Two nudges, one goal: Promoting animal welfare in a virtual supermarket

Abstract

Despite widespread concern for animal welfare, a gap persists between consumers' attitudes and their purchasing behaviour. To address this discrepancy, our study examined various nudging strategies within a simulated, two-dimensional virtual supermarket in Germany. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, we assessed the effectiveness of a social norm nudge, an information nudge and a combination of both, while also exploring the mediating role of descriptive normative beliefs. Our results reveal significant main effects for both nudges, but no interaction effect. This suggests that each nudge independently increased the rate of purchasing products with higher animal welfare standards. Although the combined nudge condition resulted in the largest overall impact, the effects were additive rather than super-additive. Additionally, while participants generally held high levels of descriptive normative beliefs, the social norm nudge did not further elevate these beliefs. Nonetheless, participants with higher descriptive normative beliefs tended to purchase more products with higher animal welfare standards. The study findings emphasise the need for a nuanced understanding of how combined nudging strategies impact purchasing behaviour in supermarkets.