How would you encourage sustainable behaviour?

You might assume logical messages work best.

Stuff like “the average three-hour flight creates ~250–400 kg of CO₂”.

But today’s guest on Nudge has tested logical messages.

And they don’t work.

Today on Nudge, Toby Park from the Behavioural Insights Team explains how renaming a meat-free dish doubled its sales. Why targeting home-movers made Americans 400% more likely to cycle. How social norms can increase sales by 20%. And the reframing led the majority of Brits to choose energy-efficient fridges.

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Watch the bonus episode: https://nudge.kit.com/27720ca0ad

Connect with Toby on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toby-park-67773279/

Read Toby’s Net Zero Report: https://shorturl.at/Wy8RP

How to Build a Net Zero Society: https://shorturl.at/0PcRk

Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/mailing-list

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew-22213187/

Watch Nudge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nudgepodcast/

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Sources:

Das, G., Spence, M. T., & Agarwal, J. (2021). Social selling cues: The dynamics of posting numbers viewed and bought on customers' purchase intentions. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 38(4), 994–1016.

Kirkman, E. (2019). Free riding or discounted riding? How the framing of a bike share offer impacts redemption. Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, 2(2), 1–10.

Park, T., Whincup, E., Parker, F., & Bhura, A. (2024). Net Zero communications, marketing and public engagement: Why we need it, and what we can learn from past case studies [Report]. Behavioural Insights Team.

Shotton, R. (2018). The Choice Factory: 25 behavioural biases that influence what we buy. Harriman House.

Sparkman, G., & Walton, G. M. (2017). Dynamic norms promote sustainable behavior, even if it is counternormative. Psychological Science, 28(11), 1663–1674.

Turnwald, B. P., Boles, D. Z., & Crum, A. J. (2017). Association Between Indulgent Descriptions and Vegetable Consumption: Twisted Carrots and Dynamite Beets. JAMA Internal Medicine, 177(8), 1216–1218.

Vennard, D., Park, T., & Attwood, S. (2019). Encouraging Sustainable Food Consumption By Using More-Appetizing Language.

D.C. Reactions + Siri and A.I. Pondering - MOSK: 08.11.2025