UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
Appetite. 2023 Dec 1;191:107067. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2023.107067. Epub 2023 Oct 5.
Avoiding meat overconsumption is good for the environment and people's health. Changing meal names represents a simple, cost-effective way of increasing meat-free meal selection in restaurants. In the past, however, this approach has shown limited effectiveness. The activation of different social identities may explain inconsistencies in prior findings and offer a powerful leverage point for influencing meal choices. We recruited participants (N = 899) who identified as "meat-eaters" for an online experiment in which they were asked to select a meal from a menu that included meat-free and meat-based burgers. We manipulated (1) social identity salience (meat-eater identity; sustainable identity; personal identity) and (2) the meal names on the menu (vegetarian name; sustainable name; neutral name). Our findings show that activating a sustainable identity significantly increases the odds of selecting a meat-free burger (22%) compared to alternative identity conditions (meat-eater identity 12%, personal identity 12%). Sustainable meal names outperform vegetarian but not neutral meal names (sustainable name 20%, vegetarian name 12%, neutral name 15%). When participants who previously selected a meat-based burger (N = 760) were limited to meat-free menu options, satisfaction and enjoyment ratings dropped steeply. This drop was significantly stronger in the meat-eater identity condition. Accounting for identity salience can lead to more targeted, improved interventions that increase meat-free meal selections by accounting for people's different social identities and the social context in which food consumption tends to occur.
避免肉类过度消费既有益于环境，也有益于人们的健康。改变餐名是一种简单、具有成本效益的方法，可以增加餐厅中无肉餐的选择。然而，在过去，这种方法的效果有限。不同社会身份的激活可以解释先前研究结果的不一致，并为影响用餐选择提供一个强有力的杠杆点。我们招募了被认定为“肉食者”的参与者（N=899），他们参与了一项在线实验，在实验中，他们被要求从一份包含无肉和有肉汉堡的菜单中选择一份餐食。我们操纵了（1）社会身份凸显（肉食者身份；可持续发展身份；个人身份）和（2）菜单上的餐名（素食名称；可持续发展名称；中性名称）。我们的研究结果表明，与替代身份条件（肉食者身份 12%，个人身份 12%）相比，激活可持续发展身份会显著增加选择无肉汉堡的可能性（22%）。可持续发展的餐名表现优于素食餐名，但逊于中性餐名（可持续发展名称 20%，素食名称 12%，中性名称 15%）。当先前选择了肉基汉堡的参与者（N=760）被限制在无肉菜单选项中时，他们的满意度和享受度评分急剧下降。在肉食者身份条件下，这种下降更为明显。考虑到身份凸显，可以通过考虑人们不同的社会身份和食物消费倾向发生的社会背景，进行更有针对性、更有效的干预，从而增加无肉餐的选择。
