Mind the gap: understanding the drivers of intention-behaviour gaps in the consumption of meat and single-use plastics
‘Mind the gap’ is designed to advance our understanding of an important behavioural phenomenon; namely, the frequently observed gap between individuals’ intentions and subsequent behaviours. Such gaps have been widely documented in consumption behaviours and often result in people having a larger negative environmental impact than they themselves want or intend. The fellowship probes the drivers of this phenomenon through in-depth study of two areas of human behaviour, meat consumption and single-use plastics, which have a major impact on our shared environment. Existing research exploring intention-behaviour gaps has largely focused on inter-person variation, examining the influence of individual traits on the likelihood of people reporting these gaps. Far less attention has been paid to the inconsistencies that emerge in a given person’s behaviour over time. In the current work, a novel naturalistic monitoring tool will be designed and employed to examine the time-varying factors interact with individual characteristics in ways that help or hinder people from acting as they intend to. 

The fellowship will be based at University College Dublin and will involve a secondment to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The applicant will benefit from an extended period of ‘training-through-research’ under the supervision of Professor Liam Delaney – a leading behavioural economist with expertise in naturalistic monitoring – and Mr Faisal Naru – a behavioural public policy expert working at the OECD. This will be complemented by courses designed to develop the applicant’s technical skills, including in multilevel modelling and statistical analysis and programming in R. Widely disseminating the Fellowship’s research output will raise the applicant’s profile as a researcher, allow them to build their academic and policy networks, and significantly enhance the work’s impact on the academy, the world of practice and society more generally.