Research report Meat, beyond the plate. Data-driven hypotheses for understanding consumer willingness to adopt a more plant-based diet ☆ João Graça a, *, Abílio Oliveira b , Maria Manuela Calheiros a a Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), CIS-IUL, Lisboa, Portugal b Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), ADETTI-IUL, Lisboa, Portugal ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 30 October 2014 Received in revised form 30 January 2015 Accepted 26 February 2015 Available online 5 March 2015 Keywords: Plant-based diets Meat Consumer attitudes Meat attachment Meat disgust Moral disengagement A B ST R AC T A shift towards reduced meat consumption and a more plant-based diet is endorsed to promote sustainability, improve public health, and minimize animal suffering. However, large segments of con- sumers do not seem willing to make such transition. While it may take a profound societal change to achieve significant progresses on this regard, there have been limited attempts to understand the psy- chosocial processes that may hinder or facilitate this shift. This study provides an in-depth exploration of how consumer representations of meat, the impact of meat, and rationales for changing or not habits relate with willingness to adopt a more plant-based diet. Multiple Correspondence Analysis was em- ployed to examine participant responses (N = 410) to a set of open-ended questions, free word association tasks and closed questions. Three clusters with two hallmarks each were identified: (1) a pattern of disgust towards meat coupled with moral internalization; (2) a pattern of low affective connection towards meat and willingness to change habits; and (3) a pattern of attachment to meat and unwillingness to change habits. The findings raise two main propositions. The first is that an affective connection towards meat relates to the perception of the impacts of meat and to willingness to change consumption habits. The second proposition is that a set of rationales resembling moral disengagement mechanisms (e.g., pro- meat justifications; self-exonerations) arise when some consumers contemplate the consequences of meat production and consumption, and the possibility of changing habits. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction During the last century there was a massive and unprecedent- ed increase in the frequency and amount of consumption of animal- based products, materializing in an ongoing global approach to the standards and lifestyles of industrialized western countries (Delgado, Rosegrant, Steinfeld, Ehui, & Courbois, 1999). This transition char- acterizes a rise in the consumption of livestock products and a shift away from grains and vegetables as societies become more afflu- ent (Popkin, 2011). As a result, this global lifestyle change directly opposes the growing scientific consensus that plant-based diets (i.e., those diets which have the bulk of calories from plant sources while limiting or avoiding animal sources) are more sustainable (e.g., de Boer & Aiking, 2011; Pimentel & Pimentel, 2003), more healthy (e.g., American Dietetic Association, 2003; Sabaté, 2003), and alleviate animal suffering (e.g., Foer, 2010; Singer & Mason, 2006). In spite of these benefits, large segments of consumers in western societies do not seem willing to eat a plant-based diet (Lea, Crawford, & Worsley, 2006a, 2006b) or reduce meat consumption (Latvala et al., 2012; Schösler, de Boer, & Boersema, 2012). Several scholars have been alerting that it may take a profound societal transition to achieve sig- nificant progresses on this regard (Dagevos & Voordouw, 2013; Schösler et al., 2012). However, evidence concerning the psychosocial pro- cesses which affect this shift remains sparse and insufficient relating to changes at the societal level (Cole & McCoskey, 2013; Stehfest et al., 2009). We believe that converging two recent lines of research will allow to provide new insights and improve theoretical integration of con- sumer motivations, thus better explaining consumer willingness and resistance to change. More specifically we refer to studies on willing- ness to eat plant-based diets and meat substitutes, and findings on the different contexts in which consumers expect meat as a food item. To provide an integrative framework from which to add to current knowl- edge, pertinent research and propositions on each of these topics are briefly summarized below. Willingness to eat plant-based diets and meat substitutes To our knowledge, only a pair of studies conducted in Australia has specifically addressed consumer willingness to eat plant- based diets (Lea et al., 2006a, 2006b). Although observing that some ☆ Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to all study participants. The authors are also thankful to four anonymous reviewers who provided important feedback to improve the paper. This work was supported by a grant from the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT; Reference SFRH/BD/79487/2011), awarded to the first author. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: joao_daniel_graca@iscte.pt, joao.graca@outlook.com (J. Graça). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.02.037 0195-6663/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Appetite 90 (2015) 80–90 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Appetite journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/appet