UQ Low Harm Hedonism Initiative

Would "Terri towel" win you over when it comes to reusing your towel in a hotel? Our research shows that giving objects a human touch can help to change hotel guest behaviour without compromising satisfaction. In a real hotel setting, Terri led to a significant increase in hand towel reuse.

Not bad for a small towel elephant 🐘

🔗 Full open‑access paper: https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875251349233

Danyelle Greene Anna K. Zinn Csilla Dcs Sara Dolnicar

UQ Business School The University of Queensland

Identifying effective behaviour‑change approaches is only the first step - we also need to get businesses to actually put them into practice.

🗣️ How can research be communicated in ways that support action?
🧩 And what makes sustainability measures hard to implement at management level?

Our research shows that tailored, multi‑channel communication outperforms generic messages. It also reveals a key barrier that’s often overlooked: concerns about guests' behaviour.

🔗 Open-access paper: https://doi.org/10.1108/TR-11-2024-1086



Peter Lewin Danyelle Greene Anna K. Zinn Sara Dolnicar r
Business School The University of Queensland d

Why are field studies so important? Survey research is great, but...
🧠 What people say they’ll do isn’t always what they actually do
🚫 Interventions that look effective in surveys may fail in real-world settings

We show this in a study on reducing plate waste: a message that proved promising in the pre-survey did not reduce plate waste in a real hotel.

The takeaway? Intentions are not behaviour. To make reliable recommendations on how to achieve real behavioural change, we need field research.

🔗 Full open‑access paper: https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875241253009

Emil Juvan, Oscar Yuheng Zhu, Bettina Grün, Sara Dolnicar
UQ Business School The University of Queensland

In research, we often need to measure pro‑environmental beliefs, but the widely used New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) includes 15 items.

Why is this a problem?
📏 Long questionnaires can reduce participation and data quality
🔀 Shortening scales inconsistently undermines comparability across studies

We systematically tested all possible 5‑item combinations of the 15‑item NEP (one per facet) to develop NEP‑5, which shows:
✅ High test–retest reliability ✅ High convergent validity ✅ Predictive validity comparable to the full 15‑item scale

The result: a short, robust, and comparable measure that reduces respondent burden without sacrificing quality.

🔗 Full open‑access paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annale.2025.100196

Sara Dolnicar, Bettina Grün, Sarah MacInnes
Business School The University of Queensland

Table signs at restaurants and buffets often try to change guest behaviour - order a specific meal, reduce plate waste, behave more sustainably 🍽️
But… do they actually work?

In our field experiment in a real hotel, we tested several of these signs and found:
1️⃣ They did not reduce plate waste - even though they looked promising in online pre‑tests.
2️⃣ Some signs even slightly reduced guest satisfaction.

So while table signs are quick, cheap, and easy to implement, sometimes they’re simply “not worth the paper they’re printed on.” 📄

🔗 Open-access paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2025.105348


Anna K. Zinn, Danyelle Greene, Sergey Kozlov, Bettina Grün, Yash Pandey, Marius Portmann, Sara Dolnicar

Business School University of Queensland

Getting tourists to take shorter showers can be difficult. 🚿 Can analog shower hourglasses paired with targeted messages help to shorten showers?💧In an online experiment, we found that the most effective combo was:

1️⃣ Feasible timer durations (3, 5, or 7 minutes)
2️⃣ A sad, anthropomorphised water message

This combination performed best in increasing intentions to engage with the hourglass and shorten showers, and increased:

💪 Self‑efficacy and empathy
✨ Inspiration — with only mild negative emotions

Next stop: field experiment! ⏭️

🔗 Open-access paper: https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875251354844



Chen Greene K. Zinn Sara Dolnicar
Business School The University of Queensland

How do you choose your meal when you dine out?
🍽️ People use different strategies when ordering meals, but some dominate far more than others.
🌍 And only a small fraction of diners look for the most environmentally friendly option.

Our research identifies 16 meal‑choice strategies across restaurant types and shows that most people prioritise:
1️⃣ Enjoyment
2️⃣ Price
3️⃣ Familiar, habitual meals

This helps explain why carbon labels have limited impact and why future interventions may need to shift to enjoyment, price and habit.

🔗 Open-access paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2024.107683

Greene Nguyen Dolnicar
Business School The University of Queensland

If you want to learn about real behaviour, measure real behaviour. To truly understand behaviour and behavioural change, we can’t rely on measuring what people intend to do. Intentions ≠ actions.
🤔 Why aren’t behavioural intentions enough?
🔎 Which methods can we use to capture actual behaviour in the field?
If you’re interested in these questions, have a look at this short (2‑minute!) video.

🔗 Link to full open-access paper: https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2024.2392837



Giampaolo Viglia, Sara Dolnicar, Diletta Acuti & Juan Luis Nicolau
UQ Business School The University of Queensland