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How can we encourage people to adopt more environmentally friendly habits? To explore this question, a psychologist asked participants in a study to take cold showers. Those who stuck with the routine experienced several benefits.

Many people know that their behavior harms the environment, yet they struggle to change their habits. "This is especially true when they feel they have to give something up or spend more money," says University of Basel psychologist Dr. Lena Glaser. As a psychotherapist, she regularly encounters this reluctance to change in her work.

In her recently completed doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Psychology, Glaser explored whether people are more willing to adopt habits that benefit both the climate and their health if those habits are easy to incorporate into everyday life and offer personal rewards. She investigated this question by studying the effects of regular cold showers.

"When people talk about changing their behavior to protect the climate, the discussion usually centers on transportation, diet or recycling," Glaser says. But in these areas, sweeping measures such as banning flights or serving only vegetarian meals in workplace cafeterias often meet with resistance.

For some, it even feels like their lifestyle choices are being policed, despite knowing that flying contributes to climate change and that eating meat has negative consequences for both the environment and their health.

"We need a more empathetic approach if we want people to change their behavior," Glaser believes.

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