This is Rakefet for The Vegan Report. Today we're
exploring the question, what if a simple intervention
like defaults, a vegan filter and a story of
an individual cow can help save the animals?
Connect with me, my email and social links are
in the episode notes. You can find new episodes
every Wednesday on this podcast. Please share
this episode with your community. I am a research
manager at the China Vegan Society. I am also
doing a PhD in social psychology, in which I
study sustainable defaults, and today we will
explore a hot topic in social psychology, the
power of defaults, and how sustainable defaults
can be a powerful tool for driving change in
institutions. Defaults have an outside impact
on behavior, more so than information campaigns,
reminders or incentives. Sustainable defaults
allow us to transform institutions in a way that
preserves choice rather than limiting it. This
approach has been proven effective and we will
discuss some real world examples of how sustainable
defaults have driven positive change. The key
is leveraging the power of defaults to make the
sustainable choice the easy choice. By making
sustainable options the default, we can shift
nodes and drive meaningful progress without restricting
individual freedom. So why sustainable food matters?
First, the environmental impact. Campus dining
halls serve millions of meals annually. Shifting
to sustainable defaults can dramatically reduce
carbon emissions, water usage, and land degradation.
Secondly, health benefits. Diets based on vegetables
Reduce risk for chronic diseases including heart
disease, diabetes and certain cancers. Promoting
healthier student communities. Third, social
justice. Making sustainable meets the default
increases accessibility and inclusivity for students
with diverse dietary, religious and ethical preferences.
The problem is that many people don't want us
to decide for them what to eat. The solution?
To keep all the options, but to encourage them
to eat sustainable food with the default effect,
the pre -selected option that you get if you
don't choose otherwise. Defaults are powerful
because it's not only that we are too lazy to
choose the non -default option, But we also trust
that if an option is the default, it must be
so because it's the better one, feeling like
this is what is expected of us. And we don't
have to take any option away. You get effective
results without removing any option. Changing
defaults can shape decisions at a large scale
while still keeping freedom of choice. This might
be why defaults have been shown to yield two
to four times higher acceptance compared to other
psychological approaches. Behavioral science
shows that default options profoundly influence
our decisions. When sustainable meals are presented
as the standard choice, students naturally gravitate
toward them without feeling restricted. Studies
from universities that have implemented sustainable
default options show consumption increases by
40 -80 % compared to traditional opt -in approaches.
This isn't about taking away choice, it's about
making the sustainable choice the easy choice.
Opting out of the default is much easier for
people than actively choosing the desired behavior.
This opt -out approach leads to a substantial
53 -87 % increase in sustainable meat selections,
as demonstrated by Greener by default. Defaults
leverage our tendency towards inertia and the
status quo. People are more likely to stick with
the default, making it a highly effective tool
for promoting sustainable behaviors. And defaults
are a huge success. On average, There is a 60
% increase in sustainable meal selection when
implementing a sustainable default. For example,
hospitals in New York saw an impact of over 800
,000 additional sustainable meals served annually.
After making the switch, sustainable selection
rates jumped to 81 .5 % on default days, compared
to just 30 .8 % on control days. This has a significant
carbon reduction impact, with the potential to
save 350 ,000 kg of CO2 annually for large institutions.
For example, and one among many successful implementations
of the default effect, according to Hansen, Schilling
and Malthusen, These are the results from three
different experiments, A, B and C, conducted
at various conferences with two groups in each
experiment. Group 1 received a registration form
with a non -sustainable lunch as the default
option, but with the ability to choose a sustainable
option. Group 2 received a registration form
with a sustainable lunch as the default option.
but with the ability to choose a non -sustainable
option. The main results. In Experiment 3, sustainable
choice increased from 2 % to 87%, an increase
of 85%. In Experiment 2, sustainable choice increased
from 6 % to 86%, an increase of 80%. And in Experiment
3, Sustainable choice increased from 12 .5 %
to 89%, an increase of 76 .5%. By the way, when
the participants were informed eventually that
they had been part of an experiment, they didn't
mind. They were asked whether they approved of
the nudge or not, and 90 % of the people who
were exposed to the nudge actually approved it
oh for example toulon and lay universities achieved
an impressive 81 .5 sustainable meals on sustainable
default days showing strong institutional commitment
surveys indicated high satisfaction and minimal
resistance from students and professors demonstrating
broad acceptance of the program. The financial
impact was cost neutral or even generated savings
for the institutions, making it a sustainable
model. These examples showcase how universities
can effectively transition to more sustainable
dining options, benefiting students, the environment
and the bottom line. Another study led by Zhang
2014 examined six different university events
across four academic institutions. At these events,
attendees pre -selected their meals on one of
two randomly assigned RSVP forms. One form had
a meat -based default option, the other one had
a sustainable default. The results showed a 43
% increase in sustainable choices when the sustainable
option was the default. This led to a significant
environmental impact with over 100 ,000 kg of
CO2 reduced from just these six small events.
Another study by Gene and Sparkman from 2024
looks at how three different university cafeterias
changed their offerings over three months in
one condition the sustainable dish and the meat
-based dish were displayed behind the glass and
in the other condition only the sustainable dish
was displayed behind the glass and you could
have gotten meat only if you specifically asked
for it this led to a 58 .3 % increase in sustainable
choices, and 57 .2 % decrease in meat -based
choices. The data also shows that students were
very receptive to the expanded sustainable offerings,
and prefer them over meat -based options. And
there are different types of sustainable defaults
that organizations can implement. Here I can
mention four of them. The first one is menu default.
We set sustainable options as the standard with
animal products available only by request. The
second one is bulk serving. We provide a sustainable
buffet with an option for animal protein sites.
The third one is event or catering. We default
to sustainable event registration forms. with
alternatives available only by special selection.
And the last one is cafeteria design. We prioritize
sustainable options visually and by organizing
the space. The key is to shift the default so
that sustainable food is the standard and no
sustainable food is the exception that requires
extra effort. This helps normalize sustainable
eating and makes it the easy, convenient choice
for most people. There are three concrete examples
of how we can implement sustainable options in
different settings, including a hospital, a university
and a school. For hospitals, the standard meal
trays should be sustainable, but patients can
request meat options through a simple form. For
university events, the RSVP form defaults to
sustainable meals and attendees must actively
opt out to request a non -sustainable option.
In school lunch programs, the daily lunch is
sustainable by default and parents must submit
a special form to request a non -sustainable
option for their children. And to summarize the
benefits to the cafeterias, sustainable food
is not only better for the planet it's also better
for the budgets health outcomes and overall satisfaction
as for the second intervention we were working
on let me ask you a question can we encourage
people who are not vegetarian nor vegan to take
an action for the animals and the answer is yes
we can using the identifiable victim effect Originally,
the identifiable victim effect was seen when
a girl named Jessica fell into a well. It's horrible,
but she received more media coverage than Wanda
and her foe together. People felt for her because
she was an identified victim with a name and
a face. A study by Markovitch, 2013, found the
identifiable victim effect for animals, but only
for non -environmentalists this led us to think
that non -vegetarians would help a single identifiable
animal victim more than a group of unidentified
victims we conducted three experiments to test
that in experiment one we gave participants a
true story in which in which the cow lucky with
a picture or several anonymous cows without a
picture managed to escape from a live market.
The participants reported their willingness to
sign and share a petition to bring Lucky or the
several cows to a farm sanctuary. And we have
found that people were more willing to sign and
share the petition for the cow when he was identified.
But would people sign an actual petition? Let's
find out. In experiment 2, We showed the same
story, only this time with an actual petition.
We found that a cow with a name and a picture
got more people to sign and support an actual
petition. But we didn't separate identifiability,
the effect of a victim having a name and a face,
from singularity, the effect of a single victim
yet. To do this, we ran experiment 3, in which
we had each person in one of four groups single
identified single unidentified plural identified
and plural unidentified victims we found that
a single identified victim raised more donations
than the three other groups ambivalence towards
meat which was the inner conflict explained it
and finally the vegan filter project Look, we
know that a big problem is that vegan shopping
is inconvenient. According to Phonolitics 2016
and again in 2024, vegetarian and vegan dropout
rate is as high as 84%. Convenience seems like
the number one reason flexitarians don't go vegan.
So, What could possibly be the solution? The
solution is to turn the whole online supermarket
vegan with just a click of a button. The project
we are trying to promote is a simple button that
will filter all the vegan products in the supermarket
instantly showing only the vegan items. It will
include all the plant -based products in the
store. These are products that online websites
sometimes for some reasons don't include. For
example, if it's obvious that they are vegan.
However, we still want to buy them. Our goal
is to reduce friction, especially for new vegans.
New vegans go vegan and find out that they have
to go through the ingredient list and then they
still don't find enough products. This might
be part of the reason why, again according to
phonolitics, 5 out of 6 new vegetarians or vegans
quit. We want to change that. This is an example
for what we call nudges at the point of sale.
And we think we should use them more often, right
when the decision is made. According to a study
by Qatar and Zhao, with over 3 ,000 total views,
sustainable filters increase vegan product sales
by 25 -37%. And we want to focus on China. Actually,
there are more humans and farmed animals living
inside the area surrounding India and China than
in the rest of the world combined. It means that
according to Asia for Animals, the AFA, that
it is 75 % of the farmed animals, 90 % of the
fish, and 5 billion people, who are 60 % of the
world's population. And China receives only 8
% of the pro -animal funding. Also, a project
in China is expected to be cost -efficient. We
expect that confirming that the products are
vegan in the vegan filter will cost three times
less than in the US. China is also very supportive
with its 14 five -year plan stating that alternative
proteins are a national priority so we want to
include an ai -based vegan filter button inside
the supermarket app and we will double check
the ingredients with actual consumers we also
want to conduct surveys to track the impact so
just to summarize it all here are three key points
Plant -based defaults have been found to be the
most effective institutional approach for dietary
change. Implementing plant -based defaults offer
many benefits, enabling us to save costs, reduce
emissions, and increase inclusivity for all diners.
Plant -based defaults seem like the most effective
leverage point for us to drive large -scale plant
-based adoption. As for the identifiable victim
effect, the effect of a single individual with
a name and a picture, the take -home message
is give lucky a name and a face. Finally, we
encourage you to advocate for a vegan filter
button to reduce one of the biggest barriers
for new vegans, which is convenience. So what
can we do starting from today? Talk to someone
in leadership or food services about the idea
of a vegan default, the identifiable victim,
or the vegan filter. Or if you are in leadership,
collaborate with businesses and restaurants.
Share what you have learned today with others.
Write a message, have a meeting, post on social
media. Start a small pilot. such as one event,
one meeting or one meal with a vegan default
option, tell the story of a single animal with
a picture and a name, pitch the idea of removing
barriers online and generally share your success
to inspire others to take similar actions. The
change we want is already happening and we have
the privilege to take a part. Thank you so much
for listening. I appreciate your interest and
support.