title: Coping with unpleasant knowledge: Meat eating among students of environmental studies.
abstract: This paper presents qualitative research on the attitudes and behaviors of environmental studies graduate students toward meat eating, and their strategies for coping with the cognitive dissonance induced by the issues related to meat eating and production. The research draws on theoretical and empirical research on the issue of meat eating and the psychological processes involved in it, and by analyzing in-depth interviews it reveals that these students exhibit partially different coping strategies than what studies on general population show, as a result of their awareness and their social circle. The results show that even though these people do not usually regard meat eating as wrong or undesirable in principle, they are well aware of the ethical and environmental issues related to it. In their attitudes and behavior the students are significantly influenced by their friends and fellow students amongst whom they perceive avoiding meat as a social norm. A generalization of the results suggests that the psychological dynamics of meat eating among environmentally informed and engaged people in general may be different than in general population. Further research into this group of people is proposed, most importantly from a socio-cultural point of view.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Masaryk University, Joštova 10, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic. Electronic address: sedova.iveta@seznam.cz.
authors.forename: Iveta
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Šedová
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Masaryk University, Joštova 10, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic. Electronic address: lubos.slovak@mail.muni.cz.
authors.forename: Ľuboš
authors.initials: Ľ
authors.lastname: Slovák
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Masaryk University, Joštova 10, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic. Electronic address: ivanice@mail.muni.cz.
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ježková
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D003073:Cognitive Dissonance; D004500:Education, Graduate; D004777:Environment; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000941:ethics / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000941:ethics / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat; D000067074:Peer Influence; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Cognitive dissonance; Coping strategy; Environmental studies students; Meat; Meat eating