Application of optimal defaults to increase selection of sustainable menu choices

Abstract

Vegan diets confer less adverse environmental impact than omnivore and vegetarian diets. While many consumers have shifted to more environmentally sustainable diets in recent years, additional strategies are needed to encourage these choices. As some vegan foods are unfamiliar to mainstream diners, food neophobia may deter the selection of such items. The current research applied a behavioral economics strategy, optimal defaults, to menu design in a two-part study that aimed to increase selection of vegan menu choices. Two experiments were conducted in analogue internet and college dining hall settings to investigate the effect of menu default presentation (optimal default, suboptimal default, or free array) on choice of vegan and omnivore menu items, stratified across familiar and unfamiliar vegan food options (six menu conditions total). Two-hundred ninety-nine young adults without dietary restrictions completed the analogue internet experiment and 209 college students completed the college dining hall experiment. Participants were randomly presented with one of the six experimental menus and asked to choose their entree. Chi-square and binomial logistic regression analyses were used to assess the independent and interactive contributions of menu format and vegan-item familiarity level on entree choice (vegan or omnivore). Results showed that in both simulated and real-world settings, optimal default menus were more successful at nudging consumers toward sustainable, vegan entree choices than no-default, free array menus and, in the dining hall experiment, did not result in greater food waste. Vegan food familiarity level did not moderate the effect of menu format on entree choice. Optimal default menus could be a feasible and effective tool for the dining industry to transition to more sustainable, including less familiar, food offerings.