Rate My Professor Michael Siegrist

Michael Siegrist is a distinguished professor specializing in consumer behavior, currently holding the position of Professor of Consumer Behavior and Head of the Consumer Behavior Group at the Institute for Environmental Decisions, ETH Zurich, since April 2007. Born in 1965 in Vordemwald, Switzerland, he studied psychology, statistics, and social psychology at the University of Zurich and the University of Bern, earning his PhD. His academic career has centered on empirical research into human decision-making processes under uncertainty, with a strong emphasis on risk perception and communication. Siegrist's work examines how social trust, knowledge, affect, and cultural worldviews influence public attitudes toward emerging technologies, environmental hazards, and food-related innovations.

Siegrist's research specializations include the acceptance of gene technology, nanotechnology foods, sustainable protein consumption, food waste behaviors, naturalness perceptions in food products, the psychology of insect consumption, cooking skills for healthy choices, and public trust during pandemics and natural disasters like flooding. He has authored or co-authored over 477 publications, amassing tens of thousands of citations. Notable key publications encompass 'Perception of hazards: The role of social trust and knowledge' (2000), 'The influence of trust and perceptions of risks and benefits on the acceptance of gene technology' (2000), 'Salient value similarity, social trust, and risk/benefit perception' (2000), 'The role of the affect and availability heuristics in risk communication' (2006), 'Public acceptance of nanotechnology foods and food packaging: The influence of affect and trust' (2007), 'Factors influencing public acceptance of innovative food technologies and products' (2008), 'Eating green. Consumers’ willingness to adopt ecological food consumption behaviors' (2011), 'The psychology of eating insects: A cross-cultural comparison between Germany and China' (2015), 'Sorting out food waste behaviour: A survey on the motivators and barriers of self-reported amounts of food waste in households' (2016), 'Consumer perception and behaviour regarding sustainable protein consumption: A systematic review' (2017), 'The importance of food naturalness for consumers: Results of a systematic review' (2017), 'Risk perception: Reflections on 40 years of research' (2020), and 'Consumer acceptance of novel food technologies' (2020). Siegrist has collaborated extensively with researchers at the University of Newcastle, Australia, particularly in the Faculty of Health and Medicine's School of Health Sciences, on projects exploring healthy food choices, home cooking perceptions, and naturalness evaluations of wine among Swiss and Australian consumers. These joint efforts, such as the fake food experiment on practical understanding of healthy meals (2016), highlight his influence in nutritional psychology and cross-cultural consumer studies. Additionally, he serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Risk Research and delivers public lectures, including at the University of Newcastle's Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition.