2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

Recent studies suggest that most people seeking to make the greatest reduction in their diet-related carbon footprint can do so by reducing their animal-based food consumption. Despite its associated environmental impacts, many individuals choose meat-based food options over plant-based options. The mismatch between relative environmental benefit of plant-based diets and the prevalence of that dietary choice among Americans presents an important research question: What forms of messaging are most likely to yield selection of plant-based food options? Prior research has investigated the effectiveness of different messaging strategies to encourage individuals to make sustainable choices. Three of the most widely studied approaches to encourage sustainable behavior are two types of social normative messaging; descriptive normative messaging (information about what others in an individual’s social group do) and injunctive normative messaging (information about what others in an individual’s social group approve of), as well as environmental-impact messaging strategies (information about the environmental impacts of a behavior). Previous research suggests a strong positive influence of social normative messaging on sustainable choices (towel reuse, littering, water use), however little research has been done to investigate how these messaging strategies can be used to encourage plant-based food choice. This thesis will investigate how three different messaging techniques, (descriptive social normative, injunctive social normative, and environmental-impact based), influence individual plant-based food choices in a field setting.