Abstract
Several societal issues could be mitigated by reducing global consumption of meat and animal products (MAP). In three randomized, controlled experiments ( to 574), we evaluated the effects of a documentary that presents health, environmental, and animal welfare motivations for reducing MAP consumption. Study 1 assessed the documentary’s effectiveness at reducing reported MAP consumption after 12 days. This study used methodological innovations to minimize social desirability bias, a widespread limitation of past research. Study 2 investigated discrepancies between the results of Study 1 and those of previous studies by further examining the role of social desirability bias. Study 3 assessed the documentary’s effectiveness in a new population anticipated to be more responsive and upon enhancing the intervention content. We found that the documentary did not decrease reported MAP consumption when potential social desirability bias was minimized (Studies 1 and 3). The documentary also did not affect consumption among participants whose demographics suggested they might be more receptive (Study 3). However, the documentary did substantially increase intentions to reduce consumption, consistent with past studies (Studies 2 and 3). Overall, we conclude that some past studies of similar interventions may have overestimated effects due to methodological biases. Novel intervention strategies to reduce MAP consumption may be needed.
Highlights
Several exigent societal issues could be mitigated by reducing global consumption of meat and animal products (MAP) and encouraging predominantly plant-based diets in their place
We randomized 649 participants at T0 (327 in the intervention group and 322 in the control group; Table 1). We excluded this participant’s second record without compromising intention-to-treat principles because the duplicate record did not represent a unique participant.) The sample was roughly balanced on sex, and compared to overall United States national demographics [65], was somewhat younger, more educated, and considerably more politically liberal
Intentions assessed immediately after the intervention might be susceptible to social desirability bias
Summary
Several exigent societal issues could be mitigated by reducing global consumption of meat and animal products (MAP) and encouraging predominantly plant-based diets in their place. Authoritative enjoinments for such a dietary shift have highlighted its potential to improve public health [1,2,3,4,5,6], reduce risks of zoonotic pandemics and antibiotic resistance [7], curb environmental degradation and climate change [3,4,5,6,8], and limit the preventable suffering and slaughter of approximately 500 to 12,000 animals over the lifetime of each human consuming a diet typical of their country [6,9]. We chose this video because its length matched that of the documentary and because pilot studies indicated that, like the documentary, participants found it engaging
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have