Abstract
Eating of insects has been discussed as a more sustainable source of animal protein, but consumer research about uptake behavior of Western consumers is still scarce. Based on previous psychological research highlighting the role of social norms, the present research shows that even subtle cues about descriptive social norms affect Westerners’ willingness to eat unprocessed insects. In a series of four studies, we demonstrate that adherence to descriptive social norms underlies eating intention and behavior. Study 1 shows that individual beliefs about the descriptive social norm correlates with the willingness to eat an unprocessed insect, an effect which is replicated in an experiment showing the causal direction from norm beliefs to eating behavior (Study 2). Study 3 establishes that even in the absence of concrete information about social norms, consumers construe norms based on other options. Manipulating the perceived eating-contingent financial rewards for other people from the same population, un-incentivized participants are more readily willing to eat when they believe that others receive a higher incentive, an effect that is mediated by beliefs about the eating frequency of these participants. Study 4, finally, shows that manipulating beliefs about the norms provides the causal explanation as the effect of the incentive disappears when norm information is explicitly given. Taken together, the studies show that descriptive social norms partially underlie Westerns willingness (or reluctance) to consume insects and that behavioral change initiative could focus on the importance of using norms to increase reliance on non-standard sources of animal protein.
Highlights
The ecological burden of human food consumption poses a major challenge for climate change mitigation
Deregulation allowing for the commercial production and marketing of edible insects have allowed innovators from companies and top-level cuisine to enter the market for insect-based foods (Van Raamsdonk et al, 2017; Berger et al, 2019)
Study 2 provided additional indication that social norms may partially underlie the uptake of entomophagy in Western cultures
Summary
The ecological burden of human food consumption poses a major challenge for climate change mitigation. Deregulation allowing for the commercial production and marketing of edible insects (e.g., in Switzerland in 2017 or as provided by the new regulation of the European Union 2015/2283 on novel foods which entered into force by 2018) have allowed innovators from companies and top-level cuisine to enter the market for insect-based foods (Van Raamsdonk et al, 2017; Berger et al, 2019) Despite these favorable developments and obvious ecological advantages of insect consumption, Westerners’ willingness to eat insect-containing foods is still very low (Deroy et al, 2015; Hartmann et al, 2015) and, up to this date, scientific knowledge about the factors underlying this aversion is relatively scarce. Previous research suggests that one main reason for individuals’ aversion toward insect-based foods lies in the disgust they evoke (Hartmann and Siegrist, 2016; La Barbera et al, 2018; Berger et al, 2019), which allegedly results from Westerners’ association of insects with decaying matter and feces (Looy et al, 2014)
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