Same, same, but different - How to communicate information about minority behaviour to support sustainable food choices

We will study how two different message appeals as well as their combination can enhance sustainable food choices. We apply dynamic norm appeals to point out positive normative changes over time whereas we use uniqueness appeals to reveal the potential to positively distinguish oneself from others. We propose that two contrasting basic human needs explain the effectiveness of these different message appeals: the need for assimilation, which refers to the need to belong to others (relating to dynamic norms), and the need for differentiation, which denotes the need to distinguish oneself from others (relating to uniqueness appeals).The inclusion of three types of enforcing mechanisms is expected to provide further understanding about the conditions under which these mechanisms are especially effective. One of these mechanisms are personal characteristics of the target group with a focus on individual need for differentiation vs. assimilation and environmental identity. Moreover, reference groups supposedly support the impact of the appeals better when they are matched to the target groups. Lastly, for a larger societal impact, familiarity as a characteristic of the food behaviour, will be taken into account, so the findings can be applied to multiple food behaviours.