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Jerkies, Tacos, and Burgers: Subjective Socioeconomic Status and Meat Preference
Abstract
In mankind's evolutionary past, those who consumed meat were strong and powerful and thus man saw meat as indicative of social status. This symbolic connection between meat and status persists today. Thus, based upon psychological theories of compensation, individuals low on subjective socioeconomic status (SES) should have a greater preference for meat, as meat may be substitutable for the status that they lack. Three experiments tested this premise. Participants who felt low on subjective SES preferred meat-based foods compared to participants who felt high on it (Experiment 1). The effect is driven by a desire for status (Experiments 2–3) and not by felt hunger or power (Experiments 1–2) and not generalizable to plant foods (Experiment 3). The results suggest a symbolic link between meat and status, which has intriguingly not yet been empirically shown, and we also demonstrate a consequence of the link for food preference. The results may be of use for doctors who advise eating less meat to improve physical health and for environmental advocates who argue that meat consumption exacerbates global warming. We will also discuss the contributions of and further avenues based on our work.
... Experiments have also found that men show a greater preference for meat when sexually motivated (Chan & Zlatevska, 2019b;Timeo & Suitner, 2018) and that some men and women believe that meateating men are more sexually attractive (Bogueva et al., 2020; Timeo & Suitner, 2018). Hence, heterosexual men in particular may be motivated to eat meat to enhance their sexual appeal. ...
... Previous studies have found that men showed a greater preference for meat when sexually motivated (Chan & Zlatevska, 2019b;Timeo & Suitner, 2018). In both studies, researchers attributed men's preference for meat to the intention to increase their sexual attractiveness. ...
Men are the biggest meat consumers worldwide, placing themselves at greater risk of disease and early death from red and processed meat consumption. Despite these serious health outcomes, men tend to be unwilling to reduce their meat intake. It has been theorised that adherence to masculine norms plays a role in this unwillingness. The current study sought to determine which traditional and non-traditional masculine norms predict men’s meat consumption, intention to eat meat, and willingness to reduce meat consumption. Five hundred and seventy Australian and English self-identified males completed the Meat Consumption and Intention Scale, and three psychometrically validated measures of traditional and non-traditional masculinity. The traditional masculine norms violence, importance of sex, and heterosexual self-presentation positively predicted men’s meat consumption; the non-traditional masculine norm sensitivity to male privilege negatively predicted men’s meat consumption. Toughness, emotional control, and holistic attentiveness were also important predictors of men’s willingness to reduce. Our results suggest that informational campaigns, designed for men, that help challenge and break perceived links between meat consumption and attitudes to violence, sexual virility, heterosexuality, and physical strength may be effective in reducing meat consumption.
... Generally, the literature suggests that males prefer (and eat) more meat than females, while preferring plantbased proteins less than females [e.g., (2,20,23)]. This preference has evolutionary underpinnings, such that men have the need to position themselves as an attractive mate, heightening one's desire to signal their masculinity to potential partners through meat consumption (24)(25)(26). However, while research explains this phenomenon by broadly focusing on traditional gender norms and societal expectations, recent research suggests there is more nuance in how these norms and expectations influence meat consumption. ...
... While there are many highly visible outlets through which men choose to display their masculinity, including gun support and ownership (48), gambling (49), alcohol/substance abuse (43,50), and vehicle choice (51), one common way in which men do so is through their food choice. Red meat, in particular, is associated with masculinity (28,30) and masculine qualities such as virility and sexual strength (52), mating desirability (24), and status (25). Indeed, red meat consumption is viewed as implicitly and explicitly masculine (53) by both men and women (29,32). ...
Introduction
This research integrates literature on masculinity stress—the distress experienced as the result of a perceived discrepancy with male gender norms—with research on goal conflict to examine preferences for plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs). Men experiencing masculinity stress are likely to hold salient a goal of being masculine, which should lead to less preference for PBMAs. However, many of these men simultaneously hold competing goals, such as making ethical food choices, which remain inhibited in favor of the focal masculinity goal. We argue that once men experiencing masculinity stress highlight their masculinity through the selection of a manly product, they satisfy that higher-order goal and are then free to pursue previously inhibited goals, such as making an ethical choice through the selection of PBMAs.
Methods
We present the results of three studies supporting these expectations. Study 1 tests the link between masculinity stress and meat (alternative) consumption using consumer search behavior collected from Google Trends, showing that masculinity stress is positively (negatively) correlated with searches for red meat (PBMAs). Study 2 shows that men experiencing masculinity stress are more inclined to choose PBMAs, provided they are presented within a masculine product context. Study 3 presents a parallel mediation model, showing that ethical considerations (as opposed to masculine goals) shape the choice of PBMA preference.
Results and discussion
We conclude with a discussion of theoretical implications for the impression management strategies utilized by men experiencing masculinity stress and practical implications for the growing PBMA industry.
... Global pork consumption continues to 66 increase, and the United States has become the largest exporter of pork. U.S. pork accounts 67 for 30% of global pork consumption [18]. In Europe, pork accounts for 47% of total meat 68 production, and this proportion continues to increase. ...
... 424 Consumers' purchase intention differed among genders, educational levels, and 425 purchase frequency. Meat consumption reflects social status, which affects male 426 consumers' purchase of meat products [67]. In this study, men exhibited greater pork 427 purchase intention than did women. ...
This study explored the effects of purchase preference, perceived value, and marketing mix on consumers’ purchase intention and willingness to pay for pork in Taiwan. A questionnaire was distributed to pork consumers in an online platform, and a total of 1,042 valid samples were collected. An analysis of the questionnaire responses revealed three purchase preference factors, namely flavour, certification marks, and added features; four perceived value factors, namely functional, social, conditional, and emotional value; and four marketing mix factors, namely promotion, convenience, product, and price marketing. Functional value, purchase frequency, conditional value, and product marketing positively affected purchase intention. Promotional marketing, monthly disposable income, and social value were the main positive factors in increased willingness to pay. Consumers who were men, had a lower educational level, purchased large quantities of pork at one time, or frequently purchased pork exhibited higher purchase intention than did other consumers. Those who were men, had higher educational attainment, had a higher monthly disposable income, or held a management position were more willing to purchase pork at a premium price.
... Meat, and particularly red meat, is viewed as a masculine food symbolizing maleness and status (Rozin, Hormes, Faith, & Wansink, 2012;see Appendix). At both implicit and explicit levels (Love & Sulikowski, 2018), and across men and women (Ruby & Heine, 2011;Rozin et al., 2012;Thomas, 2016), meat consumption is associated with masculinity (Vartanian, 2015) and the signaling of masculine qualities like virility, sexual strength, mating desirability, and status (Adams, 2015;Chan & Zlatevska, 2019a, 2019bNath, 2011). Unsurprisingly, then, red meat consumption is significantly higher among men than women (National Cancer Institute, 2019). ...
... Such stress leads these men to demonstrate that they are, in fact, "man enough" (Vandello & Bosson, 2013, p. 101) through such behavior as intimate partner violence (Berke, Reidy, Gentile, & Zeichner, 2019;Reidy et al., 2014), physical aggression (Bosson, Vandello, Burnaford, Weaver, & Wasti, 2009), and risky sexual behavior (Reidy, Brookmeyer, et al., 2016). Likewise, given the linkage between meat and masculinity (Rozin et al., 2012;Chan & Zlatevska, 2019a, 2019b, we anticipate that red meat consumption provides a strategic outlet to display one's manliness, which men higher (but not lower) on masculinity stress should be particularly eager to embrace. Specifically, we propose that masculinity stress is predictive of the belief that meat consumption can augment one's masculinity, leading men higher in masculinity stress to choose red meat over a non-red-meat alternative. ...
This work explores the effects of masculinity stress—distress arising from a perceived discrepancy with male gender norms—on red meat consumption, which has potentially substantial individual, collective, and ecological consequences. Across three studies, we demonstrate a positive indirect effect of masculinity stress on red meat consumption through beliefs that meat consumption can augment masculinity, an effect which is moderated by one's self-assessed traditional masculinity (study 1). We further demonstrate attenuation of the effect of masculinity stress on red meat preference when a red meat product is associated with an out-group (i.e., women; study 2) and show that this effect does not extend to women. In study 3, we show that the effect of masculinity stress on choice of red meat is attenuated following a masculinity affirmation. We finish with a detailed discussion of implications and directions for future research. Taken together, we provide convergent evidence that masculinity stress is associated with red meat preference, and that this preference can be discouraged by leveraging out-group reference information and masculinity affirmation. In so doing, this research provides a series of contributions to the literatures on meat eating and vegetarianism specifically, as well as gender identity maintenance more broadly.
... This study also showed that meat consumption is negatively related to educational background, or what Bourdieu termed institutionalized cultural capital. Chan and Zlatevska [35] recently argued that meat may be a substitute for a perceived lack of socioeconomic status. Accordingly, in the study by Hoek et al. [36], it was shown that vegetarians are mainly higher educated and have a higher socio-economic status. ...
... At first glance, this can be connected to previous research that has shown that meatless diets are more common among populations with higher education [36,56]. To explain this, Chan and Zlatevska [35] recently suggested that meat consumption may compensate for a perceived lack of socioeconomic status. In addition, it is often argued that meat might have a more prominent role in the diet of the less educated, because they are more often employed in manual labor. ...
This article highlights the importance of the dietary pattern of significant others in one’s social network to explain both individual meat consumption and vegaphobia, the negative and stigmatizing attitude toward vegetarianism and non-meat-eaters. Using survey data (N = 996), this study first contrasted convinced meat-eaters with non-meat eaters, or people who actively reduce or limit their meat consumption, in terms of different socio-demographic characteristics. Results showed that convinced meat eaters are more often male. A negligible effect on meat consumption was found for education, and age differences were not significant. Next, attention was paid to the social context of meat consumption. Specifically, results of a logistic regression analysis showed that a person’s meat consumption is considerably lower when one of their household members is vegetarian. This was also the case, but to a lesser extent, if people’s social circle included a vegetarian friend or family member. Similar results were found when looking at the linear correlates of vegaphobia using ordinary least squares regression (OLS). Vegaphobes were more often male and lower-educated. In addition, vegaphobia was more common among older persons and convinced meat eaters. Moreover, vegaphobia was less common among people who had a vegetarian in their household or groups of friends. The article ends with a discussion on the importance of studying the social environment in meat consumption and attitudes toward vegetarianism. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.
... Consequently, adopting alternative protein sources poses a challenge to upholding existing habits and lifestyles, such as Sunday barbecues and the preparation of customary dishes during holidays or festivities [29]. Chan and Zlatevska (2019) [33] identify meat as a symbol of socioeconomic status, with individuals of lower income preferring animal protein consumption as a means to compensate for their lack of status. ...
This article offers a comprehensive analysis of consumers’ perspectives towards plant-based meats, utilizing insights derived from a systematic literature review (SLR). The primary objective is to identify the specific areas of focus in studies pertaining to plant-based meats that address consumer preferences, as well as the prevailing methodologies employed in those studies. To accomplish this objective, the authors conducted a rigorous systematic literature review (SLR) adhering to established guidelines and employing quality assessment parameters for a set of eighteen selected studies. The findings of this SLR bring 18 primary works that deal with acceptance, barriers, environmental concern, and brand preference, among other aspects related to the consumer. Regarding the research methods most used in studies, some research uses the qualitative method, but predominantly the quantitative method is found. By synthesizing the findings of rigorous and high-quality peer-reviewed articles, this study offers insights that have the potential to advance the field. The derived insights not only contribute to the formulation of strategies aimed at enhancing consumer acceptance of plant-based meats but also hold promise in addressing the critical issue of reducing animal meat consumption and mitigating the associated negative environmental impacts.
... Such division is often caused by enduring, intergenerational biases that have widespread impact on marketing Read et al., 2018), employment (Roberson & Scott, 2024), media (Hatton & Trautner, 2011;G. K. Oakenfull et al., 2008), healthcare (Lopez-Suarez et al., 2023) and food choice (Chan & Zlatevska, 2019;Wilson & Liu, 2011). ...
... However, more and more studies have found that compared with objective SES, subjective SES has a closer and more stable relationship with behavioral patterns, mental functions, healthrelated factors, and level of consciousness [16][17][18][19]. Subjective SES has been applied to various aspects of social cognition and behavior science, such as food preferences [20], life well-being [21,22], health impairment behaviors [23] and political participation [24], etc. Discussions on the correlation between SES and green behavior have revealed that subjective SES not only mirrors individual self-cognition and social status but also profoundly impacts their environmental decision-making and behavior [15,25,26]. Nonetheless, there are few empirical studies that have explored the subjective socioeconomic status influence on green energy consumption behavior. ...
Household energy consumption plays a critical role in the context of global climate change. Utilizing data from the 2018 China Social Survey (CGSS), this study empirically examined the impact of subjective socioeconomic status (SES) on household green energy consumption behaviors using probit and ordered probit models. The mechanism of influence was further analyzed through the mediated effect approach. The results found include the following: (1) Although the proportion of households participating in green energy policies is similar to those not participating, the proportion of households deeply participating in multiple policies is very low; (2) subjective SES significantly influences both the rate and depth of household participation in green energy policies; (3) internet usage and understanding of green energy policies serve as mediating mechanisms for the promotive effect of subjective SES; and (4) subjective SES showed significant heterogeneity in its effects on different gender and education level groups. These findings contribute to the understanding of the drivers of household green energy use decisions and provide an important reference for governmental policymaking to enhance participation rates and degrees in green energy participation. Implications of these findings highlight the potential for targeted policies that address internet accessibility and educational outreach, which could significantly enhance the effectiveness of green energy initiatives across diverse socioeconomic groups.
... Meat consumption is also associated with traditional masculine ideals, such as social status, being physically tough, and having emotional control. Experiments have found that people have a greater preference for meat when motivated to enhance their perceived social status (Chan and Zlatevska 2019b), suggesting that men who pursue social status may be more likely to eat meat. Men commonly believe that eating meat is necessary for building muscles and physical strength (i.e., being "tough"; Bogueva, Marinova, and Raphaely 2017;Hartmann and Siegrist 2020;Kildal and Syse 2017). ...
Conformity to masculinity ideology predicts men's meat consumption and willingness to reduce their meat intake, but it is unknown which specific masculine norms account for these relationships. This study investigated which traditional and non-traditional masculine norms predict meat consumption, red and processed meat consumption, and willingness to reduce meat consumption in 557 Australian and English males. Men who support the use of physical violence and place high importance on sex ate more meat. Willingness to reduce was highest among men with gender egalitarian views. Targeting these specific masculine norms may be important for mitigating men's overconsumption of meat.
... Eating according to these judgements can be regarded as a means to 'impression management' (i.e. conscious or unconscious act to influence other people's perceptions of oneself) in order to gain or maintain one's social position (47) . Such normative processes provide barriers towards changing dietary behaviors for public and planetary health. ...
Research priorities and considerations for nutrition research: Methods of sex and gender analysis for biomedical and nutrition research
Ineke Klinge & Emely de Vet
For some 20 years science funding bodies have been asking for integration of sex and gender related factors into the content of research and innovation. The rationale for those requirements has been the accumulated evidence that sex and gender are important determinants of health and disease. The European Commission (EC) has been the first, since 2002, to seriously ask for integration of sex and gender into research and innovation in the context of their multi-annual framework programmes. When introduced this condition was not immediately applauded by the research community, who perhaps lacked training in methods for integration of sex and gender related factors. The EC Expert Group Gendered Innovations sought to fill this gap. This review describes the work of this international collaborative project which has resulted in the development of general and field specific methods for sex and gender analysis and 38 case studies for various research domains (science, health and medicine, environment, engineering) to illustrate how, by applying methods of sex and gender analysis, new knowledge could be created. Since 2010, science funding bodies in Canada, the US and several EU member states have followed the example of the EC issuing similar conditions. Although the effects of nutritional patterns on a range of (physiological and health) outcomes may differ for men and women, sex and gender analyses are rarely conducted in nutrition research. In this review, we provide examples of how gender is connected to dietary intake, and how advancing gender analysis may inform gender-sensitive policies and dietary recommendations.
... Our social status can be seen in our preferences, tastes, and habits [28]. Meat consumption, in particular, is seen as strongly linked to our social status [29], and "in mankind's evolutionary past, those who consumed meat were strong and powerful" [30] (p. 257). ...
High meat consumption is a phenomenon in both developed countries such as Switzer-land and emerging countries such as Vietnam. This high meat consumption is associated with environmental, social, and health consequences. Drawing upon social practice theory, this study explores the influence of social practices on the meat consumption of green consumers, as a growing number of consumers in both countries want to eat healthy and sustainably but still have different needs and face different barriers. Data were collected from online group discussions. For green consumers, meat consumption was found to convey certain meanings and depends, among other things, on the information available. The consumption decision in Vietnam is strongly influenced by health and food safety, whereas negative environmental consequences are important in Switzerland. Social and cultural aspects also play a major part in the decision to eat or abstain from meat in both countries. Meat is a non-negotiable part of any special occasion meal in Vietnam and is often eaten at social gatherings in Switzerland. We argue that meat consumption is linked to social status in both countries, but family influence is stronger in Vietnam than in Switzerland. Interventions, such as policy measures that are adapted to regional, cultural, and consumer group specificities and focus on social practices rather than individual behavior, are a promising means to promote meat reduction.
... Some studies from psychology and marketing research address the question of how the consumption of meat or the abstention from it is viewed by different individuals. These studies indicate that the abstention from meat is not always valued or expected to be valued (Cordts et al., 2014;Chan and Zlatevska, 2019;Vandermoere et al., 2019). These studies are related to a broader literature examining what types of environmental protection behaviors lead to elevated status (Griskevicius et al., 2010;Brooks and Wilson, 2015;De Nardo et al., 2017;Uren et al., 2021). ...
... This is particularly evident for meat intake, especially among men. In a recent article, Chan et al. hypothesized that meat can be conceptualized essentially as a status symbol; in particular, in Mediterranean communities, its consumption by men is equivalent to an attestation of masculinity and confirmation of men's power [50]. Therefore, it is presumable that less depressed subjects consume more meat and that only the economic conditions hide this relationship. ...
Background:
Depression is common among the elderly, resulting in poor quality of life and elevated healthcare expenditure. Among other factors, dietary habits could also affect this condition, although the specific food patterns involved remain to be established. The present study aimed to assess the role of plant- versus animal-dominant foods consumption on the affective state of nonagenarians from a Sardinian population, Italy, well known for its longevity (Blue Zone).
Methods:
Data, including demographic, education, anthropometric parameters, monthly income, and comorbidity were recorded and analyzed. Symptomatic depression was assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) during a comprehensive home geriatric assessment; nutritional status was evaluated by a validated food frequency questionnaire.
Results:
A total of 200 elderly subjects living in the Sardinian Blue Zone (mean age 93.9 ± 3.9 years) participated in the study; symptomatic depression was present in 51% of the whole cohort and was more common among women. Multivariable logistic regression showed a significantly greater risk of depression in people consuming plantbased foods (OR = 1.42, 95% CI 1.04-1.93), whereas moderate animal-derived foods consumption was associated with a better affective state (OR = 0.79, 95% CI 0.62-0.98).
Conclusions:
These findings indicate that a more balanced diet, including animal-derived foods, instead of an exclusive plant-dominant diet, may be more appropriate in the elderly, and abstention from animal-based food intake should not be recommended in advanced age to prevent depression.
... Historically, meat has been considered the best way to satisfy-one's nutritional needs, and meat consumption has been traditionally regarded as a status symbol of wealth and positively associated with strength and power (Fiddes, 1991;Rothgerber, 2012;Graça et al., 2015;Modlinska & Pisula, 2018;Chan & Zlatevska, 2019). However, in recent times, the prominent role of meat in diets has faced multiple criticisms, mainly related to health and moral issues (Dietz et al., 1995;De Backer & Hudders, 2014;Tilman & Clark, 2014). ...
An increasing number of consumers are trying to reduce and control their meat consumption and are shifting toward vegetarian, vegan, or flexitarian diets. While these diet categories are often grouped together, different psychological drivers may lead to the decision to follow a certain dietary pattern. The Dietarian Identity Questionnaire (DIQ) (Rosenfeld & Burrow, 2018) assesses how people think, feel, and behave with respect to consuming or avoiding animal products and allows us to explain the underlying psychological motivations of food choices. Considering that the psychology of eating behavior is strictly connected to the cultural context, this study (N= 678) aimed to (i) evaluate the mismatch between dietarian categorization obtained by food consumption and self-categorization; (ii) validate the Italian version of the DIQ (DIQ-I); and (iii) evaluate whether the results of the DIQ-I dimensions vary with categorization. Mismatches were evaluated using cross-tabulation and χ-square analysis, while DIQ-I was validated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Finally, multiple one-way ANOVAs were conducted on groups of dieters defined by the respondents’ self-categorizations and according to self-reported meat consumption.
The overall findings suggest that the DIQ-I can satisfactorily depict the ideological significance of following certain diets in the Italian population. Moreover, the self-categorization results revealed that consumers’ perceptions of their own diets often differ from scholars’ definitions, which might imply a systematic bias in food surveys and consumers’ research practices.
... Directly associated with meat consumption is demand for protein sources, because of population growth (FAO, 2017). Another factor refers to the individual's economic situation (Steinfeld et al., 2006;Zhu et al., 2021), which gives this food a certain status worldwide (Beardsworth and Keil, 1997;Chan and Zlatevska, 2021). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the attitudes of meat consumers in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, concerning cultured meat. This State is characterized by its strong cultural identity and social practices, barbecue being its typical dish.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors applied a cross-sectional survey with meat consumers residing in Porto Alegre/RS, the sample of which, composed of 538 individuals, expressed the population heterogeneity. The data were analyzed using the Pearson chi-square, Cramer's V , and correspondence analysis.
Findings
The results demonstrate that although six of ten people were willing to try cultured meat, only four of them responded positively to the willingness to consume it over conventional meat. Young individuals demonstrated a favorable attitude towards the product, expressing a greater propensity both to try it and to include it in the diet regularly. However, the rejection of cultured meat gradually intensified after 40 years old. The previous knowledge and familiarity with the investigated subject are not predictive of the intention of experimentation so that almost two-thirds of the individuals who did not know the product were positively willing to try it.
Originality/value
Despite the recent intensification of studies about consumer behavior towards cultured meat, its analysis in a context in which meat historically plays a fundamental role in socioeconomic development is still little explored. The originality of our research is circumscribed by the understanding of the behavior of meat consumers, members of a culture where it plays a central role.
... There is a socioeconomic gradient in meat consumption, whereby those lower in all indicators of socioeconomic status (SES; i.e. household income, education, and occupation) consume more meat than those of higher SES (Maguire & Monsivais, 2015). Furthermore, those lower in subjective SES (the socioeconomic status that people perceive they have relative to others, rather than objectively measured SES) have been found to consume more meat due to the social ideas attached to it (Chan & Zlatevska, 2019). Together, these studies suggest that focussing on lower SES groups would be most beneficial in maximising the influence of socially-normative messaging to reduce meat consumption among high consumers. ...
Current levels of meat consumption pose a significant threat to human, animal, and planetary wellbeing, presenting an urgent need for widespread reduction in meat eating behaviour. Changing meat-rich diets is difficult. However, a growing number of individuals, termed Meat Reducers (MRs), are actively reducing their meat intake and offer a potential strategy to shift meat-rich diets using social influence. Social influence significantly affects eating behaviours, and is strongest when individuals or groups are perceived as aspirational or positive. Therefore, across two studies a free association task and vignettes were used to assess social representations, perceived personality traits, and perceived group membership about meat reducers, compared to vegetarians and habitual meat consumers. Results indicate that MRs are perceived positively and, for some traits, more positively than vegetarians and habitual meat consumers. These results confirm that MRs are an appropriate referent group for use in future social influence-based interventions aiming to reduce meat intake. This will become incrementally important as the mounting environmental and health crises add urgency to the need to reduce meat eating.
... We know from previous research that product scarcity signals expensiveness (Lynn, 1989). Other studies have shown that identifying with lower-status groups increases the desire for higher-status goods (Mazzocco et al., 2012) and for foods that may increase one's perceived social status: for instance, foods that signal power and strength such as meat (Chan & Zlatevska, 2019), or food products of larger sizes (Dubois, Rucker, & Galinsky, 2012). ...
How can we reduce the social gradient in obesity if we do not know what causes it in the first place? This PhD thesis explores underlying explanations of the association between socioeconomic status and eating behaviors. Taking a social psychological approach, this thesis presents the results from a series of empirical studies that test how relative socioeconomic status affects decision-making. In particular, it examines how perceptions of one’s relative status affects impulsivity, and how someone else’s relative status influences beliefs about that person’s impulsivity. Together, these findings reveal both the existence and accuracy of impulsivity stereotypes. The findings suggest that (adherence to) these stereotypical behaviors are malleable and can be used in health interventions aimed at reducing health gradients.
... Other potential reasons include, among others, compensatory eating, which is a tendency to compensate for a potential scarcity of energy in the future with extra caloric intake in the presence (Sterling, 2015) as well as stress and anxiety, which are the states when consumers tend to prefer to consume foods with a higher caloric value that usually induce more pleasure and comfort (Bratanova et al., 2016;Cheon & Hong, 2017;Langer et al., 2018). Food can also work as a status signaling good: in addition to previously mentioned example by Colson-Sihra & Bellet (2018), it has also been observed that consumers with low subjective SES tend to consider meat as a type of food that signals status, which can interfere with medical and environmental advice on consuming less meat (Chan & Zlatevska, 2019). Overall, food is an important constituent of general well-being, nutritionally and psychologically, and can affect happiness via different channels. ...
Despite the growing interest among the scientific community regarding the power of subconscious, the current research did not find any evidence of its superiority over consciousness in generating positive consumer experience. This study shows that researches in subliminal messages have been set to work towards a set of pre-defined results and can only be used to generate some insignificant changes in social behaviour. Such behaviour is elicited only in laboratory conditions with specific situational variables. Interpretation of the existing corpus of the literature shows that subliminal messages can create negative experience which leads to hostile behaviour like derogatory comments on an African by an American citizen when the latter was primed with negative subliminal messages. Positive priming on the other hand showed weak presence in behaviour. However, research in the field of subliminal messages is required to inspect whether it is capable of improving mental health as indicated by few researches. Further exploration is required to prevent subliminal abuse. As indicated in the current study, subliminal messages when used in commercials are not capable of making a significant increase in sales figures when compared to supraliminal messages. Such messages and their wide-spread broadcast are not ethical because of the advertiser’s inclinations to use lascivious, disparaging or satanic stimuli which can lead to fatal outcomes like alleged suicide of a 10-year old boy. Positive experience or happiness is a subjective feeling and is generated by supraliminal messages which has been shown in the study to rely heavily on consciousness.
... Other potential reasons include, among others, compensatory eating, which is a tendency to compensate for a potential scarcity of energy in the future with extra caloric intake in the presence (Sterling, 2015) as well as stress and anxiety, which are the states when consumers tend to prefer to consume foods with a higher caloric value that usually induce more pleasure and comfort (Bratanova et al., 2016;Cheon & Hong, 2017;Langer et al., 2018). Food can also work as a status signaling good: in addition to previously mentioned example by Colson-Sihra & Bellet (2018), it has also been observed that consumers with low subjective SES tend to consider meat as a type of food that signals status, which can interfere with medical and environmental advice on consuming less meat (Chan & Zlatevska, 2019). Overall, food is an important constituent of general well-being, nutritionally and psychologically, and can affect happiness via different channels. ...
When it comes to happiness and satisfaction, consumer socioeconomic status (SES) has an important moderating role. In this chapter, we outline in which way SES intervenes in shaping consumer preferences and consumer happiness. When considering consumer preferences, low socioeconomic status has been shown to impact dietary patterns, such as consumption of fruits and vegetables, high caloric food, sugar-sweetened beverages, as well as consumption of alcohol and tobacco. Studies also show that low SES consumers tend to engage in purchases of various status-signaling goods. Socioeconomic status has also been shown to intervene in delineating happiness for experiential and material goods, consumer loyalty behavior, and consumer happiness with food consumption. We discuss the factors responsible for these relationships.
... Such a "match" with what people know also means that a "match" with what they know about a target metaphorically has been shown to increase conceptual fluency. Metaphorical associations offer a basis for people to understand abstract concepts (Chan & Zlatevska, 2019a;2019b;;Lakoff & Johnson, 2008). As an illustration, people represent time-an abstract concept-using metaphors of horizontality (e.g., before/left, after/right). ...
Consumers describe luxury goods as “high-status” goods that are associated with the “upper class.” If these spatial metaphors are valid, then consumers should prefer luxury goods being positioned higher in the visual field in a consumer setting, which would be because of the psychological theory known as “processing fluency.” Fluency occurs when there is a congruence between two concepts, facilitating ease of processing and thereby liking. We test the effect of high (vs. low) spatial positioning for luxury goods in an online retailing context. Across three experiments, we observe that placing luxury goods higher on a website “matches” consumers’ lay associations about such items, with the positive feelings thereby transferring onto the luxury good. The findings demonstrate that locating luxury products at different heights in the visual field can influence product preference. In doing so, we build on existing theory concerning visual perception, spatial metaphors, and processing fluency.
... When celebrating achievements or socializing, participants chose high caloric Western food and carbonated drinks from cafés or restaurants. The relationship of sugary drinks consumption with socializing and meat consumption with socioeconomic status has previously been identified (O'leary et al., 2012;Chan & Zlatevska, 2019) among Australian young adults. Similarly, possibly experiencing a pressure to conform to friends, or reflecting the perceived association with wealth or social status, Pakistani university students preferred certain foods (e.g. ...
Excess weight in Pakistan’s university students is on the rise and is driven by their maladaptive eating behaviours. Practitioners in Pakistan have adopted Western conceptual models to understand obesogenic eating behaviours. However, these models provide incomplete explanations as they miss important culturally specific determinants for such eating behaviours. The goals of this study were two-fold: first, to explore Pakistani university students’ perception of their obesity-related eating behaviours and attitudes; second, to develop a culturally sensitive model of obesogenic eating behaviours in university students from Pakistan. Semi-structured interviews were used with twenty-four Pakistani university students who were categorised as obese using the Body Mass Index according to Asia-Specific cut-offs. Interviews were transcribed, translated, and then analysed through a Grounded Theory methodology. Six major categories emerged from interviews: (1) Obesogenic Eating Habits (Social Eating, Emotional Eating, and Eating Whatever and Whenever You Want); (2) Beliefs about Food in the Culture; (3) Neither Too Fat nor Too Thin body belief (4) Student Life Attitudes; (5) Student Stressors; (6) Inconsistent Weight-Control Strategies. A model was developed with cultural beliefs about food, attitudes towards student-life, and stressors as important determinants of students’ obesogenic eating habits, while inconsistent weight-control strategies contributed to further weight gain. The findings highlight the importance of identifying culturally specific determinants of eating behaviours among university students in Pakistan. This emerging model can be used to guide the development of future quantitative and also longitudinal studies aimed at identifying targets for therapeutic interventions to manage obesogenic eating behaviours in Pakistani university students.
... Girls with a low SES have a significantly higher consumption of meat/meat products compared with girls with a high SES. A similar association between meat consumption and SES has already been reported for other populations (40) . However, the association between SES and the consumption of fruit (8,9) and vegetables (8)(9)(10) observed in previous studies, also among adults (37,38) , is not seen in EsKiMo II. ...
Objective
Dietary habits developed during childhood and adolescence are likely to continue into adulthood. An unbalanced diet may cause nutrient deficiencies and excessive energy intake, these enhance the risk for developing overweight and obesity and their co-morbidities.
In the present analysis, food consumption of adolescents is described and evaluated against German food based dietary guidelines with special focus on socioeconomic status (SES) and region of residence.
Design
Within the “German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents” (KiGGS Wave 2), the cross-sectional “Eating Study as a KiGGS Module” (EsKiMo II) was conducted from 2015 until 2017 to provide data about dietary behaviour.
Setting
Germany.
Participants
1353 adolescents aged 12- to 17-years from a nationwide representative sample with food consumption data from computer-assisted dietary history interviews.
Results
The median consumption of fruits, vegetables, starchy foods, and milk/dairy products among adolescents in Germany was below the recommendation. The median consumption of both meat/meat products and unfavourable foods, like confectionary, which should be consumed sparingly, was about 1.5-times the recommended amount. The total amount of beverages consumed by most adolescents was above the minimum amount recommended. Soft drink consumption of adolescents with a low SES was three to five times higher than soft drink consumption of adolescents with a high SES.
Conclusion
The results indicate the need for an improvement of dietary habits among adolescents in Germany. Further approaches to promote healthy diets in Germany should be continued, and the focus on social inequalities should be strengthened.
... Product scarcity signals expensiveness (Lynn, 1989). Other studies have shown that identifying with lower-status groups increases the desire for higher-status goods (Mazzocco, Rucker, Galinksy, & Anderson, 2012), and for meals that include meat (Chan & Zlatevska, 2019), in order to increase one's perceived social status. ...
How is inequality associated to social gradients in health such as overweight/obesity? Inconclusive findings and misunderstanding regarding the association between inequality and overweight/obesity impair attempts to reduce social gradients in obesity. In this chapter, we discuss various findings from research on food choices and consumption in situations broadly associated with inequality; that is, environmental scarcity and resource competition, relative deprivation and wealth, and social class distinctions. Based on a review of social and evolutionary psychological theories, we present a model that describes a diverse set of psychological mechanisms that may underlie the effect of experienced inequality on eating behaviors. In particular, we discuss how perceptions of environmental harshness increase motivation for calories, how relative status differences can trigger negative emotions that increase caloric intake, and how food consumption can be motivated by socioeconomic class distinctions that are heightened under conditions of inequality. We conclude with an integration of these different findings and propose future directions that can address current limitations in interventions aimed at reducing social inequalities in health.
... Coffee is the 4th-most consumed beverage in the world today, while tea ranks 2nd (PR Web, 2011). Similar to many other foods and beverages (Chan & Zlatevska, 2019a, 2019bRick & Schweitzer, 2012;Rozin, Hormes, Faith, & Wansink, 2012), coffee and tea likely have psychological meanings (i.e., lay associations). We consider what coffee and tea might mean to people and the implications of these meanings. ...
Coffee and tea are two beverages commonly-consumed around the world. Therefore, there is much research regarding their physiological effects. However, less is known about their psychological meanings. Derived from a predicted lay association between coffee and arousal, we posit that exposure to coffee-related cues should increase arousal, even in the absence of actual ingestion, relative to exposure to tea-related cues. We further suggest that higher arousal levels should facilitate a concrete level of mental construal as conceptualized by Construal Level Theory. In four experiments, we find that coffee cues prompted participants to see temporal distances as shorter and to think in more concrete, precise terms. Both subjective and physiological arousal explain the effects. We situate our work in the literature that connects food and beverage to cognition or decision-making. We also discuss the applied relevance of our results as coffee and tea are among the most prevalent beverages globally.
Introduction
In Fiji, multiple burdens of malnutrition including undernutrition, overweight/obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies coexist at the individual, household, and population levels. The diets of children, adolescents, and adults are generally unhealthy. The objective of this review was to understand how the dietary behaviors of children, adolescents, and women in Fiji are influenced by individual, social, and food environment factors.
Methods
This rapid review was conducted to synthesize existing evidence, identify research gaps in the evidence base, and make recommendations for future research. The Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods and the updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews were used. The search strategy for this rapid review was based on the Population Context Outcome [P(E)CO] framework, including search terms for population (children, adolescents, and adults), context (Fiji), and outcome (dietary behaviors). Searches were conducted in PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar.
Results
The 22 studies included in this review identified different factors influencing dietary behaviors in Fiji. Individual preferences for processed and imported foods, especially of younger generations, and social dynamics, especially gender norms and social pressure, to serve meat and overeat appeared to be prominent in driving dietary habits. The ongoing nutrition transition has led to increasing availability and affordability of ultra-processed and fast foods, especially in urban areas. Concerns about food safety and contamination and climate change and its effect on local food production also appear to influence dietary choices.
Discussion
This review identified different dynamics influencing dietary behaviors, but also research gaps especially with regard to the food environment, calling for an integrated approach to address these factors more systemically.
Socioeconomic status has been related to poorer eating behaviors, potentially due to feelings of lower status relative to peers. Despite experimental evidence that temporarily feeling of lower status can contribute to greater caloric intake, it remains unclear how feelings of lower social status relate to eating behavior in daily life. This study aimed to test whether lower subjective social status (SSS)—the feeling of having relatively lower social status—in American society and relative to college peers were related to daily food selection. A sample of 131 young adults (Mage = 20.3, SD = 0.8; 60% female; 46% Latinos; 34% European American; 15% Asian American; 5% of other ethnicities) reported their SSS in society and in college and completed 15 daily reports regarding the number of daily servings they had of fruits, vegetables, fried foods, fast foods, desserts, and sugary drinks. Multilevel models with days nested within individuals were used to test whether low SSS in society or college related to daily food intake. Next, we examined whether associations were driven by young adults' perceived stress and daily stressors. Analyses controlled for age, gender, ethnicity, family and personal income, and parents' education to test the unique associations between subjective status and food intake. Whereas SSS in society was not related to food intake, young adults with lower SSS in their college consumed fewer daily servings of healthy foods and more daily servings of high-fat/high-sugar foods. Although lower college SSS was related to greater perceived stress, perceived stress and daily stressors were consistently unrelated to daily food intake. Findings suggested that lower SSS in local environments (e.g., college) may impact young adults’ daily food choices through processes beyond heightened stress.
This article argues that the in vitro (i.e., lab-grown) meat boom can be better understood by framing it within sf studies, both historically and especially through to the contemporary moment. Not only does in vitro meat (IVM) have a long history of representation in sf, it is also framed in the public and corporate spheres through the use of sf tropes. The article offers close readings of IVM in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (2003), Elizabeth Dougherty’s The Blind Pig (2010), and director Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral (2012), arguing that reading IVM in contemporary sf is a particularly effective method of thinking through its material effects.
Purpose
While it is incontestable that eating in restaurants leads to a higher energy intake than eating at home, this paper explores the even more environmentally relevant connection between meat intake and the location of eating.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on secondary data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the authors apply a latent class model (LCM), combining latent profile analysis (LPA) and regression analysis. Different (latent) consumer classes are modeled based (1) on share of meat consumption and (2) share of eating out by means of LPA, while class-specific socio-demographic characteristics are estimated by means of ordered logistic regression.
Findings
Results of the LPA reveal four (latent) consumer classes with regard to the share of meat consumption and the share of eating out. One class consists mostly of male meat lovers with a high share of eating out, which, however, only represents 7% of the sample. A much larger class represents an affluent social group that consumes the majority of food outside of the home but does not consume significantly more meat than the large group of moderates who mostly eat at home. The fourth class mostly consists of children with a very low intake of meat.
Originality/value
By applying a LCM, the authors shed some light on the relation between meat consumption and eating out. The authors demonstrated that commonly assumed relations, such as men eating more meat than women, do not necessarily apply. Similar findings apply to factors potentially influencing meat consumption, such as education, marital status and income.
Nutrition labels conveying nutrition information using traffic light signals are becoming common, but traffic light signals' effectiveness to help consumers make healthy food decisions is still debated. In the current research, we propose gender differences in the usage of traffic light signals. In Study 1, we presented male and female participants with a nutrition label that we manipulated as either unhealthy or healthy by changing the nutrient amounts, and the nutrition label either had a green or red color frame surrounding it. Although both men and women responded equally to information conveyed in text form, men were more likely to rely on the color to help them assess the target food product's healthiness. We replicated this result in Study 2: Holistic thinking mediated the men's reliance on color labeling schemes when deciding to buy a targeted food product. These results suggest there are differences in the consumer groups (segmented by gender) for whom traffic light signals on food packaging would be beneficial in playing a role in healthy food decision-making. For policymakers, our findings indicate that target consumers need to be considered in nutrition labeling generally.
The study aim was to investigate the role of foodbanks in the context of food insecurity and explore food choices and eating behaviours amongst users. Food insecurity is associated with poor diet quality and obesity; however, the dimensions that influence food choices and eating behaviour remain unclear. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with individuals who had visited a faith-based foodbank in Perth, Western Australia. Participants were thirty-three service users who had collected a food hamper from the foodbank. Interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Four main themes emerged: Ties you over until pay day; Food hamper supporting meals and fruit and vegetable consumption; Food choices supplementing hamper; Household gatekeeping and food control. Participants were complimentary about the content of the food hamper received which included a variety of fresh produce. A key new finding was the frequent purchase and consumption of meat and processed meat to supplement the food hamper provision. Future work and interventions to improve eating behaviour and reduce food-related financial pressure for those vulnerable to food insecurity include further exploration of the dimensions influencing food choices (i.e., cultural norms, habits, symbols); exposure to healthy and tasty plant-based meals, (i.e., tasting low-cost and tasty vegetable-based meals); parenting training focused on handling child/partner food choice influences, and, enforcing household rules governing food.
This article summarizes key findings from the study of attitudes among religious leaders in Slovenia towards the structure of politics and society, and how religion relates to these spheres. The aims are to determine types of attitudes and examine the compatibility of
these viewpoints with central features of a modern society, which can reveal their potential
for fostering societal conflict. The first result is that the types of attitudes generated generally support a modern, pluralist society in various dimensions — political, economic, cultural, and also spiritual. Secondly, differences are mainly located in areas concerning the treatment of the RCC vis-à-vis the state compared to other religious communities, and in the perception of consequences of secular trends among the population. Thirdly, no denominational type can be identified.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how the socio-ecological model can be expanded to address wicked problems that are perpetuated by marketing systems through examining the ways the external environment can be targeted.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used an extended socio-ecological model to provide a framework for social marketers to combat climate change through the food system in the external environment.
Findings
The socio-ecological model is extended to examine how social marketers can influence the micro and macro environment through targeting the physical structure, economic, political and socio-cultural environment of desirable (sustainable) and undesirable (unsustainable) food products.
Practical implications
The authors highlight that social marketers should focus on the various ways the external environment at multiple levels can be targeted to produce systemic change.
Originality/value
This paper broadens the current macro-social marketing knowledge by providing a framework to analyse where and how change can be affected at the various levels of society.
V zadnjih letih se številni raziskovalci ukvarjajo z vprašanjem, kako je sekularizacija povezana z religijsko polarizacijo. Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme (2014, 2016) je ponudila solidno empirično podporo tezi, da v zadnjih desetletjih sekularizacija v zahodnih družbah predvsem zmanjšuje deleže zmerno religioznih posameznikov, pri čemer se pričakovano povečujejo deleži nereligioznih, vendar pa deleži visoko religioznih pri tem ne upadajo ali pa se celo povečujejo. Te trende avtorica povezuje z vse večjimi ideološkimi razlikami in napetostmi med nereligioznimi in visoko religioznimi segmenti družb. Pred kratkim so Ribberink, Achterberg in Houtman (2018) na vzorcu zahodnoevropskih držav potrdili, da je stopnja religijske polarizacije povezana z višjo stopnjo sekulariziranosti, hkrati pa ugotovili, da je povezana tudi z relativno prevlado katolištva. Analiza podatkov anketne raziskave mladih iz desetih držav jugovzhodne Evrope pritrjuje navedenim ugotovitvam, saj se najvišja stopnja polarizacije izkaže prav med mladimi iz Hrvaške in Slovenije - držav, ki sta hkrati pretežno katoliški in v obravnavani skupini držav tudi najbolj sekularizirani.
Spletne zdravstvene skupnosti (SZS) so danes za posameznike postale ene izmed ključnih virov za pridobitev z zdravjem povezanih informacij, socialne opore, izmenjave izkušenj in nasvetov s strani drugih uporabnikov SZS ter tudi zdravnikov. Študije so pokazale, da različni socio-psihološki procesi v SZS vodijo k individualnemu opolnomočenju uporabnikov (pacientov). Čeprav so študije že identificirale socio-psihološke in participatorne dejavnike, ki vodijo k individualnemu opolnomočenju uporabnikov SZS, pa se je v dosedanjih raziskavah pogosto zanemarila vloga sredstev ali različnih oblik kapitala, ki so lahko spodbujevalci ali zaviralci pri doseganju opolnomočenja uporabnikov SZS. Namen prispevka je na podlagi podatkov, zbranih s spletno anketo med uporabniki največje SZS v Sloveniji, Med.Over.Net, pokazati, na kakšne načine različne oblike participacije, skupaj z e-zdravstveno pismenostjo, socialnimi in ekonomskim kapitalom, vplivajo na razvoj individualnega opolnomočenja uporabnikov SZS.
Turning to sensory and emotional associations with meat and food animals, this chapter begins by situating this part of the book in the broader literature on senses, emotions, and affect. It then demonstrates how participants’ senses inform their determinations of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ meat, conceiving the senses as the link between Foucault’s knowing and pleasure. This leads to the main focus of the chapter, which is how the emotions expressed and identified by participants contribute to an embodied mapping, or ‘making sense’ of ‘food’ animals and ‘meat’. Noting how particular emotions, associated with comfort and discomfort, become associated with different animals and meat, the chapter examines where and how an embodied knowledge of ‘food’ animals is challenged and how their edibility is maintained.
This paper describes the development and validation of a short, reliable, and valid self-report scale to measure status consumption, the tendency to purchase goods and services for the status or social prestige that they confer on their owners. Items were written to reflect the conceptual meaning of the construct. Six studies were conducted to purify the scale and demonstrate its unidimensionality, internal consistency, validity, and freedom from response bias. The resultant scale measures an individual difference construct distinct from social class or materialism. Differences in self-reported status consumption are also shown to be positively correlated with ownership of brands reputed to be higher in status than competing brands.
For agriculture, there are three major options for mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: 1) productivity improvements, particularly in the livestock sector; 2) dedicated technical mitigation measures; and 3) human dietary changes. The aim of the paper is to estimate long-term agricultural GHG emissions, under different mitigation scenarios, and to relate them to the emissions space compatible with the 2 °C temperature target. Our estimates include emissions up to 2070 from agricultural soils, manure management, enteric fermentation and paddy rice fields, and are based on IPCC Tier 2 methodology. We find that baseline agricultural CO2-equivalent emissions (using Global Warming Potentials with a 100 year time horizon) will be approximately 13 Gton CO2eq/year in 2070, compared to 7.1 Gton CO2eq/year 2000. However, if faster growth in livestock productivity is combined with dedicated technical mitigation measures, emissions may be kept to 7.7 Gton CO2eq/year in 2070. If structural changes in human diets are included, emissions may be reduced further, to 3–5 Gton CO2eq/year in 2070. The total annual emissions for meeting the 2 °C target with a chance above 50 % is in the order of 13 Gton CO2eq/year or less in 2070, for all sectors combined. We conclude that reduced ruminant meat and dairy consumption will be indispensable for reaching the 2 °C target with a high probability, unless unprecedented advances in technology take place.
Drawing on research on grounded cognition and metaphorical representation, the authors propose and confirm in five studies that physical height, or even the mere concept of height, can affect the perceptual and conceptual levels of mental construal. As such, consumers who perceive themselves to be physically "high" or elevated are more likely to adopt a global perceptual processing and higher level of conceptual construal, whereas those who perceive themselves to be physically "low" are more likely to adopt a local perceptual processing and lower level of conceptual construal. This difference in construal level also affects product choices that involve trade-offs between long-term benefits and short-term effort. The authors address alternative accounts such as vertical distance, visual distance, and perceived power. By highlighting the novel relationship between height and construal level, these findings contribute to research on grounded cognition and construal-level theory while also providing practical suggestions to marketing managers across a variety of domains.
Economic inequality in America is at historically high levels. Although most Americans indicate that they would prefer greater equality, redistributive policies aimed at reducing inequality are frequently unpopular. Traditional accounts posit that attitudes toward redistribution are driven by economic self-interest or ideological principles. From a social psychological perspective, however, we expected that subjective comparisons with other people may be a more relevant basis for self-interest than is material wealth. We hypothesized that participants would support redistribution more when they felt low than when they felt high in subjective status, even when actual resources and self-interest were held constant. Moreover, we predicted that people would legitimize these shifts in policy attitudes by appealing selectively to ideological principles concerning fairness. In four studies, we found correlational (Study 1) and experimental (Studies 2-4) evidence that subjective status motivates shifts in support for redistributive policies along with the ideological principles that justify them.
© The Author(s) 2014.
As arguments become more pronounced that meat consumption harms the environment, public health, and animals, meat eaters should experience increased pressure to justify their behavior. Results of a first study showed that male undergraduates used direct strategies to justify eating meat, including endorsing pro-meat attitudes, denying animal suffering, believing that animals are lower in a hierarchy than humans and that it is human fate to eat animals, and providing religious and health justifications for eating animals. Female undergraduates used the more indirect strategies of dissociating animals from food and avoiding thinking about the treatment of animals. A second study found that the use of these male strategies was related to masculinity. In the two studies, male justification strategies were correlated with greater meat consumption, whereas endorsement of female justification strategies was correlated with less meat and more vegetarian consumption. These findings are among the first to empirically verify Adams’s (1990) theory on the sexual politics of meat linking feminism and vegetarianism. They suggest that to simply make an informational appeal about the benefits of a vegetarian diet may ignore a primary reason why men eat meat: It makes them feel like real men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
Metaphors are increasingly recognized as influencing cognition and consumption. While these linkages typically have been qualitatively generated, this article presents a framework of convergent quantitative methodologies that can further document the validity of a metaphor. To illustrate this multimethod framework, the authors explore whether there is a metaphoric link between meat and maleness in Western cultures. The authors address this in six quantifiable studies that involve (1) implicit associations, (2) free associations, (3) indirect-scenario-based inferences, (4) direct measurement profiling, (5) preference and choice, and (6) linguistic analysis and conclude that there is a metaphoric relationship between mammal muscle meat and maleness.
It is common for authors discovering a significant interaction of a measured variable X with a manipulated variable Z to examine simple effects of Z at different levels of X. These “spotlight” tests are often misunderstood even in the simplest cases, and it appears that consumer researchers are unsure how to extend them to more complex designs. We explain the general principles of spotlight tests, show that they rely on familiar regression techniques, and provide a tutorial showing how to apply these tests across an array of experimental designs. Rather than following the common practice of reporting spotlight tests at one standard deviation above and below the mean of X, we recommend that when X has focal values, researchers report spotlight tests at those focal values. When X does not have focal values, we recommend researchers report ranges of significance using a version of Johnson and Neyman’s (1936) test we call a “floodlight”.
A case is made for the substitutability of self-esteem regulation mechanisms such as cognitive dissonance reduction, self-affirmation, and social comparison. For example, a threat to self via cognitive dissonance might be reduced by a favorable social comparison outcome. To explain substitution, it is suggested that self-esteem regulation mechanisms inevitably produce affect and that affect mediates the completion of various self-esteem regulation processes. Substitution can be understood in terms of the transfer of affect from the initial mechanism to the substitute mechanism. To be effective, this transfer must take place without awareness. Also discussed is the substitution of self-esteem regulation mechanisms across different self-domains versus within a single self-domain. Current theory suggests that substitution might be more effective within domain; that is, it is better to bolster the aspect of self that has been threatened. It is suggested here, however, that substitution across self-domain might be relatively resilient and easier to accomplish.
The current research explores the effects of dissociative reference groups on consumer preferences. Males had more negative evaluations of, and were less inclined to choose, a product associated with a dissociative (i.e., female) reference group than a neutral product (Study 1). This finding was moderated by whether the product was consumed in public or private (Study 2) and public self-consciousness (Study 3). We suggest the mechanism underlying our effects is a desire to present a positive self-image to others. The role of dissociative reference groups in marketing communications is discussed.
W. Wilson's (1967) review of the area of subjective well-being (SWB) advanced several conclusions regarding those who report high levels of "happiness." A number of his conclusions have been overturned: youth and modest aspirations no longer are seen as prerequisites of SWB. E. Diener's (1984) review placed greater emphasis on theories that stressed psychological factors. In the current article, the authors review current evidence for Wilson's conclusions and discuss modern theories of SWB that stress dispositional influences, adaptation, goals, and coping strategies. The next steps in the evolution of the field are to comprehend the interaction of psychological factors with life circumstances in producing SWB, to understand the causal pathways leading to happiness, understand the processes underlying adaptation to events, and develop theories that explain why certain variables differentially influence the different components of SWB (life satisfaction, pleasant affect, and unpleasant affect). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Performed a content analysis on 800 lonely hearts advertisements that represented equally advertisers of both sexes and 40 yrs of life (ages 20–59). It was found that women were more likely than men to offer attractiveness, seek financial security, express concerns about the potential partner's motives, and seek someone who was older. In complementary fashion, men were more likely than women to seek attractiveness, offer financial security, profess an interest in marriage, and seek someone who was younger. Both offers of and demands for financial security varied systematically with age, but concerns about appearance and character did not. In support of the hypothesis that people tend to seek partners whose level of social desirability closely approximates their own, a low but significant correlation was found between the overall level of social desirability of the partner sought. In addition, good-looking advertisers of both sexes sought good-looking partners, and good-looking women sought well-to-do men. It is suggested that lonely hearts and other classified advertisements are a useful source of data for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Food systems account for 18-20% of UK annual greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs). Recommendations for improving food choices to reduce GHGEs must be balanced against dietary requirements for health.
We assessed whether a reduction in GHGEs can be achieved while meeting dietary requirements for health.
A database was created that linked nutrient composition and GHGE data for 82 food groups. Linear programming was used iteratively to produce a diet that met the dietary requirements of an adult woman (19-50 y old) while minimizing GHGEs. Acceptability constraints were added to the model to include foods commonly consumed in the United Kingdom in sensible quantities. A sample menu was created to ensure that the quantities and types of food generated from the model could be combined into a realistic 7-d diet. Reductions in GHGEs of the diets were set against 1990 emission values.
The first model, without any acceptability constraints, produced a 90% reduction in GHGEs but included only 7 food items, all in unrealistic quantities. The addition of acceptability constraints gave a more realistic diet with 52 foods but reduced GHGEs by a lesser amount of 36%. This diet included meat products but in smaller amounts than in the current diet. The retail cost of the diet was comparable to the average UK expenditure on food.
A sustainable diet that meets dietary requirements for health with lower GHGEs can be achieved without eliminating meat or dairy products or increasing the cost to the consumer.
We undertook a systematic review of studies assessing the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and measured obesity in low- and middle-income countries (defined by the World Bank as countries with per capita income up to US$12,275) among children, men and women. The evidence on the subject has grown significantly since an earlier influential review was published in 2004. We find that in low-income countries or in countries with low human development index (HDI), the association between SES and obesity appears to be positive for both men and women: the more affluent and/or those with higher educational attainment tend to be more likely to be obese. However, in middle-income countries or in countries with medium HDI, the association becomes largely mixed for men and mainly negative for women. This particular shift appears to occur at an even lower level of per capita income than suggested by an influential earlier review. By contrast, obesity in children appears to be predominantly a problem of the rich in low- and middle-income countries.
The Sexual Politics of Meat is Carol Adams’ inspiring and controversial exploration of the interplay between contemporary society’s ingrained cultural misogyny and its obsession with meat and masculinity. First published in 1990, the book has continued to change the lives of tens of thousands of readers into the second decade of the 21st century.
Published in the year of the book’s 25th anniversary, the Bloomsbury Revelations edition includes a substantial new afterword, including more than 20 new images and discussions of recent events that prove beyond doubt the continuing relevance of Adams’ revolutionary book.
This book is a broad-ranging and provocative study of the human passion for meat. It will intrigue anyone who has ever wondered why meat is important to us; why we eat some animals but not others; why vegetarianism is increasing; why we aren't cannibals; and how meat is associated with environmental destruction.
We discuss the cognitive and the psy- chophysical determinants of choice in risky and risk- less contexts. The psychophysics of value induce risk aversion in the domain of gains and risk seeking in the domain of losses. The psychophysics of chance induce overweighting of sure things and of improbable events, relative to events of moderate probability. De- cision problems can be described or framed in multiple ways that give rise to different preferences, contrary to the invariance criterion of rational choice. The pro- cess of mental accounting, in which people organize the outcomes of transactions, explains some anomalies of consumer behavior. In particular, the acceptability of an option can depend on whether a negative outcome is evaluated as a cost or as an uncompensated loss. The relation between decision values and experience values is discussed. Making decisions is like speaking prose—people do it all the time, knowingly or unknowingly. It is hardly surprising, then, that the topic of decision making is shared by many disciplines, from mathematics and statistics, through economics and political science, to sociology and psychology. The study of decisions ad- dresses both normative and descriptive questions. The normative analysis is concerned with the nature of rationality and the logic of decision making. The de- scriptive analysis, in contrast, is concerned with peo- ple's beliefs and preferences as they are, not as they should be. The tension between normative and de- scriptive considerations characterizes much of the study of judgment and choice. Analyses of decision making commonly distin- guish risky and riskless choices. The paradigmatic example of decision under risk is the acceptability of a gamble that yields monetary outcomes with specified probabilities. A typical riskless decision concerns the acceptability of a transaction in which a good or a service is exchanged for money or labor. In the first part of this article we present an analysis of the cog- nitive and psychophysical factors that determine the value of risky prospects. In the second part we extend this analysis to transactions and trades. Risky Choice Risky choices, such as whether or not to take an umbrella and whether or not to go to war, are made without advance knowledge of their consequences. Because the consequences of such actions depend on uncertain events such as the weather or the opponent's resolve, the choice of an act may be construed as the acceptance of a gamble that can yield various out- comes with different probabilities. It is therefore nat- ural that the study of decision making under risk has focused on choices between simple gambles with monetary outcomes and specified probabilities, in the hope that these simple problems will reveal basic at- titudes toward risk and value. We shall sketch an approach to risky choice that
The effects of ascribed academic status, target-person's sex, and rater's sex on the perception of height, weight, and physical attractiveness, and the interrelations among these variables, were studied. College students ( N = 301; 61% females) rated a male or a female identified as possessing one of five levels of academic status. In all status conditions the male and female were seen as about equal in height, the male was estimated as heavier than the female, and at the lowest and intermediate status levels, female Ss saw the male as more attractive than the female, while the reverse tended to be the case for males' ratings of the targets. Height and weight estimates were inversely correlated for the male target, and positively related for the female target. Height estimates were positively related to attractiveness ratings for the male target, while neither height nor weight estimates predicted attractiveness ratings for the female target.
The use of idealized advertising models has been heavily criticized in recent years. Existing research typically adopts a social comparison framework and shows that upward comparisons with models can lower self-esteem and affect, as well as produce maladaptive behavior. However, the alternative possibility that consumers can cope with threatening advertising models by excelling in other behavioral domains has not been examined. The present research draws on fluid compensation theory (Tesser, 2000) and shows idealized models motivate improved performance in consumer domains that fall outside that of the original comparison. These more positive coping effects operate through self-discrepancies induced by idealized models, rather than self-esteem or negative affect. Specifically, self-discrepancies motivate consumers to improve decision-making by: 1) making more optimal choices from well-specified consideration sets, and 2) better self-regulating indulgent choices. More broadly, the current research integrates and extends theories of fluid compensation and self-discrepancy, as well as provides a more complete picture of the ways in which consumers cope with idealized advertising models.
This book, based on thirty years' research, goes an important stage beyond either of these ideas: it demonstrates that more unequal societies are bad for almost everyone within them---the well-off as well as the poor. The remarkable data the book lays out and the measures It uses are like a spirit level which we can hold up to compare the conditions of different societies. The differences revealed, even between rich market democracies, are striking. Almost every modern social and environmental problem---ill-health, lack of community life, violence, drugs, obesity, mental illness, long working hours, big prison populations---is more likely to occur in a less equal society. The Spirit Level goes to the heart of the apparent contradiction between the material success and social failings of many modern societies, but it does not simply provide a key to diagnosing our ills. It tells us how to shift the balance from self-interested 'consumerism' to a friendlier and more collaborative society. It shows a way out of the social and environmental problems which beset us and opens up a major new approach to improving the real quality of life, not just for the poor but for everyone. It is, in its conclusion, an optimistic book, which should revitalize politics and provide a new way of thinking about how we organize human communities. As the authors write, 'It falls to our generation to make one of the biggest transformations in human history. The role of this book is to point out that greater equality is the material foundation on which better social relations are built.' (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(jacket)
This research proposes that consumers’ preference for supersized food and drinks may have roots in the status-signaling value of larger options. An initial experiment found that consumers view larger-sized options within a set as having greater status. Because low-power consumers desire status, we manipulated power to test our core propositions. Whether induced in the lab or in the field, states of powerlessness led individuals to disproportionately choose larger food options from an assortment. Furthermore, this preference for larger-sized options was enhanced when consumption was public, reversed when the size-to-status relationship was negative (i.e., smaller was equated with greater status), and mediated by consumers’ need for status. This research demonstrates that choosing a product on the basis of its relative size allows consumers to signal status, illustrates the consequences of such a choice for consumers’ food consumption, and highlights the central role of a product category’s size-to-status relationship in driving consumer choice.
Context: The scarcity of data addressing the health effects of popular diets is an important public health concern, especially since patients and physicians are interested in using popular diets as individualized eating strategies for disease prevention. Objective: To assess adherence rates and the effectiveness of 4 popular diets (Atkins, Zone, Weight Watchers, and Ornish) for weight loss and cardiac risk factor reduction. Design, Setting, and Participants: A single-center randomized trial at an academic medical center in Boston, Mass, of overweight or obese (body mass index: mean, 35; range, 27-42) adults aged 22 to 72 years with known hypertension, dyslipidemia, or fasting hyperglycemia. Participants were enrolled starting July 18, 2000, and randomized to 4 popular diet groups until January 24, 2002. Intervention: A total of 160 participants were randomly assigned to either Atkins (carbohydrate restriction, n=40). Zone (macronutrient balance, n=40), Weight Watchers (calorie restriction, n=40), or Ornish (fat restriction, n=40) diet groups. After 2 months of maximum effort, participants selected their own levels of dietary adherence. Main Outcome Measures: One-year changes in baseline weight and cardiac risk factors, and self-selected dietary adherence rates per self-report. Results: Assuming no change from baseline for participants who discontinued the study, mean (SD) weight loss at 1 year was 2.1 (4.8) kg for Atkins (21 [53 %] of 40 participants completed, P=.009), 3.2 (6.0) kg for Zone (26 [65%] of 40 completed, P=.002), 3.0 (4.9) kg for Weight Watchers (26 [65%] of 40 completed, P<.001), and 3.3 (7.3) kg for Ornish (20 [50%] of 40 completed, P=.007). Greater effects were observed in study completers. Each diet significantly reduced the low-density lipoprotein/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol ratio by approximately 10% (all P<.05), with no significant effects on blood pressure or glucose at 1 year. Amount of weight loss was associated with self-reported dietary adherence level (r=0.60; P<.001) but not with diet type (r=0.07; P= .40). For each diet, decreasing levels of total/HDL cholesterol, C-reactive protein, and insulin were significantly associated with weight loss (mean r=0.36, 0.37, and 0.39, respectively) with no significant difference between diets (P= .48, P= .57, P= .31, respectively). Conclusions: Each popular diet modestly reduced body weight and several cardiac risk factors at 1 year. Overall dietary adherence rates were low, although increased adherence was associated with greater weight loss and cardiac risk factor reductions for each diet group.
Consumers assess their well-being subjectively, largely by comparing the present state of their lives to the state of comparable others and to their own state earlier in time. The authors suggest that consumers similarly assess their financial well-being, and when these evaluations highlight a deficit in their financial position, they pursue strategies that mitigate the associated sense of financial deprivation. Specifically, consumers counteract the relative deficit in their financial resources by acquiring goods that are consequently unavailable to other consumers in their environment. The results from five studies suggest that the inferiority and unpleasant affect associated with financial deprivation motivates consumers to attend to, choose, and consume scarce goods rather than comparable abundant goods. These effects diminish when scarce goods are limited because other people have already obtained them and when consumers attribute their unpleasant feelings to a source unrelated to financial deprivation.
We investigate the manner in which a desire to emulate the rich influences individuals’ allocation of time between labour and leisure, greater inequality inducing longer work hours as a result. Data on work hours in ten countries over the period 1963–98 show that greater inequality is indeed associated longer work hours. These ‘Veblen effects’ are large and the estimates are robust using country fixed effects and other specifications. Because consumption inequality is a public bad, a social welfare optimum cannot be implemented by a flat tax on consumption but may be accomplished by more complicated (progressive) consumption taxes.
Alcohol consumption and cognitive impairment frequently co-occur. We propose that the relationship is so familiar that exposure to alcohol cues primes expectations of cognitive impairment. Across five studies, we find that in the absence of any evidence of reduced cognitive performance, people who hold an alcoholic beverage are perceived to be less intelligent than those who do not, a mistake we term the imbibing
idiot bias. In fact, merely priming observers with alcohol cues causes them to judge targets who hold no beverage at all as less intelligent. The bias is not driven by a belief that less intelligent people are more likely to consume alcohol. We find that the bias may be costly in professional settings. Job candidates who ordered wine during an interview held over dinner were viewed as less intelligent and less hireable than candidates who ordered soda. However, prospective candidates believe that ordering wine rather than soda will help them appear more intelligent.
Across four experiments, the authors find that when information pertaining to the assessment of the healthiness of food items is provided, the less healthy the item is portrayed to be, (1) the better is its inferred taste, (2) the more it is enjoyed during actual consumption, and (3) the greater is the preference for it in choice tasks when a hedonic goal is more (versus less) salient. The authors obtain these effects both among consumers who report that they believe that healthiness and tastiness are negatively correlated and, to a lesser degree, among those who do not report such a belief. The authors also provide evidence that the association between the concepts of "unhealthy" and "tasty" operates at an implicit level. The authors discuss possibilities for controlling the effect of the unhealthy = tasty intuition (and its potential for causing negative health consequences), including controlling the volume of unhealthy but tasty food eaten, changing unhealthy foods to make them less unhealthy but still tasty, and providing consumers with better information about what constitutes "healthy."
Accession Number: 2012-17735-007. First Author & Affiliation: Rucker, Derek D.; Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, US. Other Publishers: Lawrence Erlbaum. Release Date: 20120903. Publication Type: Journal, (0100); Peer Reviewed Journal, (0110); . Media Covered: Electronic. Document Type: Journal Article. Language: English. Major Descriptor: Consumer Attitudes; Consumer Behavior; Interpersonal Control. Minor Descriptor: Cognition. Classification: Consumer Attitudes & Behavior (3920) . Population: Human (10); Male (30); Female (40); . Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older) (300) . Methodology: Empirical Study; Experimental Replication; Quantitative Study. References Available: Y.. Page Count: 17.. Issue Publication Date: Jul, 2012. Publication History: First Posted Date: Jul 2, 2011; Accepted Date: Jun 8, 2011; Revised Date: Jun 4, 2011; First Submitted Date: Feb 17, 2011. Copyright: Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.. Society for Consumer Psychol
Gender permeates all aspects of life, including foodlife, and can be examined using singular and multiple models of genderedness. Singular models of masculinity gender-type foods as masculine and feminine, suggesting that men and women “do gender" by consuming gender appropriate foods. Meat, especially red meat, is an archetypical masculine food. Men often emphasize meat, and women often minimize meat, in displaying gender as individuals. Dealing with gender in joint marital food choices requires negotiations about sharing masculine and feminine foods as partner foods in joint meals. Contemporary Western “proper meals” center around meat, creating masculine marital meals that reproduce wider patterns of male dominance. Meat is often a contested food in marriage, with food negotiations conflicting about whether, what types, when, and how much meat is consumed. Multiple models of masculinities suggest that marital meat consumption does not necessarily follow formulaic, hegemonic gender patterns. These plural masculinities offer various adjectival gender scripts that can be selectively invoked in negotiating meals shared between partners. Multiple cultural scripts for strong men, healthy men, wealthy men, sensitive men, and other conceptions of masculinities are employed in marital negotiations about “doing meat.” “Doing marriage” involves negotiating and managing masculinities and femininities in food choices that reflect, reproduce, and oppose a variety of gendered societal food scripts. Both singular and multiple models of masculinity offer insights about meat and marriage.
Although milk is the main meal and major contributor to nutritional requirements of the Turkana nomads, livestock-meat increasingly becomes central to the diet whenever the milk supply declines, and as the dry season progresses. Major social obligations are performed and networks made, maintained, and extended using livestock-meat, whose apportionment is based on seniority and power, which are equated to age and the order of marriage for females at the homestead feast. Age, the position in the hierarchy of the generation-set, and wealth, are the considerations for meat distribution at the males-only meat feast. Being the rare, desirable and major food item donated, exchanged, or offered in social transactions and as the main food in the dry season elevates its status. The analysis suggests that livestock-meat, a high status food, reveals gender, rank, respect, and perceived status of the Turkana pastoralist on social occasions.
L'A. limite son etude au cas de la Grande-Bretagne, en organisant sa reflexion autour des themes suivants: 1le symbolisme lie a la nature et a la preparation des aliments, existe a la fois dans les societes avancees et primitives. 2Dans les deux cas, la cuisine est un fait culturel, dont la signification symbolique apparait dans les situations sociales qu'elle exprime. 3A un plus haut degre il y a liaison entre les preferences culinaires et l'ethique individuelle.
The importance of meat-eating in human evolution has long been a controversial subject1–4. The best available evidence of hominid activities between 2 and 1.5 Myr ago is the archaeological record from two East African localities, Olduvai Gorge5, Tanzania, and Koobi Fora6, Kenya, which consists of scattered stone artefacts and fragmentary animal bones. The question7,8 of functional association between juxtaposed artefacts and bones would be largely settled if hominid-induced modifications were present on some bones. Comparative analyses of archaeological bone assemblages from Olduvai Gorge and Koobi Fora and of various modern bone assemblages with known taphonomic histories reveal direct evidence of early hominid butchering and marrow-processing activities.
Subjective well-being (SWB) comprises people's longer-term levels of pleasant affect, lack of unpleasant affect, and life satisfaction. It displays moderately high levels of cross-situational consistency and temporal stability. Self-report measures of SWB show adequate validity, reliability, factor invariance, and sensitivity to change. Despite the success of the measures to date, more sophisticated approaches to defining and measuring SWB are now possible. Affect includes facial, physiological, motivational, behavioral, and cognitive components. Self-reports assess primarily the cognitive component of affect, and thus are unlikely to yield a complete picture of respondents' emotional lives. For example, denial may influence self-reports of SWB more than other components. Additionally, emotions are responses which vary on a number of dimensions such as intensity, suggesting that mean levels of affect as captured by existing measures do not give a complete account of SWB. Advances in cognitive psychology indicate that differences in memory retrieval, mood as information, and scaling processes can influence self-reports of SWB. Finally, theories of communication alert us to the types of information that are likely to be given in self-reports of SWB. These advances from psychology suggest that a multimethod approach to assessing SWB will create a more comprehensive depiction of the phenomenon. Not only will a multifaceted test battery yield more credible data, but inconsistencies between various measurement methods and between the various components of well-being will both help us better understand SWB indictors and group differences in well-being. Knowledge of cognition, personality, and emotion will also aid in the development of sophisticated theoretical definitions of subjective well-being. For example, life satisfaction is theorized to be a judgment that respondents construct based on currently salient information. Finally, it is concluded that measuring negative reactions such as depression or anxiety give an incomplete picture of people's well-being, and that it is imperative to measure life satisfaction and positive emotions as well.
'Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.' In The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen sets out 'to discuss the place and value of the leisure class as an economic factor in modern life'. In so doing he produced a landmark study of affluent American society that exposes, with brilliant ruthlessness, the habits of production and waste that link invidious business tactics and barbaric social behaviour. Veblen's analysis of the evolutionary process sees greed as the overriding motive in the modern economy; with an impartial gaze he examines the human cost paid when social institutions exploit the consumption of unessential goods for the sake of personal profit. Fashion, beauty, animals, sports, the home, the clergy, scholars - all are assessed for their true usefulness and found wanting. The targets of Veblen's coruscating satire are as evident today as they were a century ago, and his book still has the power to shock and enlighten. Veblen's uncompromising arguments and the influential literary force of his writing are assessed in Martha Banta's Introduction.
Two experiments investigated the effects of priming (activation of a category by unobtrusive exposure to exemplars of that category) on subsequent judgments in an unrelated task. Subjects were primed with one of four levels of ferocity (size) in the course of a “color perception” experiment, and were later asked to judge the ferocity (size) of real (unambiguous) and unreal (ambiguous) animals. An interaction between ambiguity of judged stimuli (real vs unreal animals) and extremity of primed exemplars (moderate vs extreme levels of ferocity or size) was revealed. Assimilation effects (judgments consistent with the primed category) occurred only when moderate exemplars were primed and ambiguous stimuli judged. Contrast effects occurred when extreme exemplars were primed and ambiguous stimuli judged and, irrespective of extremity of the primed exemplar, when unambiguous stimuli were judged. The results are interpreted in terms of an integration of social judgment and social cognition perspectives.
Meat is frequently associated with a “negative” health image due to its “high” fat content and in the case of red meat is seen as a cancer-promoting food. Therefore, a low meat intake, especially red meat is recommended to avoid the risk of cancer, obesity and metabolic syndrome. However, this discussion overlooks the fact, that meat is an important source for some of micronutrients such as iron, selenium, vitamins A, B12 and folic acid. These micronutrients are either not present in plant derived food or have poor bioavailability. In addition, meat as a protein rich and carbohydrate “low” product contributes to a low glycemic index which is assumed to be “beneficial” with respect to overweight, the development of diabetes and cancer (insulin resistance hypothesis). Taken together meat is an important nutrient for human health and development. As an essential part of a mixed diet, meat ensures adequate delivery of essential micronutrients and amino acids and is involved in regulatory processes of energy metabolism.
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The shift towards a more sustainable diet necessitates less reliance on foods of animal origin. This study presents data from a representative survey of Dutch consumers on their practices related to meat, meat substitution and meat reduction. The practices reflected a cultural gradient of meat substitution options running from other products of animal origin and conventional meat free meals to real vegetarian meals. To investigate feasible substitution options, a variety of meals without meat were presented using photos, which were rated by the participants in terms of attractiveness and chances that they would prepare a similar meal at home. The results demonstrated the influence of meal formats, product familiarity, cooking skills, preferences for plant-based foods and motivational orientations towards food. In particular, a lack of familiarity and skill hampered the preparation of real vegetarian meals. Based on the findings we propose a diversified understanding of meat substitution and we specify four policy-relevant pathways for a transition towards a more plant-based diet, including an incremental change towards more health-conscious vegetarian meals, a pathway that utilizes the trend towards convenience, a pathway of reduced portion size, and practice-oriented change towards vegetarian meals.
Scholars who examine the psychological effects of power have often argued that possessing power shapes individual behavior because it instills an elevated sense of power. However, little is known about the personal sense of power because very few studies have examined it empirically. In studies involving a total of 1,141 participants and nine different samples, we found that the personal sense of power was coherent within social contexts; for example, individuals who believed that they can get their way in a group also believed that they can influence fellow group members' attitudes and opinions. The personal sense of power was also moderately consistent across relationships but showed considerable relationship specificity; for example, individuals' personal sense of power vis-à-vis their friend tended to be distinct but moderately related to their personal sense of power vis-à-vis their parent. And the personal sense of power was affected not only by sociostructural factors (e.g., social position, status) but also by personality variables such as dominance.
A series of reprints of the papers most fundamental to the author's systematic viewpoint, including:
The Conflict between Aristotelian and Galileian Modes of Thought in Contemporary Psychology (J. gen. Psychol., 1931);
On the Structure of the Mind (from
Vorsatz, Wille und Bedürfnis); Environmental Forces in Child Behavior and Development (Handbook of Child Psychology, 1933);
The Psychological Situations of Reward and Punishment (Shr. Psychol. Pedag.); Education for Reality (Neue Erziehung, 1931);
Substitute Activity and Substitute Value; A Dynamic Theory of the Feeble-Minded; Survey of the Experimental Investigations (summary of
Untersuchungen zur Handlungs- und Affektpsychologie). Author and subject indexes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)