Financial incentives for a more sustainable diet

Financial incentives (e.g. pricing strategies) can be a useful strategy in promoting pro-environmental behavioural change. However, empirical findings show how, once the incentive is removed, the behaviour tends to return to baseline. I will present a study where I tested the effect of a price discount on more sustainable alternatives to animal products on the purchase of such products. Besides, I investigated if justifying the discount with an environmental concern can strengthen consumers’ intrinsic motivation to adopt a more sustainable diet also in the long term.I conducted a longitudinal online experimental study based on a virtual supermarket with two time-point measures and three conditions: Discount, Environmental Discount and Control. I compared the effect of the different conditions on the number of sustainable products purchased and on intrinsic motivation to reduce consumption of animal products. The financial incentive with and without an environmental reason did not promote the purchase of sustainable food. Furthermore, intrinsic motivation did not differ between the conditions. However, additional analyses confirmed intrinsic motivation as the key predictor for the purchase of more sustainable products.Plausible explanations for the results as well as limitations in the experimental design will be discussed.