{"title":"Ethical Considerations When Using Nudges to Reduce Meat Consumption: an Analysis Through the FORGOOD Ethics Framework","authors":"L. Lades, F. Nova","doi":"10.1007/s10603-023-09558-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>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.</p>","PeriodicalId":47436,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF CONSUMER POLICY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JOURNAL OF CONSUMER POLICY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-023-09558-3","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
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.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Consumer Policy is a refereed, international journal which encompasses a broad range of issues concerned with consumer affairs. It looks at the consumer''s dependence on existing social and economic structures, helps to define the consumer''s interest, and discusses the ways in which consumer welfare can be fostered - or restrained - through actions and policies of consumers, industry, organizations, government, educational institutions, and the mass media.
The Journal of Consumer Policy publishes theoretical and empirical research on consumer and producer conduct, emphasizing the implications for consumers and increasing communication between the parties in the marketplace.
Articles cover consumer issues in law, economics, and behavioural sciences. Current areas of topical interest include the impact of new information technologies, the economics of information, the consequences of regulation or deregulation of markets, problems related to an increasing internationalization of trade and marketing practices, consumers in less affluent societies, the efficacy of economic cooperation, consumers and the environment, problems with products and services provided by the public sector, the setting of priorities by consumer organizations and agencies, gender issues, product safety and product liability, and the interaction between consumption and associated forms of behaviour such as work and leisure.
The Journal of Consumer Policy reports regularly on developments in legal policy with a bearing on consumer issues. It covers the integration of consumer law in the European Union and other transnational communities and analyzes trends in the application and implementation of consumer legislation through administrative agencies, courts, trade associations, and consumer organizations. It also considers the impact of consumer legislation on the supply side and discusses comparative legal approaches to issues of cons umer policy in different parts of the world.
The Journal of Consumer Policy informs readers about a broad array of consumer policy issues by publishing regularly both extended book reviews and brief, non-evaluative book notes on new publications in the field.
Officially cited as: J Consum Policy