A randomized clinical US trial studying the effects of climate impact labeling on fast food reveals that when presented with food marked as having a high impact on the climate, consumers will likely choose a different, more sustainable item.
Within the study of 5,049 US adults, participants were shown a fast food menu and prompted to select one item from randomized menus, each with one of three label conditions: either a QR code label on all items (for the control group), green-colored ‘low climate impact’ labels on chicken, fish or vegetarian items (positive framing) or red-colored ‘high climate impact’ labels on red meat items (negative framing).
Of these participants, almost a quarter (23%) in the high climate impact label condition chose to order a more sustainable item (non-red meat). Similarly, compared to the control group, 10% more participants in the low climate impact label condition ordered a sustainable item.
The authors conclude that climate-impact menu labels may effectively promote sustainable restaurant food choices and that negatively-framed high climate-impact labels appear to be the most effective.
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