A field experiment on norms and information about food choice visibility

Giorgio Dini (Università di Bologna)
Astrid Dannenberg (University of Kassel)
Alessandro Tavoni (Università di Bologna)
Eva Weingartner (University of Kassel)

Abstract

Meat production constitutes one of the drivers of global greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change. Although financial instruments such as taxes have been identified as potentially effective in reducing the greenhouse gas impact of diets, their political acceptance may be limited. Food choice has been recognized as a complex behaviour influenced by many factors such as taste, habit, and norms. In this study, we focus our attention on an element that has been investigated little so far, but which potentially has a significant effect on consumption choices: the social observability of individual consumption choices and the related potential to present oneself as a responsible consumer concerned with environmental protection and animal welfare. We investigate the impact of observability on food choices of participants of a conference in a field experimental setup and analyse potential heterogeneity in the intervention effects

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