- | 6:27 am
This simple theory of behavioral economics could convince humans to eat less meat
![](https://1661362760.rsc.cdn77.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/p-1-Restaurants-can-spark-meatless-dining-by-adding-climate-messages-to-menus.jpg)
What we eat can have an outsize ill effect on the planet. Food production is believed to contribute anywhere fromĀ 20%Ā toĀ 40% of Earthās greenhouse gas emissions, but animal agriculture is responsible for twice as much pollution as plants. Food-industry disruptors argue that their crop of sexy new plant-based alternatives and lab-grown meats will fix this problem.
Yet, despite a myriad of options (Beyond Meat pepperonis on Pizza Hutās pies, Simulate Nuggs, the McDonaldās McPlant sandwich), Americans arenāt really adopting plant-based diets in droves just yet. The way their product sales are presented has, at times, given a false impression that they areāUSA TodayĀ recently ranĀ a storyĀ headlined āRestaurants saved 700K animals with plant-based offerings last year,ā with no evidence that those plant-based offerings actuallyĀ displacedĀ meat orders. Beyond Meatās salesĀ have slowed lately, but the bigger issue for this trend is itās not zero-sum; alt-meat sales can grow, but meat sales donāt automatically shrink. (Measuring this displacement has actually proven quite challenging.)
However, aĀ new paperĀ from the environmental group World Resources Institute (WRI) suggests maybe thereĀ isĀ one incredibly easy way to get diners to swap meat dishes for plant-based ones, and it involves consumer messaging on restaurant menus.
WRIās researchers invited 6,000 meat eaters to participate in a simulation in which they would order food from a pretend restaurantās online menu. The control group got the normal menu; everybody else got one of 10 prompts that gently ānudgedā them to consider eating less meat, emphasizing how doing so could make them healthier and the planet more sustainable.
They used whatās known in behavioral sciences as a ānudge intervention.ā Nudge theory is built around the idea that positive reinforcement can influence a personās decision-making. Itās been used in schools to improve student diets. (ThisĀ 2020 paperĀ found it helped get school kids to pick healthier lunches.) Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein wrote a 2008 book about it, calledĀ Nudge, which explains: āNudges are not mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.ā
Building on all of this, WRIās team hypothesized that by adding a simple, low-stakes message that encouraged customers to think greener as they debated what food to order could increase peopleās selection of plant-based dishes. According toĀ the paper, their hypothesis turned out to be right, and they report two messages in particular actually doubled the odds that a consumer would end up ordering a vegetarian menu item.
Message 1 falls under the theme, āSmall changes can make a big differenceā:
Each of us can make a positive difference for the planet. Swapping just one meat dish for a plant-based one saves greenhouse gas emissions that are equivalent to the energy used to charge your phone for two years. Your small change can make a big difference.
Message 2 goes under the theme, āJoin a movement of peopleā:
90% of Americans are making the change to eat less meat. Join this growing movement and choose plant-based dishes that have less impact on the climate and are kinder to the planet.
The paper notes that the results were impressive: 25.4% of participants who were shown Message 1 picked a vegetarian dish, and 22.5% of those shown Message 2 picked a vegetarian dish, versus 12.4% in the control group. Cynics might describe these two consumer-messaging strategies as āguilt-trippingā and āpeer-pressuring,ā but to WRI the results support that āthe use of social norms works to positively influence consumersā choices in a variety of domains, including dietary choices.ā
The team adds that their next step is putting these climate messages on real restaurant menus, to measure the effect on actual hungry customers. They write that they feel optimistic that this ānudgeā thing, if done as consumers are about to order, can prove to be āa promising, scalable strategy for encouraging more sustainable dietary choices.ā