Consumers’ Attitudes towards Animal Suffering: A Systematic Review on Awareness, Willingness and Dietary Change

Abstract

Planetary and human health depend on Westerners’ ability to reduce meat consumption. Meat production degrades the environment while excessive meat intake is associated with cancer and cardiovascular disease, among others. Effective reasons and motivations are needed for consumers to change their diet. The fact that modern animal agriculture inflicts a great deal of pain on animals from their birth to their slaughter, animal welfare/suffering may drive consumers to curtail their meat consumption. This systematic review examined a total of 90 papers to ascertain consumers’ awareness of the pain animals experience in animal agriculture, as well as consumer attitudes towards meat reduction due to animal welfare. Results show that consumers have low awareness of animal agriculture. Awareness of animal agricultural practices and animal sentience is associated with increased negative attitudes towards animal suffering. Animal suffering due to farming practices, transportation, slaughter, and animal sentience are factors that may encourage a reduction in meat consumption, and even dietary change in the short term. There is also evidence that animal suffering may be a more compelling motivation for consumers’ willingness to change their diet than for health or environmental reasons. Therefore, increasing consumers’ awareness of animal suffering in meat production is paramount to contributing to reduced pressure on the environment and improved human health.

Psychometric Evaluation of the Food Life Questionnaire—Short Form among Brazilian Adult Women

“…Additionally, a natural diet is associated with dietary patterns that emphasize unprocessed foods and those closer to their original form, while a vegetarian diet excludes animal-derived foods [49]. However, there is evidence that interventions focused on animal suffering may exert a more persuasive influence on consumers, leading them to alter their diets, compared with health or environmental reasons, as revealed in a recent systematic review [50]. Thus, people who opt for a more natural diet do so for health concerns and socioeconomic/cultural reasons, while the choice to adopt vegetarian diets includes, in addition to these, ethical concerns about animals and environmental impact, as pointed out in a systematic review conducted by Kwasny et al [51].…”

Chilean public attitudes towards beef production systems

“…These proposals, however, ignore the fact that some production systems, instead of aggravating the environmental problems, can positively contribute to mitigate the impacts of food and meat production, given that some beef production systems such as regenerative grazing can have positive consequences in the ecosystem such as land restoration, improved resources cycles and biodiversity, and soil carbon sequestration, helping to mitigate climate change [ 8 , 10 , 54 ]. The positive association between the perception of environmental benefits of the systems and attitudes towards beef production systems suggests that environmental impact of the food production systems is a relevant concern for society and may be a reason for support of regenerative grazing systems [ 55 , 56 ].…”

“…that environmental impact of the food production systems is a relevant concern for society and may be a reason for support of regenerative grazing systems [55,56].…”

Predictors of Eating Less Meat and More Plant-Based Food in the Polish Sample

“…Except for some religions, meat consumption is perceived as a normal and evolutionarily natural [ 29 ]. In Poland, meat consumption is also strongly rooted in tradition [ 5 ], and the preparation of meat meals is perceived as convenient, similarly to other countries [ 30 , 31 ]. In the past, meat consumption was associated with typical masculine attributes [ 32 , 33 , 34 ].…”

“…Indeed, research shows that some people believe that meat consumption is unhealthy [ 18 ], but others see meat as healthy [ 36 ]. There is a strong relationship between meat consumption, the perception of taste [ 31 ], and the expectation of pleasure after eating it [ 29 ]. People who are strongly attached to meat consumption are less likely to change their dietary habits [ 29 , 37 , 38 ].…”