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Projeto de investigação
Appetite for change: encouraging and empowering consumers to shift to more plant-based healthy and sustainable diets.
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Green Light for Climate-friendly Food Transitions? Communicating Legal Innovation Increases Consumer Support for Meat Curtailment Policies
Publication . Graça, João; Cardoso, Sónia; Augusto, Fábio Rafael; Nunes, Nádia
In light of increasing calls for environmental policies that reduce meat consumption and promote more plant-based diets (i.e. Meat Curtailment Policies, MCPs), this study aimed to increase knowledge on how consumers may react to these policies. Participants (N = 784) were randomly presented with a small real news piece about an actual law approval referring to a MCP, or assigned to a no-information control condition. The study measured a set of ideological and consumption variables, and support for MCPs. Participants with increased pro-environmental ideology were more positive toward MCPs, whereas participants who endorsed human supremacy beliefs, and who were more attached to meat consumption, were less supportive of MCPs. Despite these associations, reading about the law approval increased participants’ support for MCPs irrespectively of individual differences in ideology and consumption. This suggests that communicating legal innovation on the topic may be used to increase support for policies that promote more plant-based diets.
Consumption orientations may support (or hinder) transitions to more plant-based diets
Publication . Graça, João; Truninger, Mónica; Junqueira, Luis; Schmidt, L.
There have been increasing calls for triggering and sustaining a large-scale transition toward healthier and more sustainable food systems. To help materialize this transition, the present work aims to inform efforts for developing, marketing and promoting plant-based meals and plant-forward lifestyles, following a consumption-focused approach. The findings (Nparticipants = 1600, Portugal; 52.6% female, Mage = 48.30) allowed to identify trends and differences on three sets of variables - (a) current eating habits (i.e., meat, fish, and plant-based meals), (b) consumer willingness to change (i.e., reduce meat consumption, follow a plant-based diet, maintain the status quo), and (c) enablers for eating plant-based meals more often (i.e., capability, opportunity, motivation) -, considering consumer orientations toward consumption in general, and food consumption in particular. Taken together, the results suggested that some consumption orientations were aligned with the transition to more plant-based diets (e.g., food orientation toward naturalness), others were open to - but not yet materialized in - the transition (e.g., general orientation toward consumption as exploration), and still others were in tension with the transition (e.g., food orientation toward pleasure). The discussion calls for developing and testing pathways to reduce meat consumption and increase plant-based eating which capture and build upon a range of consumption orientations, rather than against them.
Reducing meat consumption and following plant-based diets: Current evidence and future directions to inform integrated transitions
Publication . Graça, João; Godinho, Cristina A.; Truninger, Monica
Background: There is increasing consensus that transitioning towards reduced meat consumption and more
plant-based diets is a key feature to address important health and sustainability challenges. However, relevant
evidence that may inform these transitions remains fragmented with no overarching rationale or theoretical
framework, which limits the ability to design and deliver coordinated efforts to address these challenges.
Scope and approach: Eleven databases were systematically searched using sets of keywords referring meat curtailment,
meat substitution and plant-based diets, as well as consumer choice, appraisal or behavior (2602
articles selected for title and abstract screening; 161 full-texts assessed for eligibility; 110 articles selected for
extraction and coding). Barriers and enablers were identified and integrated into an overarching framework (i.e.,
COM-B system), which conceptualizes behavior as being influenced by three broad components: capability,
opportunity and motivation.
Key findings and conclusions: This review mapped potential barriers and enablers in terms of capability, opportunity,
and motivation to reduce meat consumption and follow more plant-based diets. These included lack of
information for consumers and difficulty to acquire new cooking skills (barrier, capability), changes in service
provision in collective meal contexts (enabler, opportunity), and positive taste expectations for plant-based
meals (enabler, motivation). Evidence on variables referring to the motivation domain is clearly increasing, but
there is a striking need for studies that include capability and opportunity variables as well. The results of this
review are relevant to a variety of fields and audiences interested in promoting sustainable living and health
improvements through dietary choice.
Opposition to Immigration and (Anti‐)Environmentalism: An Application and Extension of the Social Dominance‐Environmentalism Nexus with 21 Countries in Europe
Publication . Graça, João
The social dominance-environmentalism nexus proposes that orientations for
inequality and domination are expressed both in human-human and human-nature relations.
In two studies, the present work applies and extends this proposition to understand
endorsement of environmental values, concern with climate change, support for climate
policies, and responsibility for climate action. In study one, using a representative random
sample from Portugal (N=1270, 53.3% female; European Social Survey, ESS8), social
dominance orientation showed unique associations with concern with climate change.
Moreover, opposition to immigration (as expression of anti-egalitarianism in intergroup
relations) showed unique associations with all four measures of environmentalism. In study
two, multi-level analyses using representative random samples from 20 other countries in
Europe (N=38830, 51.5% female; ESS8) confirmed the associations between opposition to
immigration and environmentalism, controlling for a set of sociodemographic covariates,
political orientation, and nesting at the country level. However, there were differences in the
strength and direction of these associations based on country levels of societal development
(i.e., Human-Development-Index; HDI). These differences reinforce the notion that context
or situational variables may shape the links between diverse expressions of (anti
)egalitarianism and (anti-)environmentalism. Inputs for applied research on hierarchy
affirming tendencies toward others and the natural environment are proposed and discussed.
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Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
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Número da atribuição
SFRH/BPD/115110/2016