Summary
This literature review discusses 21 papers investigating the role of dissociation in peoples’ attempt to reduce discomfort with meat eating and reduce cognitive dissonance. In brief, this is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when persons have conflicting values and/or behaviors, such as not wanting to hurt animals, but also consuming meat products. It can cause discomfort and stress. According to the authors, such a dissociation can involve different strategies like actively avoiding thinking of the animal origin of meat products and preferring to buy and consume products that have evidence of animal origin removed (e.g. pre-processed and removal of bones and texture). Most studies in this review found evidence for such strategies. The use of dissociation often varied with age, gender and culture. There is not enough evidence to assess whether the connection of meat to animals changes behavior. Some strengths of this review are the consideration of different subpopulations, genders and cultural contexts. A few limitations include the small size of most studies and that most were conducted in westernized industrialized countries. In conclusion, the authors identify dissociation as an important strategy to reduce discomfort with meat consumption, which warrants further studies in different cultural contexts and as a possible point to motivate behavior change.
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.