Deliberate ignorance—a barrier for information interventions targeting reduced meat consumption?

Abstract

Objective

Despite abundant information about negative consequences of consuming meat, consumption in many Western countries is many times higher than recommended. One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that people consciously decide to ignore such information—a phenomenon called deliberate ignorance. We investigated this potential barrier for information interventions aiming to reduce meat consumption.

Methods

In three studies, a total of 1133 participants had the opportunity to see 18 information chunks on negative consequences of meat consumption or to ignore part of the information. Deliberate ignorance was measured as the number of ignored information chunks. We assessed potential predictors and outcomes of deliberate ignorance. Interventions to reduce deliberate ignorance (i.e., self-affirmation, contemplation, and self-efficacy) were experimentally tested.

Results

The more information participants ignored, the less they changed their intention to reduce their meat consumption (r = −.124). This effect was partially explained by cognitive dissonance induced by the presented information. While neither self-affirmation nor contemplation exercises reduced deliberate ignorance, self-efficacy exercises did.

Conclusion

Deliberate ignorance is a potential barrier for information interventions aiming to reduce meat consumption and needs to be considered in future interventions and research. Self-efficacy exercises are a promising approach to reduce deliberate ignorance and should be further explored.

Keywords:

• Deliberate ignorance
• meat reduction
• information intervention
• self-efficacy

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Ralph Hertwig for his valuable feedback on the manuscript, to Nils Franzreb, Henriette Büsing, Ilona Neycheva, Daniel Pientka, and Louisa Winkler for their assistance in Studies 1 and 3, and to Anita Todd for editing the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Data availability statement

Research materials, data, and code that support the findings of all three studies are openly available on the Open Science Framework (OSF) and can be found here: https://osf.io/ghsx8/?view_only=c27e32fb58af499cbc704a2dbb7ea60f

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Mannheim’s Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS).