Abstract:Simple Summary: Psychologists have used the term "meat paradox" to explain why people may emphasize their concern for animal welfare and yet eat meat, the production of which has caused suffering to nonhuman creatures. This paper explores the meat paradox through the philosophical concept "akrasia". Akrasia refers to a situation, where one believes in a fact or value x, and yet acts against that fact or value. The paper uses the term "omnivore's akrasia" to denote a state where one believes in the value of ani… Show more
“…Despite extensive discussion and scientific evidence on the adverse consequences of eating meat, it is still widely consumed. People choosing to eat meat are often conflicted by the "meat paradox" [53][54][55]. They confront two opposite emotions-compassion towards animals suffering from farm and industry practices and the pleasure and habit of eating meat as an essential and even staple food in the everyday diet.…”
Reducing the consumption of meat constitutes an important part of the global shift towards more sustainable food systems. At the same time, meat is firmly established in the food culture of most human beings, and better understanding of individual behaviors is essential to facilitate a durable change in contemporary eating patterns. To determine the level and nature of attachment to meat among consumers, the Meat Attachment Questionnaire (MAQ) in relation to the phases of behaviour change in the meat consumption reduction process was utilised. Data collected through a survey carried out among Poles aged 25–40 years living in cities were analysed with the use of Spearman’s correlations and one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc tests. The biggest share of the studied group of millennials (N = 317) never considered reducing their meat consumption (Phase 1–41%) and was described by the highest level of MAQ score in all its categories: hedonism, affinity, dependence, and entitlement. More than half of the respondents in Phase 2 participants (“planners”) declared a willingness to cut down meat consumption but had not yet put their intentions into practice. Respondents qualified in Phase 3 declared the highest willingness to reduce meat consumption and were significantly less attached to meat regarding all MAQ categories than respondents in Phase 1. The 9% of the study participants (Phase 4) had already limited the frequency of their meat consumption to “several times a week”, this however still remains insufficient compared to the ambitious goals of sustainable healthy diets. Results indicated that meat attachment categories, especially hedonism and dependence, were identified as predictors of willingness to reduce meat consumption. Research exploring the determinants of change and possibilities of effective communication about meat reduction on an individual level in different cultural settings are needed.
“…Despite extensive discussion and scientific evidence on the adverse consequences of eating meat, it is still widely consumed. People choosing to eat meat are often conflicted by the "meat paradox" [53][54][55]. They confront two opposite emotions-compassion towards animals suffering from farm and industry practices and the pleasure and habit of eating meat as an essential and even staple food in the everyday diet.…”
Reducing the consumption of meat constitutes an important part of the global shift towards more sustainable food systems. At the same time, meat is firmly established in the food culture of most human beings, and better understanding of individual behaviors is essential to facilitate a durable change in contemporary eating patterns. To determine the level and nature of attachment to meat among consumers, the Meat Attachment Questionnaire (MAQ) in relation to the phases of behaviour change in the meat consumption reduction process was utilised. Data collected through a survey carried out among Poles aged 25–40 years living in cities were analysed with the use of Spearman’s correlations and one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc tests. The biggest share of the studied group of millennials (N = 317) never considered reducing their meat consumption (Phase 1–41%) and was described by the highest level of MAQ score in all its categories: hedonism, affinity, dependence, and entitlement. More than half of the respondents in Phase 2 participants (“planners”) declared a willingness to cut down meat consumption but had not yet put their intentions into practice. Respondents qualified in Phase 3 declared the highest willingness to reduce meat consumption and were significantly less attached to meat regarding all MAQ categories than respondents in Phase 1. The 9% of the study participants (Phase 4) had already limited the frequency of their meat consumption to “several times a week”, this however still remains insufficient compared to the ambitious goals of sustainable healthy diets. Results indicated that meat attachment categories, especially hedonism and dependence, were identified as predictors of willingness to reduce meat consumption. Research exploring the determinants of change and possibilities of effective communication about meat reduction on an individual level in different cultural settings are needed.
“…The philosopher Elisa Aaltola highlights the relevance of the context and the cultural paradigm on human-animal relations. She evokes the ancient philosophical concept of Akrasia to refer to the paradoxes and incongruences between what people think they should do and what they really do towards animals [32]. Psychology scholars have drawn on the concept of ambivalence or moral disengagement [33,34] to explain such postures that some have called the meat paradox: a contradiction between affection, sympathy, and love for animals and the concomitant exploitation, operation, and use of them [7,10,16].…”
Section: Conceptual Background 21 Moral Conflicts and The Biased Endorsement Of Animal Exploitationmentioning
Food packages must communicate mandatory information, but they can also be used for marketing practices such as promotion and are a communication pathway from industry to consumer. Considering that cows are the main beings affected by the dairy industry, it is essential to scrutinise what dairy product packages convey about them. The aims of this study are to analyse the occurrence of reference to cows on the packaging of dairy products in popular supermarket retail stores in Brazil and the United Kingdom and to discuss ethical implications of promotional practices of dairy producers. We found that in both countries most packaging does not refer to cows at all. In the UK, an average of 31% of the packaging used some visual reference to cows, and in Brazil an average of 15% of packaging used some visual reference to cows. We identified four modalities of cow signifiers with a strong common appeal to nature that reflect and reaffirm an idyllic narrative of milk production. Our findings reflect the concept of absent referent, coined by Carol Adams, both on the packages containing some type of cow representation and on the packages not containing any. Considering that it might influence the consumer’s understanding and attitude towards cows, we highlight that the lack of adequate information about cows’ conditions and the obscuring of problematic issues in cows’ exploitation through the globalization of the happy cow narrative are two important issues to be placed on the Marketing Ethics concerns.
“…At the same time, several studies report an attitude-or intention-behaviour gap that could possibly be explained as a consequence of moral disengagement due to the unwillingness to reduce meat consumption (Graça et al, 2015(Graça et al, , 2014. The cognitive dissonance between liking animals (as living creatures) and liking animals (as food) is discussed as the "meat-paradox" (Aaltola, 2019;Bastian and Loughnan, 2017). In the practice of eating meat, that moral conflict has shown to be solved by moral disengagement (Benningstad and Kunst, 2020).…”
Section: Effects Of Documentary On Consumer Perception 177mentioning
PurposeMeat consumption causes a large amount of global greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems. Studies showed that consumers underestimate the environmental impact of meat consumption compared to other food-related behaviours. A video intervention was conducted to investigate the effect of information on consumers' perception and behaviour.Design/methodology/approachTwo didactically different videos about meat and the environment and a control video were shown to 189 participants. Ratings about the environmental impact of different food-related behaviours as well as participants' meat consumption frequency were obtained directly before, one week later and one year after the screening by self-report questionnaires.FindingsMean rating of the environmental impact of meat consumption was second to the least important of the different food consumption patterns. In the first intervention group, the rating increased significantly (p = 0.001) after having watched the video. There was no such effect in the second intervention or the control group. Self-reported meat consumption frequency did not change significantly in any of the groups. No long-term differences between the groups could be found.Research limitations/implicationsThe results suggest that there is still a lack of knowledge concerning the environmental impact of meat consumption. Providing information can affect awareness, depending on the type of information delivery. The circumstances under which information encourages behaviour change need to be further explored.Originality/valueThis is the first study that investigated the impact of different videos about environmental impacts of meat consumption on consumer perceptions and behaviour.
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