Anton Wrisberg

About me

I am a PhD student at Lund University Cognitive Science and a member of the Agenda 2030 Graduate School at Lund University. I hold a BSc in Business Administration and Project Management from Copenhagen Business School, a MA in Cognitive Science from Lund University, and a MSc in Applied Cognitive Psychology from Utrecht University. Before starting my doctoral education, I helped companies in Denmark, South Africa, and the United States of America applying behavioural insights to change public behaviour for the better. Alongside my research, I teach and supervise at Copenhagen Business School, Aalborg University, and Lund University.

About my research project

I investigate how we can make waste sorting signage more intuitive by exploiting insights into human cognition.  

Waste sorting is as crucial for a more sustainable world as it is difficult! While most citizens care about waste sorting, simple barriers such as physical setups and cognitive load inhibit them from sorting. My research attempts to remove the latter, by making waste sorting signage easier to decipher. I base my current research on results from a pilot study of mine conducted at a down-scaled Roskilde Festival in 2021, at which COVID-19 regulations enforcement resulted in a near-perfect, real-world, randomised control trial: two sections for the audience with a physical barrier in between that they could not cross. I tested various waste signage options in each section. The version that came out as superior had physical waste items taped onto it. It increased the likelihood of waste items ending up in the right bin by more than 16%. I now investigate what made this sign easier to decode by looking into potential explanations stemming from rule-based, prototype-based, and exemplar-based theories of categorisation. 

Right now, I run online studies with Swedish participants sorting a large waste stimulus set that I created during the spring and have evaluated online. The inclusion of cognitive theories of categorisation and the pre-evaluation of waste stimuli allows me to decouple the local waste context from cognitive mechanisms. In other words, I plan for my results not to be limited to the Swedish context but to be the glue linking local insights into waste signatures (existing context-dependent knowledge) to efficient waste sorting signage (one piece in addressing a pressing global challenge).

Easily understandable waste sorting signage relates to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 11 (“Sustainable Cities and Communities”) and 12 (“Responsible Consumption and Production”), and if I succeed in sustaining better recycling and thus reducing pollution, Goals 14 (“Life below Water”) and 15 (“Life on Land”), and hence promoting less extraction of new raw materials, Goal 13 (“Climate Action”).