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In a world increasingly shaped by humans, understanding what drives human behaviour is an important piece of the puzzle in helping us reach a more sustainable future. So what’s behind the choices people make and the sense of responsibility they feel for these choices?

We sat down with social psychologist Dr. Tina Venema, an Assistant Professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development to discuss the relationship between identity and food, the role of creativity in science and how we can motivate people to make choices that can help shape a better world.

By now we know eating less meat is not only healthier but also better for the environment – a win-win situation. Why do people still eat too much meat and how can we change that?

The food you eat is much more than just a rational decision about caloric intake or what tastes best to you. Hormones in your body, the type of body you want to achieve or avoid, the amount of responsibility you may feel and many more factors influence this decision. But most importantly, dietary decisions also contribute to your social identity. The food you eat says something about who you are. This means that in a way, changing your diet also means changing your identity, and that’s where the resistance often stems from. Normalization is what’s key here. If you see people like you eating vegetarian, it becomes more normal to do so yourself. For instance, if you’re invited for dinner and served a tasty meatless meal, you’ll be more inclined to try it yourself at home. In the end, nobody wants to be the old-fashioned guy holding on to outdated habits.

Changing your diet also means changing your identity, and that’s where the resistance often stems from.

You have been involved in so many different research fields – from nudging over personality psychology to sustainable food systems. Can you tell us about some exciting things you’ve been working on?

What I really like is when curiosity meets creativity. At Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��’s Betweter (Know-it-all) Festival for example, we tested how people reacted to their own unsustainable behavior using a balance board. The balance board brought participants’ minds to life by turning their internal conflict into physical movement, as people tend to move from left to right when hesitating - making their decision-making process visible in real time. And at the moment I am also working on a staged mock-trial. Together with actors, criminologists, lawyers, and researchers from the humanities, literature, and ecology, we are exploring how to define ecocide - the large-scale destruction of ecosystems, for example through mineral extraction - in a way that can stand up in court.

Why is interdisciplinarity so important for your research?

Curiosity can get you in touch with so many different people and that is what I love about my job. The interdisciplinary environment where I work - Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development - has a similar spirit. This also has academic advantages. Until arriving at the institute I had mainly studied individuals, but individuals alone do not explain how society behaves or how policy works. Working in interdisciplinary teams does not allow for the creation of in-depth field-specific knowledge, but it really helps us understand behaviour more systemically.

How can we motivate people to make more sustainable choices?

Ultimately, it comes down to availability and convenience. When making a sustainable choice demands extra effort - whether in time, money, or research - the motivation to follow through needs to be especially strong.  Only a small number of people at either end of the spectrum hold firm, unshakable preferences that are unlikely to be influenced at all. The vast majority fall somewhere in the middle, where our actions are shaped more by habit and convenience than by ideology.

Take travel, for instance: if a train ticket costs twice as much as a flight, is harder to book - especially given frequent delays - only those with a strong ideological commitment will still choose the train. But such deeply held motivation is rare. To encourage widespread adoption of sustainable behaviors, the sustainable option must become the default - easy, convenient, and intuitive. Once that’s the case, sustainable behaviour will be less dependent on intrinsic motivation.

It’s not a lack of motivation that hinders sustainable transformation – it’s a lack of accessibility. Sustainable options need to be easy, convenient and intuitive to become the norm.

What do you find most fulfilling about the work you do?

I really appreciate working with people and having a direct impact. For example, I was invited to give workshops on behavioral insights on how to shape policies by a municipality in Denmark. And I was asked by a hospital to help decrease their CO₂ emissions with my knowledge on how environments can be designed to steer behavior. My real passion, however, is understanding fundamental questions like, when do we feel responsible and when do we deflect that responsbility? Do obligations in one aspect of life - like work - interfere with responsibilites in others, such as family? In other words, is there a “pool of responsibility” that gets depleted when we’re stretched in one domain? Or is responsibility more of a personal trait where people who feel accountable in one role tend to carry that across other contexts? Answering these fundamental questions will open new doors to understanding what shapes human behaviour and decision-making - cruical knowledge for a sustainable future.