Nielsen, K. S., & Soares, V. A. (2024). Health Psychology and Climate Change: Time to address humanity’s most existential crisis. Health Psychology Review, 1-31.
Nielsen, K. S., & Vandenbergh, M. P. (2024). Product Labels and Individual Carbon Footprints. In Elgar Encyclopedia of Climate Policy (pp. 352-355). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Vandenbergh, M. P., & Nielsen, K. S. (2024). Information Disclosure as Climate Policy. In Elgar Encyclopedia of Climate Policy (pp. 333-337). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Nielsen, K. S., Joanes, T., Webb, D., Gupta, S., & Gwozdz, W. (2023). Exploring the psychological characteristics of style and fashion clothing orientations. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 40, 897-910.
Kukowski, C. A.†, Hofmann, W., Roozenbeek, J., van der Linden, S., Vandenbergh, M. P., & Nielsen, K. S.† (2023). The perceived feasibility of behavior change is positively associated with support for domain-matched climate policies. One Earth, 6, 1554-1563.
Brick, C., Nielsen, K. S., & Hofmann, W. (2023). Opportunities for emotion research on biodiversity. Emotion Review, 15, 263-266.
Wenzel, M., Rowland, Z., Nielsen, K. S., & Lange, F. (2023). Too much praise for reappraisal? Examining reappraisal's impact on threat mitigation depending on its implementation: A registered report. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 107, 104475.
Wenzel, M., Rowland, Z., Nielsen, K. S., & Lange, F. (2023). The impact of perceived threat and perceived coping efficacy on individual actions toward biodiversity conservation: a registered report. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 88, 102038.
Emogor, C. A., Zabala, A., Adaje, P. O., Clark, D., Nielsen, K. S., & Carmenta, R. (2023). Stakeholder preferences for pangolin conservation interventions in south‐east Nigeria. People and Nature, 5, 1010-1026.
Lange, F., Berger, S., Byrka, K., Brügger, A., Henn, L., Sparks, A. C., Nielsen, K. S., & Urban, J. (2023). Beyond self-reports: A call for more behavior in environmental psychology. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 86, 101965.
Kukowski, C. A., Bernecker, K., Nielsen, K. S., Hofmann, W., & Brandstätter, V. (2023). Regulate me! Self-control dissatisfaction in meat reduction success relates to stronger support for behavior-regulating policy. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 85, 101922.
Nielsen, K. S. (2023). Organizational change for biodiversity. Nature Food, 4, 15-16.
Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., Nielsen, K. S., Peng, W., & Vandenbergh, M. P. (2023). Feasible climate mitigation. Nature Climate Change, 13, 6-8.
Nielsen, K. S., Brick, C., Hofmann, W., Joanes, T., Lange, F., & Gwozdz, W. (2022). The motivation-impact gap in pro-environmental clothing consumption. Nature Sustainability, 5, 665-668.
Taufique, K. M. D. †, Nielsen, K. S.†, Dietz, T., Shwom, R., Stern, P.C., & Vandenbergh, M. P. (2022). Revisiting the promise of carbon labeling. Nature Climate Change, 12, 132-140.
Bauer, J. M., Nielsen, K. S., Reisch, L., & Hofmann, W. (2022). Healthy eating in the wild: An experience-sampling study of how food environments and situational factors shape out-of-home dietary success. Social Science & Medicine, 299, 114869.
Nielsen, K. S., Nicholas, K., Creutzig, F, Dietz, T., & Stern, P.C. (2021). The role of high socioeconomic status people in locking-in or rapidly reducing energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions. Nature Energy, 6, 1011-1016.
Balmford, A., Bradbury, R., Burgess, G., Trevelyan, R., Bauer, J. M., Burgman, M., Broad, S., Byerly, H., Clayton, S., Espelosin, D., Ferraro, P., Fisher, B., Garnett, E., Jones, J. P. G., Marteau, T. M., Otieno, M., Polasky, S., Ricketts, T., Sandbrook, C., Sullivan-Wiley, K., van der Linden, S., Verissimo, D, & Nielsen, K. S. (2021). Making more effective use of behavioural science in conservation interventions. Biological Conservation, 261, 109256.
Sohn, J. †, Nielsen, K. S.†, Birkved, M., Gwozdz, W., & Joanes, T. (2021). The environmental impacts of clothing: Evidence from United States and three European countries. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 27, 2153-2164.
Nielsen, K. S., Marteau, T. M., Bradbury, R., Burgess, G., Trevelyan, R., Bauer, J. M., Burgman, M., Broad, S., Byerly, H., Clayton, S., Clements, T., Espelosin, D., Ferraro, P., Fisher, B., Garnett, E., Jones, J. P. G., Otieno, M., Polasky, S., Ricketts, T., Sandbrook, C., van der Linden, S., Verissimo, D, & Balmford, A. (2021). Biodiversity conservation as a promising frontier for behavioural science. Nature Human Behaviour, 5, 550-555.
Lange, F., Nielsen, K. S., Cologna, V., Brick, C., & Stern, P. C. (2021). Making theory useful for understanding high-impact behavior. A response to van Valkengoed et al. (2021). Journal of Environmental Psychology, 75, 101611.
Nielsen, K. S., Cologna, V., Lange, F., Brick, C., & Stern, P. (2021). The case for impact-focused environmental psychology. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 74, 101559.
Nielsen, K. S., & Hofmann, W. (2021). Motivating sustainability through morality: A daily diary study on the link between moral self-control and clothing consumption. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 73, 101551.
Creutzig, F., Callaghan, M., Ramakrishnan, A., Javaid, A., Niamir, L., ... Nielsen, K. S., ... & Wilson, C. (2021). A typology of 100,000 publications on demand, services and social aspects of climate change mitigation. Environmental Research Letters, 16, 033001.
Nielsen, K. S., Clayton, S., Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., Capstick, S., & Whitmarsh, L. (2021). How psychology can help limit climate change. American Psychologist, 76, 130- 144.
Nielsen, K. S., Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., Gilligan, J. M., van Vuuren, D., Figueroa, M., Folke, C., Gwozdz, W., Ivanova, D., Reisch, L., Vandenbergh, M. P., Wolske, K., Wood, R. (2020). Improving Climate Change Mitigation Analysis: A Framework for Examining Feasibility. One Earth, 3, 325-336.
Nielsen, K. S., van der Linden, S, & Stern, P. C. (2020). How Behavioral Interventions Can Reduce the Climate Impact of Energy Use. Joule, 4, 1613-1616.
Nielsen, K. S., Bauer, J. M., & Hofmann, W. (2020). Examining the Relationship Between Trait Self-Control and Mental Health: Evidence on Generalizability and Outcome Variability. Journal of Research in Personality, 84, 103901.
Nielsen, K. S., Gwozdz, W., & De Ridder, D. T. D. (2019). Unravelling the relationship between trait self-control and subjective well-being: The mediating role of four self- control strategies. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 706.
Vandenbergh, M. P., & Nielsen, K. S. (2019). From myths to action, Nature Climate Change, 9, 8-9.
Nielsen, K. S. & Bauer, J. M. (2019). The merits of goal support as a self-control strategy. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 10, 671-680.
Nielsen, K. S. (2017). From prediction to process: A self-regulation account of environmental behavior change. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 51, 189-198.
Gwozdz, W., Nielsen, K. S., & Müller, T. (2017). An environmental perspective on clothing consumption: Consumer segments and their behavioral patterns. Sustainability, 9, 762.
Thøgersen, J., & Nielsen, K. S. (2016). A Better Carbon Footprint Label. Journal of Cleaner Production, 125, 86-94.
