Gaillard, Amélie (2025) Dining on Dissonance: Modeling Behavioral Change in Response to the Meat Paradox. Master thesis, Psychology.
|
Text
Thesis-Final-Version-Gaillard.pdf Download (1MB) | Preview |
A thesis is an aptitude test for students. The approval of the thesis is proof that the student has sufficient research and reporting skills to graduate but does not guarantee the quality of the research and the results of the research as such, and the thesis is therefore not necessarily suitable to be used as an academic source to refer to. If you would like to know more about the research discussed in this thesis and any publications based on it, to which you could refer, please contact the supervisor mentioned.
Abstract
Meat consumption significantly contributes to environmental degradation, health issues, and animal suffering, creating a moral conflict for many meat eaters. This phenomenon, known as the meat paradox, is an example of cognitive dissonance. This thesis investigates whether inducing this meat-related cognitive dissonance (MRCD) leads to more unstable patterns of meat consumption change over time, compared to a baseline meat reduction intervention alone. In a 10-day longitudinal experiment (N = 65), participants received either a moral (MRCD) or logistical (control) framing of a meat reduction intervention, and self-reported their meat consumption daily. While participants in the MRCD condition showed slightly higher variability in day-to-day changes in meat intake, no statistically significant differences were observed between groups. Manipulation checks revealed no significant differences in self-reported dissonance, suggesting a potential failure in eliciting sufficient discomfort or possible disengagement. Nonetheless, a bimodal distribution of change variability emerged, suggesting two processes of behavioral change, with more unstable changers in the MRCD group. These findings, while inconclusive, highlight the complexity of dissonance-reduction dynamics and underscore the need for further research into the temporal patterns of behavior change in the context of meat reduction.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Muinos Trujillo, G. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Environmental Psychology (EP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 05 Aug 2025 12:26 |
| Last Modified: | 05 Aug 2025 12:26 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5805 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |