| Peer-Reviewed

The Role of State and Trait Emotional Empathy Toward Animals in the Associations of Dissociation and Meat Consumption

Received: 11 October 2021     Accepted: 28 October 2021     Published: 17 November 2021
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

Many people enjoy eating meat but dislike the harming of animals that it entails. Dissociating meat from its animal origins has been identified as a powerful way to avoid cognitive dissonance resulting from this ‘meat paradox’. Extending previous research, this study examined the effect of dissociation on meat consumption and elucidate the role of state and trait emotional empathy toward animals in the associations of dissociation and meat consumption. Using a between-subjects design, participants were randomly allocated to dissociation-blocking condition or dissociation condition and completed measures of trait emotional empathy, state emotional empathy and positivity toward meat consuming. Results showed that dissociation-blocking was associated with reduced positivity to meat consuming. State emotional empathy mediated the association between dissociation and meat consumption and trait emotional empathy moderated the direct effect of dissociation on meat consumption, exactly, among participants who scored lower in trait emotional empathy, the effect of dissociation on meat consumption was significant, while among those who scored high in trait emotional empathy, the effect of dissociation on meat consumption was insignificant. To conclude, the present study demonstrated the effect of dissociation on meat consumption and further revealed the mediation effect of state emotional empathy and the moderation effect of trait emotional empathy in the associations between dissociation and meat consumption, which provided a unique insight into the relationship between dissociation and meat consumption.

Published in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (Volume 10, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.pbs.20211006.13
Page(s) 209-215
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Dissociation, Emotional Empathy, Meat Consumption

References
[1] Batson, C. D., Duncan, B. D., Ackerman, P., Buckley, T., & Birch, K. (1981). Is Empathic Emotion a Source of Altruistic Motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40 (2), 290-302. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.40.2.290.
[2] Benningstad, N. C. G., & Kunst, J. R. (2020). Dissociating Meat from its Animal Origins: A Systematic Literature Review. Appetite, 147. doi: 10.1016/J.APPET.2019.104554.
[3] Buchanan, T., & Smith, J. L. (1999). Using the Internet for psychological research: Personality testing on the World Wide Web. British Journal of Psychology, 90 (1), 125-144.
[4] Cameron, C. D., Spring, V. L., & Todd, A. R. (2017). The empathy impulse: A multinomial model of intentional and unintentional empathy for pain. Emotion, 17 (3), 395-411. doi: 10.1037/EMO0000266.
[5] Corp, I. (2012). IBM SPSS statistics for windows, version 24.0.
[6] Davis, M. H. (1983). The effects of dispositional empathy on emotional reactions and helping: A multidimensional approach. journal of personality, 51 (2), 167-184. doi: 10.1111/J.1467-6494.1983.TB00860.X.
[7] Earle, M., Hodson, G., Dhont, K., & MacInnis, C. C. (2019). Eating with our eyes (closed): Effects of visually associating animals with meat on antivegan/vegetarian attitudes and meat consumption willingness. group processes & intergroup relations, 22 (6), 818-835. doi: 10.1177/1368430219861848.
[8] Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Murphy, B., Karbon, M., Maszk, P., Smith, M.,... Suh, K. (1994). The Relations of Emotionality and Regulation to Dispositional and Situational Empathy-Related Responding. journal of personality and social psychology, 66 (4), 776-797. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.66.4.776.
[9] Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A.-G., & Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. behavior research methods, 39 (2), 175-191. doi: 10.3758/BF03193146.
[10] Graaff, J. V. d., Meeus, W., Wied, M. d., Boxtel, A. v., Lier, P. A. C. v., Koot, H. M., & Branje, S. J. T. (2016). Motor, affective and cognitive empathy in adolescence: Interrelations between facial electromyography and self-reported trait and state measures. cognition & emotion, 30 (4), 745-761. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2015.1027665.
[11] Graça, J., Calheiros, M. M., & Oliveira, A. (2014). Moral Disengagement in Harmful but Cherished Food Practices? An Exploration into the Case of Meat. Journal of Agricultural & Environmental ethics, 27 (5), 749-765. doi: 10.1007/S10806-014-9488-9.
[12] Graça, J., Calheiros, M. M., Oliveira, A., & Milfont, T. L. (2018). Why are women less likely to support animal exploitation than men? The mediating roles of social dominance orientation and empathy. personality and individual differences, 129, 66-69. doi: 10.1016/J.PAID.2018.03.007.
[13] Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach.
[14] Hills, A. M. (1995). Empathy and Belief in the Mental Experience of Animals. anthrozoos, 8 (3), 132-142. doi: 10.2752/089279395787156347.
[15] Hopwood, C. J., & Bleidorn, W. (2019). Psychological profiles of people who justify eating meat as natural, necessary, normal, or nice. food quality and preference, 75, 10-14. doi: 10.1016/J.FOODQUAL.2019.02.004.
[16] Jenni, K. (2016). Empathy and Moral Laziness. animal studies journal, 5 (2), 21-51.
[17] Komorosky, D., & O’Neal, K. K. (2015). The development of empathy and prosocial behavior through humane education, restorative justice, and animal-assisted programs. contemporary justice review, 18 (4), 395-406. doi: 10.1080/10282580.2015.1093684.
[18] Kunst, J. R., & Hohle, S. M. (2016). Meat eaters by dissociation: How we present, prepare and talk about meat increases willingness to eat meat by reducing empathy and disgust. appetite, 105, 758-774. doi: 10.1016/J.APPET.2016.07.009.
[19] Leroy, F., & Praet, I. (2015). Meat traditions. The co-evolution of humans and meat. appetite, 90, 200-211. doi: 10.1016/J.APPET.2015.03.014.
[20] Loughnan, S., Haslam, N., & Bastian, B. (2010). The role of meat consumption in the denial of moral status and mind to meat animals. Appetite, 55 (1), 156-159. doi: 10.1016/J.APPET.2010.05.043.
[21] McLellan, T., Johnston, L., Dalrymple-Alford, J., & Porter, R. (2010). Sensitivity to genuine versus posed emotion specified in facial displays. cognition & emotion, 24 (8), 1277-1292. doi: 10.1080/02699930903306181.
[22] Paul, E. S. (2000). Empathy with Animals and with Humans: Are They Linked? anthrozoos, 13 (4), 194-202. doi: 10.2752/089279300786999699.
[23] Piazza, J., Ruby, M. B., Loughnan, S., Luong, M., Kulik, J., Watkins, H. M., & Seigerman, M. (2015). Rationalizing meat consumption. The 4Ns. appetite, 91, 114-128. doi: 10.1016/J.APPET.2015.04.011.
[24] Rothgerber, H., & Mican, F. (2014). Childhood pet ownership, attachment to pets, and subsequent meat avoidance. The mediating role of empathy toward animals. Appetite, 79, 11-17. doi: 10.1016/J.APPET.2014.03.032.
[25] Taylor, N., & Signal, T. (2005). Empathy and attitudes to animals. anthrozoos, 18 (1), 18-27. doi: 10.2752/089279305785594342.
[26] United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. (2013). FAOSTAT. Retrieved March 08, 2013, from http://faostat.fao.org/site/569/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=569#ancor.
[27] Westbury, R., & Neumann, D. L. (2008). Empathy-related responses to moving film stimuli depicting human and non-human animal targets in negative circumstances. biological psychology, 78 (1), 66-74. doi: 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCHO.2007.12.009.
[28] Young, A., Khalil, K. A., & Wharton, J. (2018). Empathy for Animals: A Review of the Existing Literature. curator the museum journal, 61 (2), 327-343. doi: 10.1111/CURA.12257.
[29] Zhao, X., Lynch, J. J. G., & Chen, Q. (2010). Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and Truths about Mediation Analysis. Journal of Consumer Research, 37 (2), 197-206. doi: 10.1086/651257.
[30] Zickfeld, J. H., Kunst, J. R., & Hohle, S. M. (2018). Too sweet to eat: Exploring the effects of cuteness on meat consumption. Appetite, 120, 181-195. doi: 10.1016/J.APPET.2017.08.038.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Kaili Zhao, Qianxia Jiang, Xianyou He. (2021). The Role of State and Trait Emotional Empathy Toward Animals in the Associations of Dissociation and Meat Consumption. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 10(6), 209-215. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20211006.13

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Kaili Zhao; Qianxia Jiang; Xianyou He. The Role of State and Trait Emotional Empathy Toward Animals in the Associations of Dissociation and Meat Consumption. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 2021, 10(6), 209-215. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20211006.13

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Kaili Zhao, Qianxia Jiang, Xianyou He. The Role of State and Trait Emotional Empathy Toward Animals in the Associations of Dissociation and Meat Consumption. Psychol Behav Sci. 2021;10(6):209-215. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20211006.13

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.pbs.20211006.13,
      author = {Kaili Zhao and Qianxia Jiang and Xianyou He},
      title = {The Role of State and Trait Emotional Empathy Toward Animals in the Associations of Dissociation and Meat Consumption},
      journal = {Psychology and Behavioral Sciences},
      volume = {10},
      number = {6},
      pages = {209-215},
      doi = {10.11648/j.pbs.20211006.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20211006.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.pbs.20211006.13},
      abstract = {Many people enjoy eating meat but dislike the harming of animals that it entails. Dissociating meat from its animal origins has been identified as a powerful way to avoid cognitive dissonance resulting from this ‘meat paradox’. Extending previous research, this study examined the effect of dissociation on meat consumption and elucidate the role of state and trait emotional empathy toward animals in the associations of dissociation and meat consumption. Using a between-subjects design, participants were randomly allocated to dissociation-blocking condition or dissociation condition and completed measures of trait emotional empathy, state emotional empathy and positivity toward meat consuming. Results showed that dissociation-blocking was associated with reduced positivity to meat consuming. State emotional empathy mediated the association between dissociation and meat consumption and trait emotional empathy moderated the direct effect of dissociation on meat consumption, exactly, among participants who scored lower in trait emotional empathy, the effect of dissociation on meat consumption was significant, while among those who scored high in trait emotional empathy, the effect of dissociation on meat consumption was insignificant. To conclude, the present study demonstrated the effect of dissociation on meat consumption and further revealed the mediation effect of state emotional empathy and the moderation effect of trait emotional empathy in the associations between dissociation and meat consumption, which provided a unique insight into the relationship between dissociation and meat consumption.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - The Role of State and Trait Emotional Empathy Toward Animals in the Associations of Dissociation and Meat Consumption
    AU  - Kaili Zhao
    AU  - Qianxia Jiang
    AU  - Xianyou He
    Y1  - 2021/11/17
    PY  - 2021
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20211006.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.pbs.20211006.13
    T2  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
    JF  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
    JO  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
    SP  - 209
    EP  - 215
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7845
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20211006.13
    AB  - Many people enjoy eating meat but dislike the harming of animals that it entails. Dissociating meat from its animal origins has been identified as a powerful way to avoid cognitive dissonance resulting from this ‘meat paradox’. Extending previous research, this study examined the effect of dissociation on meat consumption and elucidate the role of state and trait emotional empathy toward animals in the associations of dissociation and meat consumption. Using a between-subjects design, participants were randomly allocated to dissociation-blocking condition or dissociation condition and completed measures of trait emotional empathy, state emotional empathy and positivity toward meat consuming. Results showed that dissociation-blocking was associated with reduced positivity to meat consuming. State emotional empathy mediated the association between dissociation and meat consumption and trait emotional empathy moderated the direct effect of dissociation on meat consumption, exactly, among participants who scored lower in trait emotional empathy, the effect of dissociation on meat consumption was significant, while among those who scored high in trait emotional empathy, the effect of dissociation on meat consumption was insignificant. To conclude, the present study demonstrated the effect of dissociation on meat consumption and further revealed the mediation effect of state emotional empathy and the moderation effect of trait emotional empathy in the associations between dissociation and meat consumption, which provided a unique insight into the relationship between dissociation and meat consumption.
    VL  - 10
    IS  - 6
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

  • Department of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

  • Department of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

  • Sections