Research visit to University of Groningen

Having spent several months clumsily pronouncing ‘Groningen’ – a charming historic city in northern Netherlands – it was wonderful to arrive in October 2025, learn the correct pronunciation (Kh-roh-ning-en), and to spend 10 weeks visiting the Environmental Psychology Research Group at the city’s university. For several years, even prior to the PhD, I had wanted to experience the parallel world of Netherlands. Their embrace of the English language, enthusiasm for cycling, sustainable behaviour research and (most recently) electric vehicles makes it a fascinating and accessible place for transport research. The trip was supported by the AAPS CDT International Travel Scheme, which provided both funding and impetus to make the most of the trip.

My studies are on electric vehicle adoption policies, specifically on the role of social norms, status and environmental perceptions in the ‘green number plate policy’. I want to understand how the policy might work at a psychological, behavioural and system level. So, it was wonderful to collaborate with Fernanda Reintgen-Kamphuisen, another PhD researcher studying dynamic norms and EV adoption, and Professor Jan Willem Bolderdijk. Together we developed an agent-based model to illustrate how complex contagion of adoption can emerge from increased visibility of EVs. For me, this meant reading about modelling theory, understanding new concepts, and then testing how to formalise (from words into numbers) how green number plates might work. I enjoyed presenting to the wider Environmental Psychology Group and am grateful to Professor Thijs Bauman for offering feedback on how this narrow area relates to perceptions of prevalence and social change. The weekly Tuesday lab group meeting was a highlight, as I saw how other researchers’ study topics from behaviour change interventions in science laboratories, to evaluating impacts of Antarctic tourism.

I learnt how Groningen has a long history in environmental psychology around developing theories, measures and applications of sustainability research, currently led by Professor Linda Steg. It was inspiring to meet Emeritus Professor Charles Vlek, who aged 85 still comes to the department each Friday to talk to current researchers and share reflections on his recent book about the group’s fifty-year history. I’m personally grateful to the welcoming culture in the department, which seems to benefit from the whole research group being in offices along one corridor and an ‘open door’ culture. In Bath we feel more scattered across the campus and within our building, which to some extent promotes inter-disciplinarity, but at the cost of people in own discipline being harder to come by.

As I volunteer as Bicycle Mayor of Bath, I was naturally interested in Dutch cycling culture. It turns out Groningen was a front-runner in urban transport policy and the reason is not just that it is very flat!    So the story goes, the devastation caused by WW2 left the Netherlands slower to recover than most others. Having lagged behind, when major city roads were proposed in 1970s, they were met with greater opposition from a more established environmental movement armed with new evidence on urban motor traffic harms. Groningen split its city centre into four quarters in 1977, something Ghent replicated fifty years later. I think like Sarah Toy (AAPS Cohort 3) found in Lund (Sweden), the close connection between the major university and city politics plays a big role. After all, it was recent graduate in urban planning that became the deputy Mayor and allowed for more ambitious policy. That leaves me to reflect on Bath’s relationship and the local power of universities.

Being present in early December meant experiencing Sinterklaas. I vaguely knew of Zwarte Piet (‘Black Peter’) from my childhood when my Swiss relatives mentioned this strange character on a playing card (probably because I’m also called Peter, naturally). The more I read and spoke to people, the stranger and more troubling this tradition appeared. Sinterklaas is a story written by a Dutch teacher in 1850 about Saint Nicolaus, who died in 343 AD, but comes back to life to visit the Netherlands every November from Spain by steamboat accompanied by Zwarte Piet helpers from North Africa. They return by steamboat on December 6^th because it’s his birthday, celebrations happen the day before. Unfortunately, people dress up as Zwarte Piet in black face, which is racially inappropriate. This tradition has recently changed. In November, I attended an academic research presentation from the lab group where a project estimates when the tipping point from ‘black face’ was replaced with roetveegpiet (soot-smeared Pete) as a new and less offensive tradition.

When the big day arrived, the researchers in my group shunned Schwarz Peter, excited to congregate in a small room and exchange gifts accompanied by a short witty poem (often poking fun at the recipient in a dry and quite British way). We did this for all 25 people in the group. Fittingly, my gift was a personalised green number plate!

I look forward to collaborating on the modelling work, showing how EV adoption is shaped by different social forces. I return to the UK with lots of ideas, connections and enthusiasm.