We are looking for a 3-year postdoc in social or environmental psychology to join a new NWO-funded research project on sustainable consumer behavior led by Prof. dr. Frenk van Harreveld and Dr. Cameron Brick (PIs) in Social Psychology at the University of Amsterdam.

Are you exceptionally interested in the psychology of sustainable behaviour and how to promote it?

Is your ambition to develop into an independent sustainability researcher?

Are you looking for a challenging job with high independence?

The Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences is hiring a postdoc.

The project

CO2 emissions from textiles production (1.2 billion tons/year) is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Globally across the industry, only 13% of the total material input is in some way recycled after clothing use. Technological developments towards a circular textile production line are important and ongoing, but by themselves are unlikely sufficient to address the mixed textile waste stream. Also necessary is widespread adoption and willingness to pay for such alternative technologies by consumers, companies, etc. This project aims to shed light onto the psychological underpinnings of sustainable behaviour and thus contribute to a successful transition towards a more sustainable textile stream. Your job will be to develop insights into the psychology of sustainable behaviour and apply them to textile use (e.g., clothing consumption).

This postdoc project is part of the NWO-funded research program MIWATEX (Circularity for Mixed cotton/polyester WAste TEXtiles by upcycling to virgin monomer building blocks), a multidisciplinary project led by a PI in Sustainable Chemistry and close industry partners in the clothing and recycling industries. As a postdoc, you will work in the Social Psychology program of the Department of Psychology and be co-supervised by Drs. Brick and van Harreveld. You will be part of the Brick Lab, which meets weekly and has three PhD students and a vibrant group of researchers and MSc students. You are also welcome to connect with other groups such as the Amsterdam Behavioral Insights Lab, the Center for Sustainable Development Studies (csds.uva.nl), and to build interdisciplinary collaborations at Sustainalab and the Institute of Advanced Studies.

The postdoc research

This postdoc project has two main research lines: 1) behaviour change to redirect clothing from the linear process into the circular recycling pathway, and 2) consumer acceptability of recycled goods of higher price (willingness to pay).

1. Creating a recycling pathway for textiles

We aim to apply our empirical network model of attitudes in which we conceptualized attitudes as networks, consisting of evaluative reactions (nodes) and interactions between them (e.g. Dalege et al., 2016). Such a systemic approach is suitable in the present context, given the complexity of the matter, with attitudes towards recycling and climate change, perceived social norms, perceived responsibilities of citizens, public and private partners, financial considerations etc. mutually influencing one another. We recently and successfully took a similar approach in research on bio-based plastics and the willingness to pay of consumers in which we first investigated the interplay of psychological variables surrounding willingness to pay and subsequently based tailored interventions on this which were effective in changing consumer willingness to pay (Zwicker et al., 2020).

2. Understanding and facilitating consumer uptake of recycled textiles

Another critical stage in the creation and rollout of novel sustainable technologies is the common period where a new technology is not yet optimized nor high-volume enough to match the cost of the older, contemporary process. For bio-based products and new recycled materials, this means that recycled products will temporarily be more expensive. Therefore, we aim to identify consumers' willingness to pay for these new goods, along with revealing the most effective ways to communicate about and facilitate purchase of the new goods.

As part of the multidisciplinary MIWATEX project (see detailed project description), there will be regular meetings with partners from technology and the industry in the aim towards achieving cross-fertilization of the sub-projects.

What are you going to do

• Design and perform research that strives for scientific and societal impact, including online, laboratory, and ideally field studies;
• Communicate about your research in scientific conferences/journals and non-academic communities such as textile manufacturers;
• Provide guidance for PhD students working on similar research projects;
• A small amount of research-related teaching (e.g. supervision) may be involved

You are an independent and quantitatively oriented researcher with a strong interest in sustainable behaviour. You are excited about the challenge of investigating sustainable consumer behaviour inside and outside of the lab. You like to work in multidisciplinary contexts involving people from academic and non-academic backgrounds. You enjoy writing scientific papers and are successful in publishing.

Your experience and profile

• PhD in Social Psychology or related discipline
• Experience with R (statistical analysis)
• Willingness to achieve a high transparency of methods, materials, and data (e.g., RMarkdown, pre-registration, and Registered Reports)
• Ideally some experience measuring environmentally significant behavior (e.g., conservation or consumption) (optional)
• Outstanding organizational skills, high conscientiousness, flexibility, and a collaborative attitude;
• Willingness and ability to learn and grow in all areas of research;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English;
• Ideally speaking Dutch to connect with local stakeholders (optional)

The position concerns (temporary) employment of 38 hours a week for a maximum term of 36 months. The initial employment is for one year. Following a positive assessment and barring altered circumstances, we intend to renew the contract to make three years total (the funding is secured). We will put together a curriculum which will also include the opportunity to attend training courses and both national and international events. For this position the University Job Classification profile "Onderzoeker 3" applies.

Depending on your experience, the minimum salary is €3974 and the maximum salary is €5439 gross per month based on a 38-hour working week, in keeping with salary scale 11, as per the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities.

We additionally offer an extensive package of secondary benefits, including 8% holiday allowance and a year-end bonus of 8.3%. The UvA offers excellent possibilities for further professional development and education.

What else do we offer

• A position in which initiative and input are highly valued
• An enthusiastic and warm team that is open to new colleagues
• An inspiring academic and international working environment in the heart of Amsterdam.

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

The University of Amsterdam is the largest university in the Netherlands, with the broadest spectrum of degree programmes. It is an intellectual hub with 39,000 students, 6,000 employees and 3,000 doctoral students who are all committed to a culture of inquiring minds.

A challenging work environment with a variety of duties and ample scope for individual initiative and development within an inspiring organization. The social and behavioral sciences play a leading role in addressing the major societal challenges faced by the world, the Netherlands and Amsterdam, now and in the future.

Want to know more about our organisation? Read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.