Meat consumption: Health or environmental information has no main effect on attitude and no effect on intention or behavior

Can information influence meat consumption behaviour? An experimental field study in the university canteen. Nina Weingarten et al. Food Quality and Preference, December 17 2021, 104498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104498

Highlights

• The study combines an online survey with a field study in a university canteen.

• Aim of the study is to investigate the role of information on meat consumption.

• Health information has no main effect on attitude, intention, or behavior.

• Environmental information has no main effect on attitude, intention, or behavior.

• Subjective knowledge moderates the effect of environmental information on attitude.

Abstract: The present study investigates the effectiveness of health and environmental information provision as an intervention to reduce meat consumption behaviour. In an experimental online survey (n = 194), we tested how information about the negative effects of meat consumption on health or the environment influence attitude and intention to reduce meat consumption. In the following two weeks, we measured participants’ meat consumption behaviour in the university canteen, which we accessed through an individual purchase card. Contrary to our hypotheses, our results show that there is no direct effect of health or environmental information on attitude, intention, or meat consumption behaviour compared to the control group. However, our results indicate that for participants with low subjective knowledge, environmental information is effective in influencing attitude. Neither attitude nor intention mediates the relationship between information and behaviour. Our findings highlight that information provision has limited effectiveness in changing attitude, but does not influence intention or behaviour. We conclude that more research is needed that includes a direct measure of meat consumption behaviour to evaluate the effectiveness of information provision as an intervention.

Keywords: Meat consumptionBehaviourHealth informationEnvironmental informationUniversity canteenSubjective knowledge