Exploring key barriers to consumer adoption of meat analogues : meat attachment and cultural identity

The industrial meat production system has large scale environmental impacts from depleting natural resources such as water and land and emitting dangerous greenhouse gases, while negatively affecting human health. The inefficiencies of converting plant matter into animal meat is particularly pronounced for beef. Despite these effects, demand is on the rise across the world. Over the past five years, new companies have produced sophisticated meat analogues in the form of plant-based and cultured proteins with a value proposition of keeping meat's taste and cost while decreasing environmental impact. Barriers in pricing, technology, and distribution are currently top of mind for businesses competing in this new industry. Through a literature review, this paper investigates another crucial barrier to consumer adoption in psychological meat attachment and cultural food identity. I then propose an experimental study to test the hypothesis that a matched identity frame (i.e. masculine framing) could induce higher willingness to substitute a plant-based meat option for a conventional meat option of a given dish.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Integrated Design and Management Program

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Ortiz-Luis, Lara (Larisse-Ann Yee)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jason Jay.

• Integrated Design and Management Program.
• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132904

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/132904