TY - JOUR
T1 - Supporting sustainable food consumption
T2 - Mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) aligns intentions and behavior
AU - Loy, Laura S.
AU - Wieber, Frank
AU - Gollwitzer, Peter M.
AU - Oettingen, Gabriele
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Loy, Wieber, Gollwitzer and Oettingen.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - With growing awareness that sustainable consumption is important for quality of life on earth, many individuals intend to act more sustainably. In this regard, interest in reducing meat consumption is on the rise. However, people often do not translate intentions into actual behavior change. To address this intention-behavior gap, we tested the self-regulation strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII). Here, people identify and imagine a desired future and current obstacles standing in its way. They address the obstacles with if-then plans specifying when, where, and how to act differently. In a 5-week randomized controlled experimental study, we compared an information + MCII intervention with an information-only control intervention. As hypothesized, only MCII participants' intention of reducing their meat consumption was predictive of their actual reduction, while no correspondence between intention and behavior change was found for control participants. Participants with a moderate to strong intention to reduce their meat consumption reduced it more in the MCII than in the control condition. Thus, MCII helped to narrow the intention-behavior gap and supported behavior change for those holding moderate and strong respective intentions.
AB - With growing awareness that sustainable consumption is important for quality of life on earth, many individuals intend to act more sustainably. In this regard, interest in reducing meat consumption is on the rise. However, people often do not translate intentions into actual behavior change. To address this intention-behavior gap, we tested the self-regulation strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII). Here, people identify and imagine a desired future and current obstacles standing in its way. They address the obstacles with if-then plans specifying when, where, and how to act differently. In a 5-week randomized controlled experimental study, we compared an information + MCII intervention with an information-only control intervention. As hypothesized, only MCII participants' intention of reducing their meat consumption was predictive of their actual reduction, while no correspondence between intention and behavior change was found for control participants. Participants with a moderate to strong intention to reduce their meat consumption reduced it more in the MCII than in the control condition. Thus, MCII helped to narrow the intention-behavior gap and supported behavior change for those holding moderate and strong respective intentions.
KW - Behavior change intervention
KW - Implementation intention
KW - Intention-behavior gap
KW - Meat consumption
KW - Mental contrasting
KW - Sustainable consumption
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U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00607
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00607
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84974603889
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 7
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
IS - APR
M1 - 607
ER -