Publicação
The role of reciprocity norm and piggybacking in promoting sustainable food consumption : an online study regarding meal choices in university canteens
| Resumo: | Research has consistently shown how global warming is driven by human action and how we must make significant changes in our habits towards mitigating climate change before serious consequences are upon us. One area that is estimated to account for around one fourth of global greenhouse gas emissions is agriculture, fuelled by our dietary habits, particularly in meat and dairy consumption. The present study sought to test how a reciprocity appeal and piggyback mechanism could be used in promoting sustainable plant-based options in a university canteen setting. The study was conducted with an online questionnaire presented as a hypothetical plant-based meal promotion campaign, where participants (N= 303) were exposed to messages containing reciprocity and piggybacking mechanisms in a 2 (reciprocity appeal: yes, no) x 2 (piggyback mechanism: yes, no) between participants design and where willingness towards meat, fish, and vegetarian meals, perceived consumer effectiveness, diffusion of responsibility and perceived sustainable norm measures were evaluated. Twoway ANOVAs showed a main effect of reciprocity in decreasing willingness to choose fish and vegetarian meals, suggesting that our reciprocity message backfired. No significant effects were found for piggybacking. The discussion presents possible explanations for why the reciprocity and piggybacking messages where ineffective in this study, as well as suggestions on how the messages can be improved to enable further research on the topic (e.g., paring a more context-specific reciprocity appeal with social norm features of the message). |
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| Autores principais: | Greer, David Robert Margarido Alves Pereira |
| Assunto: | Consumo sustentável Comportamento alimentar Proteção do ambiente Impacto ambiental Alimentação de base vegetal - Promoção Dissertações de mestrado - 2021 |
| Ano: | 2021 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso restrito |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Resumo: | Research has consistently shown how global warming is driven by human action and how we must make significant changes in our habits towards mitigating climate change before serious consequences are upon us. One area that is estimated to account for around one fourth of global greenhouse gas emissions is agriculture, fuelled by our dietary habits, particularly in meat and dairy consumption. The present study sought to test how a reciprocity appeal and piggyback mechanism could be used in promoting sustainable plant-based options in a university canteen setting. The study was conducted with an online questionnaire presented as a hypothetical plant-based meal promotion campaign, where participants (N= 303) were exposed to messages containing reciprocity and piggybacking mechanisms in a 2 (reciprocity appeal: yes, no) x 2 (piggyback mechanism: yes, no) between participants design and where willingness towards meat, fish, and vegetarian meals, perceived consumer effectiveness, diffusion of responsibility and perceived sustainable norm measures were evaluated. Twoway ANOVAs showed a main effect of reciprocity in decreasing willingness to choose fish and vegetarian meals, suggesting that our reciprocity message backfired. No significant effects were found for piggybacking. The discussion presents possible explanations for why the reciprocity and piggybacking messages where ineffective in this study, as well as suggestions on how the messages can be improved to enable further research on the topic (e.g., paring a more context-specific reciprocity appeal with social norm features of the message). |
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