Nudging, fast and slow: experimental evidence from food choices under time pressure

Paul M. Lohmann, Elisabeth Gsottbauer, Christina Gravert and Lucia A. Reisch

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Understanding when and why nudges work is crucial for designing interventions that consistently and reliably change behaviour. This paper explores the relationship between decision-making speed and the effectiveness of two nudges – carbon footprint labelling and menu repositioning – aimed at encouraging climate-friendly food choices. Using an incentivized online randomized controlled trial with a quasi-representative sample of British consumers (N = 3,052) ordering meals through an experimental food-delivery platform, we introduced a time-pressure mechanism to capture both fast and slow decision-making processes. Our findings suggest that menu repositioning is an effective tool for promoting climate-friendly choices when decisions are made quickly, though the effect fades when subjects have time to revise their choices. Carbon labels, in contrast, showed minimal impact overall but reduced emissions among highly educated and climate-conscious individuals when they made fast decisions. The results imply that choice architects should apply both interventions in contexts where consumers make fast decisions, such as digital platforms, canteens, or fast-food restaurants to help mitigate climate externalities. More broadly, our findings suggest that the available decision time in different contexts might at least partly explain differences in effect sizes found in previous studies of these nudges.

Keywords: carbon-footprint labelling; choice architecture; dual-process models; food-delivery apps; low-carbon diets; system 1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D90 I18 Q18 Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2025-06-26
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Environmental and Resource Economics, 26, June, 2025. ISSN: 0924-6460

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/128667/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:128667

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().