Carnism

Carnism is (by definition) the ideology underlying animal exploitation. It refers to the belief system regarding the treatment of animals and the resulting justifications for meat eating. The main benefit of this construct lies in the possiblity to talk about this otherwise invisible belief system. It stesses the idea, that this beliefs are changeable, and a choice, rather than the simple normal societal state. For psychological research it can act as a kind of framework (like e.g. speciesism, with a stronger emphasis on meat consumption), which facilitates the formulation of hypotheses and their statistical testing.

A study from 2017 found that the ideology of carnism is a composite of two facets, which were named: carnistic defense and carnistic domination. Carnistic defense reflects justifications of animal product consumption as well as the denial that animals suffer in the process. Carnistic domination on the other hand stands for the endorsement of the domination of animals (e.g. „I have the right to kill any animal I want.“). The study showed that carnism is associated with authoritarianism, xenophobia, and “system justification”. High carnistic domination scores were related to hostile and benevolent sexism, and symbolic racism.

How to stay a Meat Eater

When a person holds contradictory beliefs, values or ideas; or acts against any of these, this person experiences psychological stress which it seeks to reduce. This effect is called cognitive dissonance and in the context of meat eating it is often reffered to as the meat paradox (caring for animals, but supporting a system in which they are exploited).
Denial, Justification (especially the 4N: „eating meat is… natural, normal, necessary, nice“), and different forms of cognitive distortions can help to sustain the paradox, without to engage with it. Since these mechanisms don’t resolve the dissonance, the psychological stress can always be triggered when the right cue appears.

The Personality Behind Eating Animals

Personality traits are stable and influence behaviour. By knowing relevant traits on this subject we get the opportunity of further tailoring campaigns, or e.g. health interventions, because we know which people to target first and foremost. Relevant traits in the realm of meat consumption include openness to experience, social dominance orientation and authoritarianism, as well as male gender roles.