How to get teenagers to switch from Big Macs to beetroot burgers

On 10 October, developmental psychologists Sander Thomaes and Judith van de Wetering travelled to Brussels. Their objective? To explain to MEPs and EU policymakers how you can encourage young people to make sustainable food choices.

With her PhD research, Judith van de Wetering aims to find out how you can communicate about climate change in a way that motivates adolescents to make sustainable food choices. Professor Sander Thomaes explains that changing the behaviour of teenagers requires a very targeted approach: "We know that interventions that schools use to promote behavioural change, such as to tackle bullying, are often quite effective in primary school, but that these interventions are much less effective in secondary school." Why is that? "A lot of interventions tell the target group what they should do and think. But most teenagers don’t like to be told what to do: they prefer to think for themselves. So you need to apply a technique specifically aimed at that age group. We are currently trying to find out how you can do that effectively."

Discussion panel

As Judith van de Wetering is already quite far along with her research into this question, the European Research Council (ERC) invited her and Sander Thomaes to come to Brussels. They met with Marc Angel, the Vice-President of the European Parliament, and took part in a discussion of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (also known as the STOA). "People were genuinely interested in our research," says Judith. "I really enjoyed the experience."

Experiment

What do we know about how young people can be encouraged to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle? Van de Wetering’s research focuses on the question of how young people can be persuaded to choose plant-based alternatives to meat. She discovered that if young people are told about the climate impact of meat, some will switch to sustainable options. "We conducted an online experiment in which we examined the impact of information. In the group where we gave no information about the impact of meat on the climate, only 2% chose a vegetarian meal immediately afterwards. However, in the group when we provided just a few sentences of information on the climate impact, that percentage increased to 10%. We are currently also carrying out this experiment at schools."

Sense of urgency

By giving information, the two UU-researchers were able to take away some of the scepticism among their audience. This shows that by educating adolescents, you can motivate them to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. Sander Thomaes: "We know that young people have the potential to be at the forefront of sustainable transitions. But why is that? Is it to do with their age or this particular generation? I think it’s both. It is of all times that young people are in the vanguard of any social transition. However, there is something special about the current generation of young people. They are the first to grow up during the era of climate change, which means their future is uncertain. That is why the current generation of young people feel a particularly strong sense of urgency to contribute to the sustainability transition."

This generation is the first to grow up during the era of climate change.

Independent leaders

Therefore, the advice the researchers gave to the policymakers was to invest in providing information, but also to ensure that this information connects with young people. They were also able to explain to their Brussels audience how that can be achieved. Van de Wetering: "We have seen that an effective way to communicate with adolescents is to inform them about what their peers are doing, because they want to belong to a group. But at the same time, they don’t want to tag along; they want to show that they are making their own choices.

A phrase like 'More and more young people are going for the veggie burger' will not encourage young people to do the same. It is very important to portray young people as independent thinkers who do decide for themselves what they do."

It is very important to portray young people as independent thinkers who do decide for themselves what they do