A Double-Edged Fork: Motivating and De-Motivating Pro-Environmental Food Behavior

Abstract

Climate change is a consequence of human behavior, but people tend to construe climate change as an unfathomable, abstract phenomenon that is irrelevant to their individual actions. In the present studies, the high-impact, underrepresented behavior of dietary choices was communicated with numerical information that varied in its frame of reference. We present initial evidence that presenting the footprint of human behavior at a global level, compared to at an individual level, demoralizes individual choices and weakens behavioral intentions to change diet. In addition, we find that participants reported reductions in their meat consumption when an implementation intention intervention was combined with our ‘frame of reference’ intervention. Presenting nation-wide consequences of human behavior is a double-edged sword: Framing in a large scale might reveal the relationship between collective actions and environmental issues, but it hinders the belief that individual actions make a difference.