Even Some Meat-Eaters Are Disgusted By Meat — And Encouraging Those Feelings Could Help Reduce Consumption

By Emily Reynolds While some vegetarians yearn for meat (and occasionally give into temptation), others who eschew animal products find meat repulsive. Those who go veggie for moral reasons — as opposed to those who do it for their health — are particularly likely to find meat disgusting, even if they previously enjoyed its taste. According to a new study from a University of Exeter team, it isn’t just vegetarians who find the look of meat disgusting, either — sometimes, meat-eaters do too. And in a world where many of us are being encouraged to give up meat for the sake of the environment, the researchers suggest that harnessing this disgust could be a way of reducing intake when other techniques fail. The 711 participants in the study were a mix of people with different diets — 56% identified as omnivores, 28% as flexitarians (i.e. those who are sometimes vegetarian and sometimes omnivorous), and 15% vegetarians, some of whom were vegan and some pescatarian. First, an implicit association task (IAT) measured implicit attitudes towards meat. Participants were presented with a series of images of foods, which they had to classify as meat or carbs, and words like “foul” or “mouth-watering”, which they had to classify as “delicious” or “disgusting”. The participants sorted both images and words into categories using left and right keys on their keyboard: for example, on one side they might see “carbs OR disgusting” and on ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Eating Source Type: blogs