Henrik Siepelmeyer

• Pfuhl, Gerit; Prazeres, Filipe; Kowal, Marta; Aavik, Toivo; Abad-Villaverde, Beatriz & Afhami, Reza [Show all 116 contributors for this article] (2025). A preliminary study on the role of personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases on self-reported health across countries. Public Health. ISSN 0033-3506. 242, p. 220–227. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2025.02.030. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Objectives Infectious diseases are often associated with decline in quality of life. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between personal history of communicable, i.e., infectious and parasitic diseases and self-rated health. Study design Secondary analysis of a large dataset multi-country observational study. Methods We used a four-pronged analysis approach to investigate whether personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases is related to self-reported health, measured with a single item. Results Three of the four analyses found a small positive effect on self-reported health among those reporting a history of pathogen exposure. The meta-analysis found no support but large heterogeneity that was not reduced by two classifications of countries. Conclusion Personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases does not reduce self-reported health across a global sample.

• Mäkivierikko, Aram; Siepelmeyer, Henrik; Shahrokni, Hossein; Enarsson, David & Kordas, Olga (2023). Reducing electricity peak loads through ‘pause hours’ - a community-based behavioural demand response approach. Journal of Cleaner Production. ISSN 0959-6526. 408. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137064. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Households can provide demand-side flexibility by changing their consumption behaviour and shifting energy-intensive activities – such as vacuuming, cooking or charging electric cars – to off-peak hours. Such behaviour-based demand response management could balance out consumption peaks without the need for costly smart home devices or automation technologies. However, existing research has struggled to motivate consumers to adapt their behaviour or maintain behaviour change over extended periods of time. This field study explored a scalable and cost-effective behavioural demand response tool and investigated its short- and long-term impacts on average and peak hour electricity consumption under realistic conditions: A smartphone app provided users with social comparison feedback on their electricity consumption and invited them to participate in “pause hours” by avoiding energy-intensive activities during peak hours. To appeal even to hard-to-reach energy users and elicit longer-term engagement, the app also contained a neighbourhood newsfeed and was framed as a local social network. In a 15-month trial with 550 student apartments in Sweden, more than half of the residents voluntarily installed the app, many app users stayed engaged over an extended period of time and pause hour participants achieved substantial peak-load consumption reductions of 46% on average. These results indicate that smartphone apps can achieve peak load consumption reduction and long-term engagement, although they may be particularly attractive to already energy efficient households. Avenues for future research are discussed.

• Siepelmeyer, Henrik & Otterbring, Anders Emil Tobias (2022). Citizen Coherence and Cultivated Cleanliness: Using Technology-Induced Social Norms to Strengthen Sustainable Household Bonds. Frontiers in Sustainability. 3. doi: 10.3389/frsus.2022.899938. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Social identity and social capital are critical to human well-being and sustainable development. However, existing research on sustainable behavior typically treats these factors merely as taken-for-granted preconditions to environmental protection. This paper argues that they can also be direct outcomes of environment-oriented efforts, thus becoming drivers of sustainable societies. As part of a larger research project on household recycling and waste behavior, the authors assess and compare perceived social identity and social capital of residents in a multi-family residential dwelling in Sweden before (N = 66) and after (N = 18) exposure to a social norm-based intervention delivered through a smartphone app. Reported levels of social identity and social capital were higher after (vs. before) the intervention, both compared to participants' own previous measurement and a control group. Together, the current research offers a novel perspective on technology-enabled social norms. Specifically, such norms may not only create sustainable responses immediately, but may also play a pivotal role in shaping more sustainable communities in the long run. Future studies are needed to elucidate the specific psychological mechanisms driving the observed effects and shed further light on whether, when, and why social norms may foster sustainable responses with a clear social connotation.

• Kowal, Marta; Sorokowski, Piotr; Pisanski, Katarzyna; Valentova, Jaroslava Varella; Varella, Marco A. C. & Frederick, David A. [Show all 78 contributors for this article] (2022). Predictors of enhancing human physical attractiveness: Data from 93 countries. Evolution and human behavior. ISSN 1090-5138. 43(6), p. 455–474. doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.08.003. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  People across the world and throughout history have gone to great lengths to enhance their physical appearance. Evolutionary psychologists and ethologists have largely attempted to explain this phenomenon via mating preferences and strategies. Here, we test one of the most popular evolutionary hypotheses for beauty-enhancing behaviors, drawn from mating market and parasite stress perspectives, in a large cross-cultural sample. We also test hypotheses drawn from other influential and non-mutually exclusive theoretical frameworks, from biosocial role theory to a cultural media perspective. Survey data from 93,158 human participants across 93 countries provide evidence that behaviors such as applying makeup or using other cosmetics, hair grooming, clothing style, caring for body hygiene, and exercising or following a specific diet for the specific purpose of improving ones physical attractiveness, are universal. Indeed, 99% of participants reported spending >10 min a day performing beauty-enhancing behaviors. The results largely support evolutionary hypotheses: more time was spent enhancing beauty by women (almost 4 h a day, on average) than by men (3.6 h a day), by the youngest participants (and contrary to predictions, also the oldest), by those with a relatively more severe history of infectious diseases, and by participants currently dating compared to those in established relationships. The strongest predictor of attractiveness-enhancing behaviors was social media usage. Other predictors, in order of effect size, included adhering to traditional gender roles, residing in countries with less gender equality, considering oneself as highly attractive or, conversely, highly unattractive, TV watching time, higher socioeconomic status, right-wing political beliefs, a lower level of education, and personal individualistic attitudes. This study provides novel insight into universal beauty-enhancing behaviors by unifying evolutionary theory with several other complementary perspectives.

View all works in NVA

• Siepelmeyer, Henrik (2025). It’s A Jungle Out There: Social Norms, Waste, and the Complex Challenge of Fostering Sustainable Household Behaviors. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 9788284272634. Full text in Research Archive
• Siepelmeyer, Henrik (2025). It’s A Jungle Out There: Social Norms, Waste, and the Complex Challenge of Fostering Sustainable Household Behaviors in Multi-Family Dwellings. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 9788284272634. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Household waste behaviors play a crucial role in the sustainable transformation of society but remain underexplored in behavioral research, especially in multifamily contexts – an oversight that is becoming increasingly problematic given global urbanization trends and population growth. This dissertation addresses this societally relevant research gap by examining the impact of social norm-based interventions on household waste and recycling behaviors in multi-family dwellings. Two large-scale field studies investigate how IoT-enabled waste chutes (which enable household-level waste tracking) combined with a smartphone-based intervention, can drive meaningful behavior change aligned with sustainability goals. The studies employ a multi-method approach to evaluate both behavioral outcomes (such as increased recycling rates and improved waste sorting) and social outcomes (including strengthened social identity and social capital), offering a comprehensive view of how social norm interventions influence both, individual behaviors and broader social dynamics. In addition to its empirical contributions, this work develops a conceptual framework that underscores the importance of contextual complexity in behavioral research. By identifying five complexity dimensions – measurement, goal, social, spatiotemporal, and institutional complexity – the framework highlights critical distinctions between waste behaviors and other household consumption domains, as well as between multi-family dwellings and singlefamily dwellings. This approach provides a robust foundation for future studies seeking to capture the real-world dynamics of household waste behaviors. Taken together, this dissertation demonstrates that addressing complex sustainability challenges through rigorous, transdisciplinary research can yield both theoretical advancements and actionable insights. The findings illustrate that scalable, technology-driven interventions can significantly influence proenvironmental behaviors, while emphasizing the necessity of systematically incorporating social and contextual complexities into behavioral studies. These insights offer valuable guidance for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers and pave the way for future work exploring social norms as a tool for achieving broader societal impact in line with sustainable development targets.

View all works in NVA