Distance makes meat-eaters’ hearts grow fonder for veggie options

MEAT eaters are more likely to pick a vegetarian meal when dining out if the dish is placed 6ft in front of the meat option, a Cambridge University study has found.

Researchers are exploring ways of “nudging” people towards eating more plant-based meals and less meat, to help curb environmental damage.

Meal choices by customers in the cafeterias of two Cambridge colleges were analysed to find out whether the position of vegetarian options influenced the uptake of plant-based eating.

Data from more than 105,000 meal selections were collected over a twoyear period, and the placement of meat and vegetarian dishes were alternated weekly, and then monthly.

Researchers said the size of their study was “unprecedented”, after a review of previous studies using similar “choice architecture” to reduce meat intake only reached a combined total of 11,290 observations.

In one college, placing dishes before meat as people entered the serving area did little to boost green eating, according to the research published in the Nature Food journal.

But, in the other, sales of plant-based dishes increased by 25.2 per cent in the weekly analysis, and by 39.6 per cent in the monthly comparison.

The difference was almost a metre of added distance between the vegetarian and meat options, with an 85cm (2.7ft) gap in the first college compared with a 181cm (5.9ft) gap in the second.

Emma Garnett, the study’s lead author, said: “Reducing meat and dairy consumption is one of the simplest and most impactful choices we can make to protect the climate, environment and other species.

“We’ve got to make better choices easier for people. We hope to see these findings used by catering managers and indeed anyone interested in cafeteria and menu design that promotes more climate-friendly diets.”

Cafeteria customers in the experiment’s two colleges – one with 600 students and one with 900 – were presented with vegetarian and meat options in differing orders for weekday lunch and dinner.

College members take a tray, view the meals on offer, and then ask the staff to serve their preferred options. The cafeterias’ managers helped to set up the experiments, but the diners were unaware.

Researchers had expected to see a difference in vegetarian sales through orders alone, but only the college with the extra metre (3ft) gap between food options recorded an uptick when the vegetarian option was placed in front.

To confirm the findings, researchers reduced the gap to just 67cm (2ft), and vegetarian sales fell sharply. In fact, with such a small gap, vegetarian dishes fared even worse when put first in line, falling almost 30 per cent compared with days when meat was presented first.

The research follows on from work by the team published last autumn, which showed that adding an extra vegetarian option cut meat consumption without denting overall sales.