Too sweet to eat: Exploring the effects of cuteness on meat consumption

Zickfeld, Janis; Kunst, Jonas R.; Hohle, Sigrid Møyner

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2017.08.038

Cited by 54 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…No significant gender interactions were found in the dissociation study of Piazza et al (2018), although exploratory post-hoc analyses suggested that dissociation tended to reduce appetite in particular among women when a baby rather than adult animal was presented. Neither, Kunst and Hohle (2016), Zickfeld et al (2018) or Lewis (2018) found any significant gender moderation of the effects of dissociation on willingness to eat meat or on empathy and disgust. Hence, evidence on the role that gender plays for dissociation seems to be mixed.…”

Section: Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Both groups of authors tested whether perceptions of cuteness -classically linked to caring responses -would explain why disrupting the dissociation process by showing animals reduces people's willingness to eat meat. Whereas Zickfeld et al (2018) found that empathy outperformed cuteness perceptions as a mediator of the dissociation process, Piazza et al (2018) found that appetite for a meat dish was reduced when the dish was paired with a (cute) baby animal but not when it was paired with an adult animal.…”

Section: Evidence For the Dissociation Processmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Additional insights into the potential mediators of the dissociation process were provided by Zickfeld et al (2018) and Piazza et al (2018). Both groups of authors tested whether perceptions of cuteness -classically linked to caring responses -would explain why disrupting the dissociation process by showing animals reduces people's willingness to eat meat.…”

Section: Evidence For the Dissociation Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dissociating Meat from its Animal Origins: A Systematic Literature Review

Kunst¹

2019

Preprint

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Meat eaters often have an ambivalent relationship with the common practice of killing animals for food. They enjoy the taste of meat but dislike the harming of animals that it entails. This moral conflict, often referred to as the ‘meat paradox,’ tends to result in cognitive dissonance that meat eaters need to resolve. One of the arguably most basic strategies to deal with this dissonance is to cognitively dissociate meat from its animal origins. Whereas philosophers for long time have theorized about the role of such dissociation for consumer behavior, researchers have only recently started to empirically investigate the phenomenon. Here, we present the first systematic literature review of research on consumers’ tendency to dissociate meat from its animal origins. Twenty-one publications comprising eight qualitative, one mixed-methods, four correlational, and twenty experimental/interventional studies were identified, which all provided support for the central psychological role of dissociation for meat consumption. However, the review also revealed the need for further research on moderating variables such as gender, age and generation, dietary styles, and people’s place of living, including cross-cultural differences. Strikingly, no study so far seems to have included behavioral outcomes, urging the need for future research on how dissociation might affect behavior.

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Section: Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Evidence For the Dissociation Processmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Evidence For the Dissociation Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dissociating Meat from its Animal Origins: A Systematic Literature Review

Kunst¹

2019

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…In a research setting, researchers found that people experienced distress when seeing animal parts such as heads, limbs, or blood [71,72]. Besides the exposure to disgusting animals' bodies, animals that are perceived as cute (e.g., dogs, cats) also lead to disgust responses when people are reminded that these cute animals could be eaten [43,73].…”

Section: Situational Antecedentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumer Moral Dilemma in the Choice of Animal-Friendly Meat Products

Lin-Schilstra

Fischer

2020

Sustainability

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More and more consumers, at least in Western developed countries, are attentive to the sustainability aspects of their food, one of which concerns animal welfare. The conflict of harming an animal for the joy of eating meat causes a moral dilemma, affecting consumers’ reactions to, and choices of, animal-friendly products. This systematic review identified 86 studies from Scopus and Web of Science. The review outlines: (1) What are the personal antecedents among consumers regarding moral conflicts?; (2) In what situation do moral conflicts occur in consumer food choice?; (3) How do consumers emotionally experience the moral dilemma?; (4) How do consumers resolve moral conflicts over animal products? Researchers have studied personal factors and situational factors that arouse consumers’ moral dilemma and how the dilemma is solved, during which emotions and dissonance come into play. When synthesizing these findings into a comprehensive model, we notice that the current research is lacking on how personal factors change and interact with situations, which limits the understanding of the real-life context of consumers’ moral dilemma as well as their choices of animal-friendly products. More in-depth studies are needed to find situational factors that contribute to this complex psychological process.

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“…A related emotion involved in caretaking is the cuteness response (which has also been referred to as "aww"; Buckley, 2016). Supporting the conceptualization of the cuteness response as an emotion which expands the moral circle (Sherman & Haidt, 2011), recent work suggests that cuteness in animals facilitates their moral inclusion (Piazza, McLatchie, & Olesen, 2018;Zickfeld, Kunst, & Hohle, 2018). Interestingly, Sherman and Chandler (2012) found that the cuteness response induced by baby humans and animals carried over to heightened desires to interact with, and anthropomorphize, technological gadgets.…”

Section: Self-transcendent Emotions and Connectedness To Nature 16mentioning

confidence: 99%

Can self-transcendent positive emotions facilitate bonds with nature?

Moreton¹

2018

Preprint

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Self-transcendent positive emotions play a foundational role in social cognition through binding humans to others. In this article, theoretical and emerging empirical evidence is presented in support of the hypothesis that self-transcendent positive emotions may also facilitate bonds with the natural world. This is suggested to occur due to the ability of self-transcendent emotions to direct attention away from the self, facilitate connections with novel social targets, and reduce defensive distancing from nature caused by death anxiety and disgust. It is concluded that further research is needed to clarify the effects of discrete self-transcendent emotions on connectedness to nature, as well as the magnitude and duration of these effects.

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Too sweet to eat: Exploring the effects of cuteness on meat consumption

Cited by 54 publications

References 51 publications

Dissociating Meat from its Animal Origins: A Systematic Literature Review

Dissociating Meat from its Animal Origins: A Systematic Literature Review

Consumer Moral Dilemma in the Choice of Animal-Friendly Meat Products

Can self-transcendent positive emotions facilitate bonds with nature?

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