ANTHROPOCENE
Food apps have untapped potential to nudge people toward greener diets
if online delivery platforms prompt consumers to think about their environmental impact before they make their food selection, they can successfully be nudged towards meal choices that reduce emissions by up to 76%
NUDGE SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG CARROT
These prompts are typically built on the psychological theory of ‘nudging’, an idea that’s been around since the 1940s, and which holds that individual behavior and choices can be steered through indirect interventions...
However, research also shows that there are limits to what nudging can achieve. The experts on the new study wanted to find out whether they could amp up its impact with auxiliary approaches—such as priming delivery app users to reflect on their food choices, before being confronted with the online menu… individuals were broken into subgroups, each receiving a different version of an online menu that tested a different approach to encouraging more sustainable selections—including one scenarios that used a traffic light system as the ‘nudge’ to guide consumers towards greener meal options.
Among these was the priming approach, which the researchers called ‘Nudge+’. In this scenario, participants were asked to read an environmental pledge, either before or after they saw the menu. The researchers surmised that this might give the consumers a moment to reflect on the impact of their choices, instead of just blindly selecting whatever looks most delicious online.
However, research also shows that there are limits to what nudging can achieve. The experts on the new study wanted to find out whether they could amp up its impact with auxiliary approaches—such as priming delivery app users to reflect on their food choices, before being confronted with the online menu… individuals were broken into subgroups, each receiving a different version of an online menu that tested a different approach to encouraging more sustainable selections—including one scenarios that used a traffic light system as the ‘nudge’ to guide consumers towards greener meal options.
Among these was the priming approach, which the researchers called ‘Nudge+’. In this scenario, participants were asked to read an environmental pledge, either before or after they saw the menu. The researchers surmised that this might give the consumers a moment to reflect on the impact of their choices, instead of just blindly selecting whatever looks most delicious online.
Banerjee et. al.
“What works best in promoting climate citizenship? A randomised, systematic evaluation of nudge, think, boost and nudge+” Research Square . 2022.
