Ethical Considerations When Using Nudges to Reduce Meat Consumption: an Analysis Through the FORGOOD Ethics Framework

Nudges are increasingly used to encourage sustainable and often meat-free diets. Interventions to reduce people’s meat consumption are motivated by concerns about health, animal welfare, and the environment. However, dietary choices are of personal and cultural significance, and not everybody wants to be nudged towards a plant-based diet. Nudging has been criticised for being paternalistic, manipulative, and a violation of personal autonomy, amongst other points. It is important to ask whether it is ethical to nudge people towards plant-based diets or whether it is unethical not to do so. Using the FORGOOD ethics framework, this paper organises diverse ethical arguments both in favour and against nudging people towards plant-based diets into seven dimensions: fairness, openness, respect, goals, opinions, options, and delegation. We propose that policymakers, researchers, retailers, restaurant managers, and others who design food menus, set food defaults, decide about which labels to use, and design food choice architectures in other ways should use the presented arguments to reflect on whether nudging people towards plant-based diets is ethical.