Associations between motivations for and against eating meat with four types of meat engagement

Abstract

Because of its negative consequences for animal welfare, human health, and the environment, many individuals and institutions are interested in reducing meat consumption. To achieve this goal, it is important to understand the reasons people have both to eat meat (e.g., liking the taste) and to avoid it (e.g., environmental concerns), and how these reasons relate to meat engagement. However, existing research often examines motivations and outcomes in relative isolation, rather than linking different types of motivations to multiple forms of engagement. Here, we examined how general motivations (i.e., overarching tendencies to endorse multiple reasons for and against eating meat) and specific motivations (e.g., taste, environmental concern) relate to various forms of meat engagement – including meat consumption measured through a survey and daily food tracking over 21 days, dietary identity, preferences, and reduction goals – in a sample of N = 4447 Swiss residents. General motivations to avoid meat were associated with lower meat engagement, whereas general motivations to eat meat were associated with higher meat engagement, with the latter effect being stronger. Furthermore, specific motivations were related to specific kinds of engagement. For example, taste was closely related to meat preference, disgust predicted lower identity and consumption, and environmental concern was more strongly linked to reduction goals. These findings suggest that general and specific motivations contribute in distinct ways to how people eat, relate to, and set goals around meat. This highlights the importance of understanding meat-related motivations across target groups to influence dietary attitudes and behavior.