Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 120, 1 January 2018, Pages 356-366
Appetite

The effects of dissociation on willingness to eat meat are moderated by exposure to unprocessed meat: A cross-cultural demonstration

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2017.09.016Get rights and content

Abstract

Dissociating meat from its animal origins helps consumers deal with the cognitive dissonance resulting from liking meat but disliking causing pain to animals. Extending previous research, we tested whether dissociation would play less of a role for meat consumption in a country where average consumers are more frequently exposed to unprocessed meat (i.e., Ecuador) than where such exposure is rare (i.e., the US). Specifically, we randomly showed Ecuadorians and US Americans a pork roast with the head present or removed. Showing the head led to less dissociation, and subsequently more disgust and empathy for the killed animal in both countries, but to significantly larger degrees in the US. Follow-up analyses with participants' self-reported exposure to unprocessed meat supported the notion that these cross-cultural variations indeed reflected differences in unprocessed meat exposure. In contrast, disgust and empathy, in turn, predicted a lower willingness to eat meat and a higher willingness to choose a vegetarian alternative dish equally in both countries. Because the dissociation part of our model was substantially stronger in the US, it explained about double as much variance in willingness to eat meat and vegetarian choice in the US (63–72%) as compared to Ecuador (30–32%). In sum, the potency of the dissociation mechanism seems to depend on how used consumers in a country are to seeing unprocessed meat, whereas the subsequent affective mechanisms universally influence meat consumption.

Section snippets

Exposure to unprocessed meat as potential moderator of the effects of dissociation

In many parts of the world, people are steadily less involved in the production of meat and this seems to be especially the case in more developed societies (e.g., in many Western countries; Foer, 2010, Leroy and Praet, 2017). The increasing industrialized production of meat and the greater division of labor has created a larger distance between the average consumer and the production process itself (Leroy and Degreef, 2015, Magdoff et al., 2000). In developed countries and big industrialized

Exposure to unprocessed meat in the US and Ecuador

The annual meat consumption of US Americans is estimated to 91.7 kg per person of which 20.8 kg are pork (OECD, 2014). With factory farming being the most common way of producing meat (Foer, 2010), the US is a good example of a culture where the meat-production process has been largely distanced from the consumer. This production process creates convenient products to suit consumer demands while minimizing the degree to which the meat resembles the former animal. Moreover, due to a fast food

The present research

The purpose of the present research was to experimentally investigate whether culturally variant exposure to unprocessed meat moderates the effects that dissociation has on willingness to eat meat. Specifically, building on recent research by Kunst and Hohle (2016), we presented participants living in a country where exposure to unprocessed meat is less common (i.e., the US) and participants living in a country where such exposure is relatively common (i.e., Ecuador) with a pork roast. This

Participants

Ecuadorian sample. In total 202 Ecuadorian participants were recruited through snowball sampling on social online networks. The research was described as dealing with “food habits” (“habitos alimenticios”). The average age was 26.8 years (SD = 9.07) and gender was relatively equally distributed (women: 58%; men: 42%). Asked about their ethnicity, 90.7% reported to be Mestizo, 7.1% White/Caucasian, 1.6% Indigenous, and 0.5% reported other ethnic backgrounds. While 94% of the participants

Results

As expected, participants from Ecuador reported a substantially higher exposure to meat products that still show the animal's head, M = 2.63, SD = 1.96, than participants from the US did, M = 0.87, SD = 1.28; t(304.71) = 10.11, p < 0.001, 95% CI of the difference [1.42, 2.11], Cohen's d = 1.06. This supported the expectation that participants from both cultures differed markedly in their exposure to unprocessed meat. For exploratory reasons, we tested whether participants differed in their

Discussion

Recent research suggested that dissociating meat from its animal origins might be a powerful way for consumers to deal with the cognitive dissonance stemming from liking meat but disliking causing pain to animals (Kunst and Hohle, 2016, Rothgerber, 2013, Rothgerber, 2014). The present cross-cultural study nuances this observation: While dissociation seems to affect willingness to eat meat across cultures to some extent, it does so especially in societies where consumers are less exposed to

References (52)

  • S. Loughnan et al.

    The role of meat consumption in the denial of moral status and mind to meat animals

    Appetite

    (2010)
  • Y. Martins et al.

    “Ugh! That's disgusting!”: Identification of the characteristics of foods underlying rejections based on disgust

    Appetite

    (2006)
  • M.C. Onwezen et al.

    When indifference is ambivalence: Strategic ignorance about meat consumption

    Food Quality and Preference

    (2016)
  • J. Piazza et al.

    Rationalizing meat consumption. The 4Ns

    Appetite

    (2015)
  • M.B. Powers et al.

    Virtual reality exposure therapy for anxiety disorders: A meta-analysis

    Journal of Anxiety Disorders

    (2008)
  • H. Rothgerber

    Efforts to overcome vegetarian-induced dissonance among meat eaters

    Appetite

    (2014)
  • H. Rothgerber et al.

    Childhood pet ownership, attachment to pets, and subsequent meat avoidance. The mediating role of empathy toward animals

    Appetite

    (2014)
  • P. Rozin et al.

    The psychological categorization of foods and non-foods: A preliminary taxonomy of food rejections

    Appetite

    (1980)
  • M.B. Ruby et al.

    Too close to home. Factors predicting meat avoidance

    Appetite

    (2012)
  • J.A.J. Smits et al.

    An examination of the decline in fear and disgust during exposure-based treatment

    Behaviour Research and Therapy

    (2002)
  • Q. Tian et al.

    Confronting the meat paradox in different cultural contexts: Reactions among Chinese and French participants

    Appetite

    (2016)
  • J.H. Zickfeld et al.

    Too sweet to eat: Exploring the effects of cuteness on meat consumption

    Appetite

    (2018)
  • B. Bastian et al.

    Don't mind meat? The denial of mind to animals used for human consumption

    Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

    (2012)
  • O.I. Bermudez et al.

    Trends in dietary patterns of Latin American populations

    Cadernos de Saúde Publica

    (2003)
  • J.M. Borrero et al.
    (2007)
  • M. Cerjak et al.

    Consumers' attitudes towards farm animal welfare and their influence on meat consumption

    Agriculturae Conspectus Scientificus (ACS)

    (2011)
  • Cited by (39)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    1

    Both authors contributed equally to the research.

    View full text