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Category: Project

Description: What interventions for reducing consumption of meat and animal products (MAP) have been tested and validated in the scientific literature, and what theories of change drive the most effective interventions? First, we distinguish and summarize the six major strands of this interdisciplinary literature: direct appeals to consumers on animal welfare, environmental, and/or health grounds; choice architecture, e.g. behavioral nudges or rearranging how items are laid out in a restaurant; economic changes, such as raising the price of meat or lowering the price of meat alternatives; and indirect psychological appeals, such as attempts to create a perceived norm of vegetarianism in a restaurant. We then qualitatively synthesize and meta-analyze the 26 randomized controlled trial (RCT) papers, comprising 39 interventions, that seek to reduce MAP consumption that also meet three standards of research quality: they must measure MAP consumption directly, vs. solely attitudes or intentions; those measurements must occur at least a single day after treatment begins; and they must have at least 25 subjects in both their treatment and control arms, or at least 10 clusters in total for cluster-assigned studies. We conclude by noting some promising trends in the recent literature relating to measurement and design, as well as noting some promising theories of behavioral change that have not yet been rigorously tested.