Abstract
Social change campaigns often entail raising awareness of harm caused by people's behavior. For example, campaigns to reduce meat eating frequently highlight the suffering endured by animals. Such messages may simultaneously attribute moral blame to individuals for causing the harm described. Given people's motivation to protect their moral self-image, we expected that information about the suffering of animals in the meat industry presented with a blaming (versus absolving) frame would generate greater defensiveness and correspondingly resistance to change in support of veg*nism (veganism/vegetarianism). We ran three studies to test this expectation. In two studies, we found that raising awareness of animal suffering using a blaming frame increased defensiveness, leading to lower veg*n-supporting attitudes and behavioral intentions. In one study, our hypothesis was not supported, however, a mini-meta analysis across the three studies suggests the overall pattern is robust. This work expands our understanding of the role of moral self-image preservation in defensiveness and resistance to change, and has applied relevance for the development of effective communication strategies in social and moral campaigns.
Highlights
Activists for social change often work to raise awareness of the harm caused by current practices or policies, in order to influence people’s attitudes
Research focusing on relationships between family members and colleagues, found that the vast majority of people respond to accusations with either denial or justification [17]. In light of this body of research, we suggest that veg n campaigns that introduce information about animal suffering using a blaming frame, risk message recipients feeling morally attacked and becoming defensive and correspondingly resistant to reconsidering their attitudes and behavioral intentions
The title was “What does the meat industry have to hide?” and the opening sentences reflected the idea that the industry conceals information from the public, suggesting that the public is less aware and less responsible for animal suffering (e.g. “Most barns and chicken coops are hidden from the public for fear of damaging the industry’s profits”)
Summary
Activists for social change often work to raise awareness of the harm caused by current practices or policies, in order to influence people’s attitudes. To reduce support for war, anti-war activists often draw attention to the harm innocent civilians experience. While trying to increase opposition to abortion, pro-life campaigners often emphasize harm to the fetus. Researchers have suggested that increasing awareness of harm is a critical first step towards increasing moral concern for a cause and fostering change [1–3]. While trying to raise awareness many campaigns simultaneously, and possibly inadvertently, send an additional message of moral blame, which we suggest may undermine their goals.
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