Nudging Chinese consumers to embrace sustainable milk consumption: How should information be provided?

Abstract

China's per capita dairy consumption has been far below the intake level recommended by the World Health Organization. Since the dairy industry is a significant contributor to carbon emissions, the recently launched “Double-Carbon” goals in China may also suppress the supply of dairy products, further reducing Chinese residents' dairy intake. While the notion of sustainable (i.e., nutritious and environmentally friendly) food consumption has recently gained popularity in the policy arena, whether Chinese milk consumers are ready to embrace this notion and what specific measures can effectively promote sustainable milk consumption in China remain unclear. On the basis of a discrete choice experiment, this paper examines how information nudges (i.e., randomly provided messages with different contents and details) may steer Chinese consumers into choosing liquid milk products with attributes that are more nutritious and environmentally friendly. Our analysis, involving 839 consumers randomly selected from Beijing, China, shows that consumers value carbon labels the most, followed by nutrition claims, sustainable production claims, and energy conservation certificates. Meanwhile, nutrition information induces consumers to place higher values on nutrition claims; in contrast, environmental information raises consumers' willingness to choose environmental sustainability-related attributes. Finally, the concreteness of the information provided strengthens these effects [EconLit Citations: D12, Q01, Q13, Q18].