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  • 2017.10.13_Revised_Manuscript_Baby_animals_and_appetite

    Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Anthrozoos on 03/05/2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/08927936.2018.1455456

    Accepted author manuscript, 2.63 MB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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Are baby animals less appetizing?: Tenderness towards baby animals and appetite for meat

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/08/2018
<mark>Journal</mark>Anthrozoos
Issue number3
Volume31
Number of pages17
Pages (from-to)319-335
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date3/05/18
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Three studies investigated whether thoughts and feelings generated by baby animals might oppose appetite for meat. A prestudy established babyness as an important factor predicting moral concern for farmed animals. Study 1 showed that presenting images of baby animals, versus adult animals, as the source of meat reduced appetite for meat, but this effect was weak and found exclusively among women. Study 2 replicated and extended Study 1 using a larger sample and two new animal sources. Study 3 included a no animal comparison condition, and found greatest levels of reduced appetite for meat when the meat source was presented as a baby animal, as opposed to an adult animal or no visual indication of the animal source. A meta-analysis of the results using Bayes factors revealed considerable cumulative evidence in favor of the hypothesis that images of baby animals temporarily reduce women’s appetite for meat. In contrast, the evidence for men was less strong. Our results highlight a tension within some omnivores between caring for baby animals and appetite for meat.

Bibliographic note

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Anthrozoos on 03/05/2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/08927936.2018.1455456