Effects of green nudges on consumer valuation of sustainable food : a discrete choice experiment

Abstract

Sustainable nutrition is becoming increasingly relevant in society. This empirical study suggests that green nudges can encourage consumers to buy food that has an ecology or animal welfare label.

This paper analyzes whether green nudges ‐ displaying nature pictures or providing information on other people’s behavior before the consumer makes a choice ‐ can promote more environmentally friendly food choices. Based on data from an online, discrete choice experiment conducted in Germany, in which randomly selected groups of participants were shown either one of the nudges (treatment groups) or no nudge (control group), the study finds that green nudges increase individuals’ willingness to pay more for products that have ecology and animal welfare labels. However, consumers in one of the treatment groups were willing to pay more for meat rather than the meat alternative, indicating that nudges can have an effect opposite from that intended. Future research should investigate the impact of these relatively cheap interventions with a representative sample and in a field setting.