Getting the message across: flexitarians as messengers for meat reduction

Despite a consensus among climate scientists on the impact of meat consumption on climate change, this has not yet had a significant impact on dietary attitudes and behavior in the broader public. Recent efforts to address this have focused on reduction of meat consumption (e.g., flexitarianism, reducetarianism) rather than elimination of meat consumption. This reduction-rather-than-elimination approach may have positive effects on how far messages about meat consumption will spread in a social network, reaching more people with therefore a potentially greater impact. To better understand the potential impact of such message, three studies compared reduction versus vegetarian messages that were provided by a person who reduces their meat consumption versus a vegetarian. Overall, reduction focused messages and messengers result in greater acceptance of the message and higher willingness to share the message with others compared to a strictly vegetarian message/messenger.