End-of-year traditions and festivities, such as Christmas, help normalize meat consumption among children, indicates a scientific article published this month by researchers at the University of Exeter, England.
According to the study, children aged 4 to 11 trade their concerns about animals for cultural practices and consider eating meat at tradition-related events more acceptable. Traditions are then added to the daily consumption of meat to naturalize this habit.
Adults already have less conflict when it comes to eating animals because they view them as less worthy.
However, for them, the animals whose meat is usually served in these traditions acquire a higher status. The article assumes that, as meat consumption has become daily, traditions require a particular type of meat, which gives these animals qualities that others do not have.
Normally, children tend to place more value on animals than adults, as shown in a 2022 article, which found that the categorization of animals into those that are for food and those that are pets tends to be weaker among children.
According to the first author of the paper published this month in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, Alexander Carter, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at the University of Exeter, the importance children place on animals may be linked to early childhood education linked to principles such as empathy, caring and kindness.
The research involved two experiments. In the first, scientists surveyed 429 participants aged 8 to 85 and showed them an image of an unfamiliar bird named a harven, as well as an image of a man described as eating the bird. Next, the researchers presented a scenario in which harven became a food item during a special cultural celebration.
The objective was to compare the children’s evaluation with that of adults. In the survey, adolescents and adults found meat consumption more acceptable than children.
However, in the case of an important cultural event, children’s evaluations changed, while those of adolescents and adults did not show significant differences.
Once it was possible to verify that children weighed moral principles and social conventions, the authors sought to understand whether the same process occurred with younger children.
In the second experiment, the same story was presented to 213 children aged 4 to 7 years old. The researchers found that younger people also adapted their evaluations based on tradition.
“We think this is good evidence demonstrating how these socialization processes are happening at a younger age than people might expect,” Carter says.
Professor Wanderlei Abadio de Oliveira, from the Postgraduate Psychology Program at PUC-Campinas, adds that this indicates cognitive dissonance, that is, when mental discomfort arises as a result of the conflict between personal beliefs and social habits to which one must adapt.
“We realized that cognitive selection is also used for other events. We moved away from this seemingly banal discussion about eating or not eating meat to also apply it to other areas of life,” reflects Oliveira.
On the other hand, in a more informed culture that discusses more alternatives such as veganism and vegetarianism, there is more possibility that at another stage of life the individual will choose not to eat meat, taking into account animal welfare.
Guilt also results from social problems, says professor
Professor Antonio Carlos Barbosa da Silva, from the Department of Social Psychology at Unesp (Universidade Estadual Paulista), points out, however, that even the conflict over whether or not to eat meat is also a historical construction. “Researchers haven’t thought about it,” he says.
Children who are part of societies that hunt their own food, participate in production and consider it part of their culture tend not to feel this conflict, Silva says.
Globalization and industrialization have led to a shift away from food and food culture, which leads to guilt when eating meat, the professor explains. And the study shows that by inserting food into a tradition, children are able to understand meat consumption.
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