Beyond transparency: The double-edged effects of animal husbandry and welfare information on consumer perceptions of meat

Animal welfare plays an increasingly important role in consumers' meat purchase decisions. Many consumers demand additional and more transparent information about the meaning of animal welfare labels and actual husbandry practices, particularly regarding the conditions under which the animals were kept. Since product packaging offers only limited possibilities for communicating detailed information, new technologies such as blockchain technology enable the provision of additional, largely tamper-proof information via QR codes on product packaging. This paper investigates whether additional information may not only enhance consumer approval of more "ethical" meat but also elicit negative psychological effects that may ultimately prevent its purchase. Based on a pre-study and two experiments conducted in the context of organic poultry farming, we show that the type of information plays a critical role. Additional information framed in relative terms is associated with higher anticipated overall meat quality and purchase intention. In contrast, additional information framed in absolute terms may evoke a sobering realization and psychological discomfort, which in turn are linked to less favorable evaluations of anticipated overall meat quality.