Swen J. Kühne, PhD

Work at ZHAW

Position

Co-Head of Section Sustainability and Environmental Psychology

Focus

• Environmental Psychology
• Behavioral Insights
• Nudging

Teaching

• Environmental Psychology 1
• Environmental Psychology 2
• Study week in Groningen «Sustainability & Innovation»

Education and Continuing education

Education

• PhD / Psychology
  University of Basel
  08 / 2016 - 10 / 2020
• MSc / Applied Psychology
  ZHAW
  10 / 2013 - 07 / 2015
• BSc / Applied Psychology
  ZHAW
  09 / 2010 - 07 / 2013

Continuing Education

Certificate in Higher Education Didactics
University of Basel
05 / 2020

Network

Membership of networks

• Behavioral Insights for Better Politics and Societies
• International Association of People-Environment Studies

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8326-9168

Social media

linkedin

Projects

• Designing for Neurodiversity: A Co-Created Living Lab on Sensory Rooms in Higher Education / Team member / ongoing
• NexTArc: Next Generation Open Innovations in Trustworthy Embedded AI Architectures for Smart Cities, Mobility and Logistics / Team member / ongoing
• From Claim to Evidence: Assessing the Effectiveness of Art and Design for Sustainability / Co-project leader / ongoing
• Farm to Table 2.0 - Wädenswil Edition / Team member / ongoing
• Climate-Escape: The playful communication of climate and behavior change / Co-project leader / ongoing
• «Being a Spider» - Virtual realities as spaces for learning and experience / Co-project leader / ongoing
• Beyond Grey Walls: A Living Lab Unveiling the Benefits of Biophilic Design in University Classrooms / Deputy project leader / completed
• Towards Sensory-Inclusive Office Environments for Workers with ADD/ADHD / Team member / completed
• Designing Environments that promote learning for Children and Adolescents with ADHD and ASD / Project leader / completed
• Farm to Table in Toni Areal / Team member / completed

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

• Kühne, S. J., Blumer, Y., Czellar, S., Haasova, S., Streule, P., Rahmani, L., Schubert, R., & Waller, G. (2026). How psychological and contextual barriers to environmentally sustainable consumption vary across domains : a comparative study of food, electronics, and clothing in Switzerland. Cleaner and Responsible Consumption, 100423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clrc.2026.100423
• Laasner Vogt, L., Reijnen, E., Kühne, S. J., & Sulser, M. (2024). The number of pictograms about side effects on the medication package influences medication risk perception. European Journal of Psychology Open, 83(2), 71–81. https://doi.org/10.1024/2673-8627/a000058
• Kühne, S. J., Reijnen, E., Laasner Vogt, L., & Baumgartner, M. (2023). Can carbon labels encourage green food choices? Frontiers in Psychology, 13(902869). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.902869
• Kühne, S. J., & Reijnen, E. (2023). Buy solar, get cashback : do consumer subsidies described as promotions influence electricity choices? Frontiers in Psychology, 14(1155556). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1155556
• Reijnen, E., Laasner Vogt, L., Kühne, S. J., & Fiechter, J. P. (2023). Do pictograms on medication packages cause people to consult package inserts less often? If so, with what consequences? Behavioral Sciences, 13(8), 696. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13080696
• Kühne, S. J., Reijnen, E., Granja, G., & Hansen, R. S. (2022). Labels affect food choices, but in what ways? Nutrients, 14(15), 3204. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14153204
• Reijnen, E., Laasner Vogt, L., Fiechter, J. P., Kühne, S. J., Meister, N., Venzin, C., & Aebersold, R. (2022). Well-designed medical pictograms accelerate search. Applied Ergonomics, 103(103799). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2022.103799
• Reijnen, E., Kühne, S. J., & Ritter, R. (2021). A healthier beverage choice is based on a subjective assessment of sweet taste. Journal of Food Research, 10(2), 47–55. https://doi.org/10.5539/jfr.v10n2p47
• Kühne, S. J., Reijnen, E., & Ritter, R. (2021). Appliance-based solar certificates : a new way of going green. Energy Policy, 148(111986). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111986
• Reijnen, E., Kühne, S. J., Stöcklin, M., & Wolfe, J. M. (2019). Choosing or rejecting a food item, does framing matter? And what has sugar to do with it! Appetite, 143(104410). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2019.104410
• Reijnen, E., Kühne, S. J., von Gugelberg, H. M., & Crameri, A. (2019). Nudged to a menu position: the role of “I’m Loving It”! Journal of Consumer Policy, 42(3), 441–453. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-019-09413-4
• Kühne, S. J., Reijnen, E., & Crameri, A. (2019). When too few is bad for the environment : choice set size and default effects for electricity products. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 79(1), 35–41. https://doi.org/10.1024/1421-0185/a000232

Books, peer-reviewed

Kühne, S. J. (2020). Nudging healthy food and sustainable choices [Doctoral dissertation, Universität Basel]. https://doi.org/10.5451/unibas-ep79035

Book chapters, peer-reviewed

Kühne, S. J. (2026). Nudging in hospitality and tourism. In International Encyclopedia of Business Management (Vol. 4, pp. 355–359). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-13701-3.00231-0

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

• Sorvali, J., & Kühne, S. (2024). Farmers’ dragons – psychological barriers to proenvironmental behavior in agriculture. 28th International Conference Association People-Environment Studies, Barcelona, Spain, 2-5 July 2024.
• Hartmann, C., Bortoluzzi, F., & Kühne, S. J. (2024). Serving up sustainability in the canteen : psychological evaluation of a culinary living lab in a university canteen. 28th International Conference Association People-Environment Studies, Barcelona, Spain, 2-5 July 2024.
• Kühne, S. J., Schubert, R., Czellar, S., Blumer, Y., Haasova, S., Waller, G., Rahmani, L., & Streule, P. (2024). Consumers’ barriers to sustainable actions : a multi-language evaluation of the Dragons of Climate Inaction Psychological Barrier Scale. 28th International Conference Association People-Environment Studies, Barcelona, Spain, 2-5 July 2024.
• Catarci, D., Laasner Vogt, L., Kühne, S. J., Bläuer, L., & Reijnen, E. (2023, August 31). Online food choices : when does “recommended by” work? 45th European Conference on Visual Perception, Paphos, Cyprus, 27-31 August 2023. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-28650
• Laasner Vogt, L., Kühne, S. J., Bremermann-Reiser, S., & Reijnen, E. (2023, August 30). Verbal or visual representation of side effects : does this affect the judgement of driving behavior? 45th European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), Paphos, Cyprus, 27-31 August 2023.
• Scharowski, N., Benk, M., Kühne, S. J., Wettstein, L., & Brühlmann, F. (2023). Certification labels for trustworthy AI : insights from an empirical mixed-method study [Conference paper]. Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 248–260. https://doi.org/10.1145/3593013.3593994
• Kühne, S. J., Reijnen, E., & Bremermann-Reiser, S. M. (2022, November 11). Does unpacking the carbon footprint affect travel choices? Society for Judgment and Decision Making Annual Meeting, San Diego, USA, 10-13 November 2022. https://sjdm.org/presentations/2022-Poster-Kuehne-Swen-Support-Unpacking-Footprint.pdf
• Kühne, S. J., & Reijnen, E. (2022, July 6). Buy solar, get cash back : do rebate description of subsidies influence your electricity choice? 27th International Association for People-Environment Studies (IAPS) Conference, Lisboa, Portugal, 4-8 July 2022.
• Laasner Vogt, L., Kühne, S. J., & Reijnen, E. (2022, May 14). Do visual aids on medication packages make your drug use safer? Vision Science Society 2022, St. Pete Beach, FL, USA, 13-18 May 2022. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-26028
• Kühne, S. J., Hackenfort, M., & Reijnen, E. (2017). It’s time to switch: when do consumers switch to more energy-efficient appliances [Conference paper]. In R. Garcia Mira, L. Steg, W. Schultz, & T. Hartig (Eds.), Book of abstracts : International Conference on Envirionmental Psychology (p. 295).
• Kühne, S. J., Hackenfort, M., & Reijnen, E. (2016). Energy efficient technology - badly communicated : the importance of energy label design [Conference poster]. Cognitive Psychology Section Annual Conference, 73.

Other publications

• Hartmann, C., Kühne, S. J., & Meier, R. (2025). Kurzforschungsbericht «Klimabewusst, aber trotzdem im Flugmodus: Barrieren beim Flugverzicht im Kontext der Stadt Zürich – eine umweltpsychologische Einschätzung». ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-34339
• Bortoluzzi, F., Kühne, S. J., Müller, C., Hartmann, C., Wanner, S., Krohn, M., Zindel, K., Giordano, M., Dadashzhadeh Ghasabeh, B., Tinnirello, M., Voser, M., & Rotschi, N. (2024). Forschungsbericht FARM TO TABLE : saisonal, regional, nachhaltig - kulinarisches Forschungsprojekt. ZHdK Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-30831
• Blumer, Y., Czellar, S., Duque, D., Haasova, S., Kühne, S. J., Rahmani, L., Schubert, R., Streule, P., & Waller, G. (2024). Swiss Sustainable Consumption Observatory (SSCO) 2021-2023 : key insights from the first three waves. ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-2496

Oral conference contributions and abstracts

• Weber, C., Häne, E., Pisaturo, D., Bébié Gut, P., Bolzern, M., Wieber, F., Krieger, B., Baur, N. A., Kühne, S. J., Robin, D., & Doyle, N. (2026, January 21). Context-dependent sensory stress appraisal and coping in office environments : a socio-ecological study among adults with ADHD. Symposium on (Neuro)diversity in the Workplace, Leuven, Belgium (Online), 21 January 2026.
• Kühne, S. J., Reijnen, E., & Bremermann-Reiser, S. M. (2023, June). A little thanks misses the mark : does communicating gratitude affect green travel choices? International Conference of Environmental Psychology (ICEP), Aarhus, Denmark, 20-23 June 2023.
• Kühne, S. J., Reijnen, E., Laasner Vogt, L., & Baumgartner, M. (2021). Can CO2e labels encourage green food choices? International Conference on Environmental Psychology, Siracusa, Italy, 5-8 October 2021.

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