‘Pictures of cute animals can put women off eating meat’

“CUTE pictures” of animals put women off eating meat but men do not care, a study has found.

Women who were presented with images of infant animals saw their appetite reduce significantly more than was the case with men.

Dr Jared Piazza and Dr Neil Mclatchie, psychologists of Lancaster University, worked with Cecilie Olesen of University College London, where they exposed men and women to images of calves, “joey” kangaroos, piglets and lambs and tested whether it affected their desire for meat.

The researchers first presented participants with an image of a cooked meat dish paired with an image from either a familiar animal (calf or bull) or exotic animal (infant or adult kangaroo).

The participants were told the meat came from the animal depicted.

“We found that men and women differed in how appetising they considered the meat dishes when the meat was paired with a baby animal image, with women’s appetite for meat was much lower than men’s appetite, regardless of whether the meat was from a familiar or exotic source,” Dr Piazza said.

The study found that both men and women found baby farmed animals “cute and vulnerable” and experienced feelings of tenderness and warmth.

However, despite this men experienced less reduction in their appetite for meat as a result.

“Feeling tenderness towards baby animals appears to be an oppositional force on appetite for meat for many people, especially women,” Dr Piazza added. He added that this could be

‘Women’s appetite for meat was much lower than men’s, regardless of whether the meat was familiar or exotic’

because women still often assume the role of care givers and have a “greater emotional attunement towards babies”.

In contrast, he said meat was associated with masculinity and “images of tough men, along with prehistoric ideas of the male as hunter”.

He added that animal advocacy groups would be wise to focus on images of cute baby animals in their publicity, particularly when focused on young women.