Seeing Green—or Not? Understanding How People Misjudge the Environmental Impact of Their Food

Pheasant coucal

29-10-2025

“Wild is not chaos. Wild is rhythm unmeasured.”

In Kingfisherish Wandering [1]

© Wix

While most consumers care about sustainability, they often misjudge which foods are most harmful to the planet [2-4]. A new study by Fletcher et al. [5] in the Journal of Cleaner Production sheds light on the psychological dimensions underlying these misperceptions. Using a card-sorting task with 168 UK participants, the researchers found that people mentally organise foods’ environmental impact along two main dimensions: animal versus plant origin and level of processing.

Participants tended to view animal-based and highly processed foods as environmentally damaging, while plant-based and less processed foods were seen as benign. However, when shown scientific life-cycle data, many were surprised. They overestimated the impact of ultra-processed snacks like crisps and orange squash, and underestimated the impact of water-intensive foods such as nuts, rice, and almond milk. Notably, those surprised by a product’s high impact expressed stronger intentions to reduce future consumption of that item, suggesting that new knowledge can influence behaviour—at least temporarily.

These findings highlight how consumers’ “mental models” of environmental harm diverge from scientific assessments. For instance, people focus more on processing and packaging than on hidden factors like water use or agricultural emissions. Such cognitive simplifications help individuals manage informational complexity but also perpetuate environmentally costly decisions. Aligning these perceptions with ecological reality is crucial for effective eco-labelling, dietary guidelines, and public awareness campaigns.

From a Nature Quotient (NQ) perspective, this study underscores how human cognition filters environmental information through value-laden heuristics rather than ecological literacy [6]. Cultivating higher NQ—an awareness that integrates ecological interdependence into daily decisions—requires not just information but transformation of values and empathy toward non-human systems [7,8]. As societies strive for peace with nature, understanding these perceptual biases becomes essential for re-embedding environmental wisdom into food cultures.

References

[1] Nguyen MH. (2025). Kingfisherish Wandering. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FVLLLXNW/

[2] Van Bussel LM, et al. (2022). Consumers' perceptions on food-related sustainability: a systematic review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 341, 130904. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130904

[3] Giacone L, et al. (2024). Consumers' perceptions of healthiness and environmental friendliness of plant-based and dairy product concepts. Food and Humanity, 2, 100288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foohum.2024.100288

[4] Shi J, et al. (2018). Consumers' climate-impact estimations of different food products. Journal of Cleaner Production, 172, 1646-1653. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.11.140

[5] Fletcher D, et al. (2025). Dimensions underlying public perceptions and misperceptions of food's environmental impact. Journal of Cleaner Production, 531, 146938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.146938

[6] Vuong QH, Nguyen MH. (2025). On Nature Quotient. Pacific Conservation Biology, 31, PC25028. https://doi.org/10.1071/PC25028

[7] Tran TT. (2025). Flying beyond didacticism: The creative environmental vision of ‘Wild Wise Weird’. Young Voices of Science. https://youngvoicesofscience.org/?p=1963

[8] Vuong QH, La VP, Nguyen MH. (2025). Informational entropy-based value formation: A new paradigm for a deeper understanding of value. Evaluation Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193841X251396210