Meatless Meals
Conducting Surveys
Our recommendation, based on sociological research by Kalof et al., is that the University of Michigan's dining halls should implement surveys based on the value-belief model, developed by Stern and Dietz in 1994, to its residents. The main goal of the surveys is to gather information about students’ beliefs on Health, Environment and Sustainability. Referencing research from Boer et al., the surveys should ask questions about value-based aspects of meatless dining. Some values to appeal to as guiding principles are as follows: altruism, animal welfare, openness to change, and food safety. The survey should also formulate questions to gauge students’ general experiences with meatless dining. These experiences should then be used in the prompts.
Linda Kalof, Thomas Dietz, Paul C Stern, & Gregory A Guagnano. (1999). Social psychological and structural influences on vegetarian beliefs. Rural Sociology, 64(3), 500-511.
After using social science research, such as Psychology, Economics, and Sociology, the recommendations that we would suggest to successfully implement a meatless meal in the dining hall setting are to conduct surveys of the dining hall residents, create prompts and flyers to place amongst the hall, offer written commitments for residents, and offer tasty menu options.
Recommendations
Create Prompts/Flyers
Based on the psychology research in both the Katzev, and Clayton and Brook pieces, we recommend using the survey information to create prompts and flyers. The prompts and flyers should contain information on students’ positive experiences with meatless meals and the values of meat-free dining gathered from the surveys implemented by the dining hall.
This information can be disseminated by placing prompts and mini-flyers in the centerpieces that the University of Michigan dining halls already have in place. Flyers would go all around campus in the dining halls containing positive experiences also. This would help with advertising of the meatless meal implementation as well as help sway the perceived social norm in favor of meatless meals.
The use of prompts and flyers is beneficial because we observe/learn from others and infer social norms, according to the Individual Behavior Change Model by Clayton and Brook and research from Katzev. The social norm we want to appeal to is: “if they’re doing it, I can do it.” Our goal is to model the behavior through the prompts that we want to see arise from the students.
Clayton, S. and A. Brook. 2005. Can psychology help save the world? A model for conservation psychology. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 5(1): 87-102.
Katzev, R. 1986. The impact of commitment in promoting consumer energy conservation. In E. Monnier et al. (Eds.), Consumer behavior and energy policy (pp. 280-294), Praeger, New York, NY.
Written Commitments
Based on the psychology research conducted by Katzev, our recommendation is that the university dining halls should work in tandem with the residential hall associations to distribute a written commitment or pledge to students. Katzev's study showed that written commitments are more successful than verbal commitments. By providing a written commitment the university will allow students to elect meatless dining individually. This process will hopefully unveil intrinsic values within the individual. After signing the commitment students should view the pledge as a form of accountability. If the written commitment and survey are not sent out at the same, the pledge should follow the survey. According to Katzev’s work, it is imperative that both of these strategies be implemented together. The more behavior change interventions used equates a higher likelihood of sustained behavior change.
Katzev, R. 1986. The impact of commitment in promoting consumer energy conservation. In E. Monnier et al. (Eds.), Consumer behavior and energy policy (pp. 280-294), Praeger, New York, NY.
Framing
Based on the sociological research done by Boer et al., we recommend emphasizing value-related aspects of meat-eating such as "food safety and authenticity, as well as care for animal welfare and nature," rather than making a connection between meat, carbon, and climate change in the prompts to appeal to an individual's intrinsic values. This approach avoids consumers viewing a meatless meal as "self-sacrificing." Through the surveys, the dining hall should frame some questions to gather data on how students feel about the value-related aspects of meat-eating. This data can then be used in the prompts and flyers to appeal to values associated with meat other than climate change.
Boer, J., Schosler, H., & Boersema, J. J. (3012). Climate change and meat eating: An inconvenient couple? Journal of Environmental Psychology, 33, 1-8.