Why Meat-eaters Reject Calls for a Meat-free Diet: Social Norm and Message Source Effects in Two Meat-Eating Cultures

Eating meat is central to most cultures but produces substantial personal carbon emissions, contributing to the Climate Crisis. We compare dietary group boundaries as a key impediment to dietary change in two traditional meat-cultures, Ukraine and Romania, and a more modern dietary culture (Germany/Austria). In our pre-registered intercultural experiment, participants read articles either inducing a pro-meat or a pro-veg* norm and were then confronted with critical calls for a meat-free diet, either by a meat-eating or veg* source. We then assessed reaction to the calls as well as hypothetical meal choice. As predicted, calls by a veg* source were consistently rated to be more threatening than the same criticism voiced by meat eaters. Effects on message constructiveness and commenter evaluations differed between cultures. No direct effects on meal choice were observed. Replicating previous research, no norm effects on any of the measures were observed. Cultural similarities and differences are discussed.