Why meat-eaters reject calls for a meat-free diet: Social norm and messenger effects in two meat-eating cultures

Abstract Eating meat is central to most cultures but produces substantial personal carbon emissions, contributing to the climate crisis. We compare the effectiveness of vegan versus meat-eating messengers on support for adopting an environmentally-friendly vegan diet in two ‘meat-positive’ cultures, Ukraine ( n = 383) and Romania ( n = 346), and a more vegan-friendly dietary culture (Germany/Austria; n = 426). In our pre-registered cross-cultural experiment, participants from the three countries read articles either inducing a pro-meat or a vegan norm, e.g. that either meat-eating or meat-free diets are normal (factor ‘norm’) and were then confronted with critical calls for a meat-free diet, either from a meat-eating or vegan messenger. We then assessed reaction to the calls as well as hypothetical meal choice as dependent/outcome variable. As predicted, calls voiced by a vegan messenger were consistently rated to be more threatening than the same criticism voiced by meat-eaters. Vegans’ messages were also perceived as less helpful for the environment and vegan messengers were perceived less positively. However, these effects differed between countries. No direct effects of the messenger on meal choice were observed. Reminding people of a pro-vegan or a pro-meat norm had no observable effects. To promote more sustainable diets, campaigns should use meat-eating messengers and take culture into account.