Psychological Barriers to Pro-Environmental Behaviour Change: A Review of Meat Consumption Behaviours

Catherine Graves,Katy Roelich

doi:10.3390/su132111582

Abstract

Meat consumption behaviours contribute significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions. Interventions to enable meat consumption reductions need to consider the psychological barriers preventing behavioural changes. Our aims were twofold; (1) to explore the psychological barriers to reducing meat consumption and how they can be overcome through a Rapid Evidence Review; and (2) to explore the usefulness of integrating the Kollmuss and Agyeman (K&A) model of pro-environmental behaviour and psychological distance, which provides the analytical framework. This review utilised three databases, focussing on empirical studies since 2010, which returned 277 results with seven eligible studies. We found that habit is the most significant psychological barrier to change, however, values and attitudes could act as moderating variables. We found gaps in the behavioural mechanism, indicating the presence of direct and indirect psychological barriers. We identified several actionable policy recommendations, such as utilising co-benefits, the importance of values in messaging, and targeting repeated behaviours. We found that study outcomes did not always translate into policy recommendations, and they were limited by existing policy paradigms. Psychological distance provides additional explanatory power, when combined with the K&A model, therefore, integrating psychological distance across pro-environmental behavioural research and policy could improve the effectiveness of interventions.

Highlights

The climate impact of food and agriculture more broadly is estimated to account for19–29% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [1], with livestock alone accounting for 18% of total GHG emissions [2]
Conducting a rapid review has resulted in a potentially narrow conceptualisation of psychological barriers, and this runs the risk of excluding different disciplinary understandings. This Rapid Evidence Review builds on existing work around meat consumption behaviours and interventions targeting reducing meat consumption, as well as the broader environmental psychology literature exploring pro-environmental behaviour determinants and barriers
This work aims to contribute to the growing area of psychological barriers to pro-environmental behaviour, with the hope that the findings are of relevance to researchers and practitioners working on designing interventions

Summary

Introduction

The climate impact of food and agriculture more broadly is estimated to account for19–29% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [1], with livestock alone accounting for 18% of total GHG emissions [2]. The climate impact of food and agriculture more broadly is estimated to account for. Existing research has been conducted around motivators, drivers, attitudes, intervention studies, and environmental and contextual barriers Factors such as the environmental and climate impacts of meat [6,7]), motivations and attitudes around reducing meat consumption [8,9], the role of external factors [10], and the effects of different interventions [11,12] have been considered.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion