An economic model of the meat paradox

Nina Hestermann, Yves Le Yaouanq () and Nicolas Treich
Additional contact information
Nina Hestermann: University of St Andrews [Scotland]

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Many individuals have empathetic feelings towards animals but frequently consume meat. We investigate this "meat paradox" using insights from the literature on motivated reasoning in moral dilemmata. We develop a model where individuals form self-serving beliefs about the suffering of animals caused by meat consumption in order to alleviate the guilt associated with their dietary choices. The model predicts that the price of meat has a causal effect on individuals' beliefs: high prices foster realism by lowering the returns to self-deception, which magnify the price elasticity of meat consumption. The model also predicts a positive relationship between individuals' taste for meat and their propensity to engage in self-deception, a causal effect of aggregate consumption on individual beliefs, and the coexistence of equilibria of "collective realism" and "collective denial".

Keywords: Meat paradox; Self-deception; Price elasticity; Moral wiggle room (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-10
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03162442v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Published in European Economic Review, 2020, .129, ⟨10.1016/j.euroecorev.2020.103569⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-03162442v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: An economic model of the meat paradox (2020)
Working Paper: An economic model of the meat paradox (2020)
Working Paper: An Economic Model of the Meat Paradox (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03162442

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2020.103569

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().