Gauging attitudes and behaviours: Meat consumption and potential reduction

Abstract

The present study focused on adding to the understanding of meat consumption and potential drivers for its reduction in New Zealand. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the recently developed Meat-Attachment Questionnaire (MAQ), this study investigated New Zealand consumers' attitudes, motivations and behaviours in regards to meat consumption. Results derive from a questionnaire sent across New Zealand in March 2017, in which 841 responses were obtained from representative consumer panels. Consumer awareness of the severity of meat's environmental impacts was found to be quite low in comparison to other sustainable food behaviours. Motivations for reduction seem to shift across consumer groups, with different considerations rising and falling in importance depending on current meat consumption habits. Among the TPB components, only attitudes were found to accurately and consistently predict willingness and intentions to reduce personal meat intake, while both attitudes and subjective norms predicted agreement with proposed structural measures that would promote meat reduction and/or plant-based food consumption. In addition, the MAQ was found to provide explanatory power above and beyond that of the TPB components alone and this research supports its use as a tool to further understand meat consumption and potential motivations for reduction. The authors believe these results could be useful for governments or organizations wishing to implement meat reduction strategies, as well as providing a stepping stone for further research inquiry into motivations behind meat consumption and its potential reduction.