Abstract
Social norms, also called social comparison nudges, have been shown to be particularly effective in promoting healthy food choices and environmentally friendly behaviors. However, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of these nudges for promoting sustainable and climate-friendly food choices and their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support the related SDGs. The paper reports a field experiment that tests the effectiveness of two social norms in a real-life setting based on revealed preferences. The study distinguishes between the widely researched descriptive norms and guessed norms, the latter being tested in this context for the first time. While descriptive norms communicate typical patterns of behavior (e.g., 50% of canteen visitors choose vegetarian meals), guessed norms are determined by the individual’s best guess about the norm in a specific context. The results confirm a remarkable nudging effect of guessed norms: The higher the presumed proportion of vegetarian dishes sold, the lower the probability of choosing a vegetarian dish. Surprisingly, this effect is independent of the respective norm specification (meat or vegetarian norm). The paper provides advice for policy makers about when and how to use guessed norms.
Highlights
The current agriculture and food production are among the most significant drivers of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) as well as biodiversity loss, pollution, land use change, and the depletion of freshwater resources [1,2,3,4]
We briefly present the theoretical background of social norms and introduce the concept of guessed norms
While using descriptive norms vs. guessed norms as such exerted no statistically significant effect, we examine the effects of level of the guessed norm more closely
Summary
The current agriculture and food production are among the most significant drivers of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) as well as biodiversity loss, pollution, land use change, and the depletion of freshwater resources [1,2,3,4]. Without changes in production technologies and consumption patterns, the environmental impacts of food production could increase by 50–90% between 2010 and 2050 [1]. A number of studies have shown that shifting human diets towards the reduced consumption of meat and dairy products holds significant GHG mitigation potential [6,7,8,9]. Cutting the consumption of animal products could reduce food-based emissions by almost 50% compared to a standard diet [10].
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