Issue 001 — evidence before outrage
Woke Scientists makes useful research harder to dismiss: with clear methods, honest limits, original sources, and just enough humour to survive the headlines.
Founded and curated by Sofie Voss; open to future contributors.
Peer-reviewed, not pearl-clutched
Research for people & planet
Featured story
Water / everyday behaviour
The loud version: “Scientists want to police your shower.”
The actual question: can a well-designed cue make it easier to notice time and water use in an everyday setting?
Field research can measure what happens in real bathrooms, rather than asking people to remember afterwards. That is not a lecture; it is a way to test whether a small design change genuinely helps.
Read the original studyWoke research
A launch reading list drawn only from the work of Sofie Voss, Pablo Pereira-Doel, Benjamin Gardner, and Xavier Font. Every card begins at the original research or source.
Sustainable food
Field experiments tested cognitive and behavioural menu interventions designed to encourage vegetarian choices in hotel restaurants.
Water efficiency
A co-created research and impact agenda sets out the water-efficiency questions that matter most to researchers, practitioners, and the sector.
Hotel water
A covert field experiment tested continuous real-time eco-feedback and persuasive messaging using objective shower-sensor data.
Hotel water
A field experiment explored whether water-saving technology could foster more sustainable showering among hotel guests.
Habit science
A practical account of habit theory and how it can help bridge the gap between behavioural theory and real-world interventions.
Water & tourism
A field quasi-experiment examines guests’ water and energy use through smart-meter data in an ecolodge setting.
Headline vs evidence
Not every headline is a useful summary
Headline energy
Evidence check
Headline energy
Evidence check
Headline energy
Evidence check
Referenced coverage
Meet the scientists
Woke Scientists starts as a founder-led editorial project. Guest scientists and contributors can join the record when it is useful, thoughtful, and properly sourced.
Founder & curator
Behavioural-science PhD researcher working on water conservation, sustainability, and everyday behaviour change.
Sofie studies what makes sustainable choices easier in the real world. Her work is interested in the small details that become habits—and in explaining those details without pretending they solve everything.
About & values
A note on the name
“Woke” has roots in Black political language, where it referred to staying alert to racial injustice. This project uses the name carefully: not as an empty marketing trend, but in response to the pejorative way it is sometimes used to dismiss research about environmental protection, public health, equality, and policy. It was born after Sofie Voss was called a “woke scientist” in Daily Mail coverage of showering and shampooing and a separate story on shower meters.
The answer is not more outrage. It is transparent methods, clear limitations, original sources, and a sense of humour. Woke Scientists is not a partisan news site, an anti-media account, or a generic activist brand. It is evidence-led research for people and planet.
Evidence before outrage.
Accessible science without dumbing it down.
Practical research that improves everyday life.
Curiosity, kindness, and intellectual honesty.
Submit research
To suggest research for Woke Scientists, send Sofie the original source and a short note about what the work can—and cannot—say.
Contact Sofie