Legumes or Meat? The Effectiveness of Recommendation Messages towards a Plant-Based Diet Depends on People’s Identification with Flexitarians

Abstract

In the present research, we analyzed how to promote a plant-based diet by involving 428 volunteers in a 2-week mobile app intervention. We compared messages promoting the addition of legumes versus messages promoting the replacement of meat with legumes. Messages were either combined or not combined with dynamic norms (i.e., information that more and more people are enacting the behavior). We compared these messages with a control condition (i.e., no message intervention) and we also analyzed the moderation effect of receivers’ identification with flexitarians (i.e., people who occasionally eat animal products) and attitudes towards them. In the short term, addition messages increased legume consumption more than replacement messages, especially in people with a negative evaluation of flexitarians and low identification with them. In the long term, increased legume consumption was recorded only when addition messages were combined with dynamic norms. As for meat consumption, the replacement messages were more effective in reducing it in the short term than in the long term, especially in people with positive attitudes towards flexitarians. However, replacement messages combined with dynamic norms were more effective in the long term than in the short term. These results advance our comprehension of how to tailor dietary messages.