Nudging interventions on sustainable food consumption: a systematic review

Abstract

As population growth continues, sustainable food behaviour is essential to help reduce the anthropogenic modification of natural systems, driven by food production and consumption, resulting in environmental and health burdens and impacts. Nudging, a behavioural concept, has potential implications for tackling these issues, encouraging change in individuals’ intentions and decision-making via indirect proposition and reinforcement; however, lack of empirical evidence for effectiveness and the controversial framework for ethical analysis create challenges. This systematic review evaluated the effectiveness of nudging interventions on sustainable food choices, searching five databases to identify the effectiveness of such interventions. Of the 742 identified articles, 14 articles met the eligibility criteria and were included in this review. Overall, the potential of certain nudging interventions for encouraging sustainable food choices were found in strategies that targeted ‘system 1’ thinking (automatic, intuitive and non-conscious, relying on heuristics, mental shortcuts and biases), producing outcomes which were more statistically significant compared to interventions requiring consumer deliberation. Gender, sensory influences, and attractiveness of target dishes were highlighted as pivotal factors in sustainable food choice, hence research that considers these factors in conjunction with nudging interventions is required.

Testing the impact of overt and covert ordering interventions on sustainable consumption choices: A randomised controlled trial

“…Changing the choice architecture, or the physical environment in which a decision is made, has been used to encourage healthier diets (Ensaff, 2021). It is also increasingly being applied to sustainable diets: evidence reported in a systematic review of interventions on encouraging sustainable diets indicates that physical (instore and in-canteen) interventions that target automatic non-conscious processes are likely to be effective (Blackford, 2021). Critically, behaviours around purchasing and consumption of food may be habitual, so targeting those behaviours could involve changing the situation that triggers the habitual behaviour or inhibiting the habitual response (Riet et al, 2011).…”

Testing the impact of overt and covert ordering interventions on sustainable consumption choices: a randomised controlled trial

“…Changing the choice architecture or the physical environment in which a decision is made, i.e., "nudge", has been used to encourage healthier diets (Ensaff, 2021). It is also increasingly being applied to sustainable diets: evidence reported in a systematic review of interventions on encouraging sustainable diets indicates that physical (in-store and in-canteen) interventions that target automatic non-conscious processes are likely to be effective (Blackford, 2021). Critically, behaviours around purchasing and consumption of food may be habitual, so targeting those behaviours could involve changing the situation that triggers the habitual behaviour or inhibiting the habitual response (Riet et al, 2011).…”