Ardesch Tamar F, Klaperski-van der Wal Sandra, Nijssen Sari R R, Müller Barbara C N
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Department of Emotion, Cognition, and Methods in Psychology, Urban and Environmental Psychology Group, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Front Psychol. 2025 Apr 30;16:1439641. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1439641. eCollection 2025.
Meat consumption negatively impacts ecological sustainability, health, and animal welfare. Research suggested promising effects of re-designing product arrangements so that vegetarian items become the default. However, whether default nudging leads to actual behaviour change in the context of meat consumption, and whether these effects are sustainable on the long-term remains unknown. Therefore, this field experiment investigated (a) the effect of vegetarian default nudging on food choices in a real-life setting, and (b) potential long-term associations between vegetarian defaults, food choices, and psychological resistance (i.e., reactance and inertia). A vegetarian default intervention was applied in a university cafeteria. Behavioural data (cafeteria sales data regarding meat and vegetarian purchases; = 4,099) was collected before (T0; baseline), right after implementation (T1), and 10 weeks after implementation of the intervention (T2). Additionally, survey data was collected at T1 and T2 to assess potential psychological side-effects, such as resistance to the intervention. Results indicate that vegetarian default nudging was highly effective at changing food choices, with more than twice the number of vegetarian items sold relative to baseline. Moreover, in the default nudging condition, the number of meat items decreased to less than a third of the baseline measurement. At the same time, the survey data revealed no psychological side-effect of the intervention on reactance or inertia. This was stable over time. Our research offers empirical support for the effectiveness of a non-coercive strategy to change consumer behaviour towards more sustainable, animal friendly, and healthier food choices.
肉类消费对生态可持续性、健康和动物福利产生负面影响。研究表明，重新设计产品布局，使素食产品成为默认选项，可能会产生积极效果。然而，在肉类消费背景下，默认选项推动是否会导致实际行为改变，以及这些效果是否具有长期可持续性，仍不得而知。因此，这项实地实验调查了：（a）在现实生活环境中，素食默认选项推动对食物选择的影响；（b）素食默认选项、食物选择和心理抵触（即逆反心理和惯性）之间潜在的长期关联。在一所大学食堂实施了素食默认选项干预措施。在干预实施前（T0；基线）、实施后立即（T1）以及干预实施10周后（T2）收集了行为数据（食堂关于肉类和素食购买的销售数据；n = 4099）。此外，在T1和T2收集了调查数据，以评估潜在的心理副作用，如对干预措施的抵触情绪。结果表明，素食默认选项推动在改变食物选择方面非常有效，相对于基线，素食产品的销售量增加了一倍多。此外，在默认选项推动的情况下，肉类产品的销售量降至基线测量值的三分之一以下。与此同时，调查数据显示，该干预措施对逆反心理或惯性没有心理副作用。这种情况随着时间的推移保持稳定。我们的研究为一种非强制性策略的有效性提供了实证支持，该策略可促使消费者行为转向更具可持续性、对动物友好且更健康的食物选择。
