Is Eating Less Meat Possible? Exploring the Willingness to Reduce Meat Consumption among Millennials Working in Polish Cities

Abstract

Reducing the consumption of meat constitutes an important part of the global shift towards more sustainable food systems. At the same time, meat is firmly established in the food culture of most human beings, and better understanding of individual behaviors is essential to facilitate a durable change in contemporary eating patterns. To determine the level and nature of attachment to meat among consumers, the Meat Attachment Questionnaire (MAQ) in relation to the phases of behaviour change in the meat consumption reduction process was utilised. Data collected through a survey carried out among Poles aged 25–40 years living in cities were analysed with the use of Spearman’s correlations and one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc tests. The biggest share of the studied group of millennials (N = 317) never considered reducing their meat consumption (Phase 1–41%) and was described by the highest level of MAQ score in all its categories: hedonism, affinity, dependence, and entitlement. More than half of the respondents in Phase 2 participants (“planners”) declared a willingness to cut down meat consumption but had not yet put their intentions into practice. Respondents qualified in Phase 3 declared the highest willingness to reduce meat consumption and were significantly less attached to meat regarding all MAQ categories than respondents in Phase 1. The 9% of the study participants (Phase 4) had already limited the frequency of their meat consumption to “several times a week”, this however still remains insufficient compared to the ambitious goals of sustainable healthy diets. Results indicated that meat attachment categories, especially hedonism and dependence, were identified as predictors of willingness to reduce meat consumption. Research exploring the determinants of change and possibilities of effective communication about meat reduction on an individual level in different cultural settings are needed.

Sustainable or Not? Insights on the Consumption of Animal Products in Poland

“…When the data were missing, we looked for the older data related. Unfortunately, the related research on the topic of sustainability among Polish people were not so common among scientists [ 13 , 22 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. For instance, research on the consumption of meat in Poland, published in 2022, concerning, inter alia, wild game meat, was not mentioned by our respondents, therefore it was not included in the discussion.…”

“…Various researchers consider the aspect of sustainable consumption of food products through narrow sections of it. Sustainable consumption of animal products is most often analyzed into subgroups, including: meat [ 8 , 11 , 12 , 13 ], fishes [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ], and eggs [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], in which frequently declared consumer attitudes are analyzed [ 22 ]. Based on the above, our research has tried to associate consumption reports with specific questions about lifestyle and choice preferences to contribute to global sustainability through the European context.…”

“…Among the reasons of eliminating meat from their plate in 2021 [ 28 ] beside the most popular health issues (53%) and improving their own well-being (42%), the following reasons were also stated in explaining the decreasing trend: limiting animal suffering (31%), distrust of farmer products (31%), concern for the environment (30%), the taste of plant-based foods (26%), changes in the diet of loved ones (19%), financial aspects (10%). Nevertheless, still the amount of meat consumed exceeds the goals of a sustainable diet [ 13 ].…”

Advertising to reduce meat consumption: positive framing versus negative framing effects on attention

“…Millennials are considered to be more knowledgeable and concerned about environmental issues than older generations (Knaapila et al , 2022; Spain et al , 2018). Therefore, millennials have been the target group in recent studies concerning food sustainability (Szczebyło et al , 2022; Ali et al , 2023; Ghaffar and Islam, 2023). This study also focused on meat eaters specifically within this age category to better understand their attentional responses and to better inform the design of social advertisements.…”

Stakeholder Beliefs about Alternative Proteins: A Systematic Review

“…A great deal of research has investigated psychological factors that may influence the acceptance of alternative proteins and/or the proneness to meat consumption reduction [ 6 ]; in addition, efforts have been made in order to synthesize this research corpus [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Food neophobia—the reluctance of trying new foods—is one of the main factors that has been identified as a barrier to the acceptance of alternative protein sources [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]; it is a complex trait that can be influenced by a range of factors, including cultural and personal experiences, as well as individual differences in sensory and disgust sensitivity [ 18 ].…”