The effect of information nudges on online purchases of meat alternatives

We investigated the effect of health and environmental information messages on purchases of meat and plant-based alternatives in a non-hypothetical online supermarket experiment. When controlling for observables, we find the health information nudge to be effective at motivating meat eaters to purchase plant-based meat alternatives. This effect is absent when providing environmental information or its combination with health information. We also find that meat eaters implicitly perceive meat to be healthier but environmentally unsustainable compared to plant-based alternatives. Our findings provide insights as to how to steer consumers towards meat alternative purchases under different information types in an online supermarket.