Ge, J. orcid.org/0000-0001-6491-3851, Scalco, A. and Craig, T. (2022) Social Influence and Meat-Eating Behaviour. Sustainability, 14 (13). 7935. ISSN 2071-1050
Abstract
In recent years, interest in non-meat diets has been growing at an exponential rate in many countries. There is a wide consensus now that increased meat consumption is linked to higher health risks and environmental impact. Yet humans are social animals. Even the very personal decision of whether to eat meat or not is influenced by others around them. Using data from the British Social Attitude Survey, we develop an agent-based model to study the effect of social influence on the spread of meat-eating behaviour in the British population. We find that social influence is crucial in determining the spread of different meat-eating behaviours. According to the model, in order to bring about large-scale changes in meat-eating behaviours at the national level, people need to (1) have a strong openness to influences from others who have different meat-eating behaviour and (2) have a weak tendency to reinforce their current meat-eating behaviour after observing others in their own social group sharing the same behaviour.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). |
Keywords: | meat-eating behaviour; vegetarianism; social influence; social interaction; agent-based modelling |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Centre for Spatial Analysis & Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 24 Oct 2024 15:35 |
Last Modified: | 24 Oct 2024 15:35 |
Published Version: | https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7935 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/su14137935 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:218824 |