Show Me More! The Influence of Visibility on Sustainable Food Choices

Abstract

Visual cues are omnipresent in an in-store environment and can enhance the visibility of a product. By using these visual cues, policy makers can design a choice environment to nudge consumers towards more sustainable consumer behavior. In this study, we use a combined nudge of display area size and quantity of displayed products to nudge consumers towards more sustainable meat choices. We performed a field experiment of four weeks in a butchery, located in a supermarket. The size of the display area and quantity of displayed poultry products, serving as the nudging intervention, were increased, whereas these were decreased for less sustainable meat products. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of our nudging intervention, we also collected data from a control store and performed a pre-and post-intervention measurement. We kept records of the sales data of the sold meat (amount of weight & revenue). When conducting a three-way ANOVA and post hoc contrast tests, we found that the sales of poultry increased during the nudging intervention, but did not decrease for less sustainable meat products. When removing the nudge again, the sales of poultry decreased again significantly in the experimental store. Changing the size of display area and the amount of products displayed in this display area created a shift in the consumers’ purchase behavior of meat.