Normative Social Influence on Meat Consumption

Abstract Studies from various disciplines show that including more meat-free dishes in our diets benefits our environment and our health while also promoting animal welfare. However, little is known about what encourages the adoption of more meat-free meal choices into our everyday diets. This paper focuses on the role of normative social influence on food choice as a potential answer to this question. In a real-world setting and based on the combination of a field and a survey experiment in seven German university dining halls, I analyze the impact of social norms on meat consumption in a single meal choice situation. I distinguish between descriptive and injunctive norms as well as between remote and direct norms. In a first step, descriptive and injunctive remote norm message interventions promoting a vegetarian diet were implemented. In a second step, the influence of direct social norms, i.e., the influence of vegetarian peers on non-vegetarians’ meal choice, was assessed. I find that neither type of remote eating norm influences food choice, while direct normative influence leads to convergence towards vegetarian meal choices in a university setting. I summarize the implications of these findings, discuss their limitations, and point to directions for future research.Zusammenfassung Studien unterschiedlicher Fachdisziplinen betonen, dass sich eine fleischreduzierte Ernährungsweise positiv auf Umwelt, Tierwohl und auf die menschliche Gesundheit auswirken kann. Wir wissen dennoch wenig darüber, welche Faktoren eine solche Ernährungsweise begünstigen. Dieser Beitrag untersucht den Einfluss sozialer Normen als mögliche Antwort auf diese Frage. Basierend auf einem Feldexperiment und einer Umfrage in sieben deutschen Hochschulmensen wird analysiert, wie sich Ernährungsnormen auf die Entscheidung für oder gegen ein fleischloses Gericht auswirken. Es wird dabei sowohl zwischen deskriptiven und präskriptiven als auch zwischen direkten und indirekten pro-vegetarischen Ernährungsnormen unterschieden. Im ersten Schritt werden pro-vegetarische Normen durch experimentelle Interventionen implementiert. Im zweiten Schritt wird der Einfluss von Vegetarierinnen und Vegetariern auf die Menüwahl nicht vegetarisch lebender Menschen analysiert. Während die experimentellen Interventionen keinen Einfluss auf die Menüwahl der Mensagäste haben, passen sich Nicht-Vegetarierinnen und -vegetariern im studentischen Umfeld bei der Menüwahl tendenziell den vegetarisch essenden Mitgliedern einer Tischgemeinschaft an. Die Ergebnisse, Einschränkungen sowie die Implikationen dieser Studie für weitere Forschung werden abschließend diskutiert.Contents 1 Introduction 2 (Eating) norms Descriptive and injunctive norms Contextual specificity and behavioral uncertainty Hypotheses 3 Research design 4 Part I: Remote vegetarian norms Measures and methods Results 5 Part II: Direct vegetarian norms Measures and methods Descriptive results Analysis of social influence 6 Limitations and prospects for future research 7 Conclusions and discussion Appendix Reference

Fleischkonsum und soziale Ungleichheit: Wie sozioökonomische Unterschiede unsere Ernährungsgewohnheiten beeinflussen können

The link between culture and social structure is a prominent theme in cultural sociology, and food consumption and taste are a less popular but no less interesting dimension of this debate. Large‑N studies show that there is a link between dietary patterns and social class background in general, and between meat consumption and socioeconomic position in particular. Albeit mixed evidence, it is suggested that in many Western countries, consumers in lower socioeconomic positions tend to eat more meat and purchase cheaper meat products than consumers in higher social class positions. There is a need to understand the mechanisms behind this link to design more effective policy measures and to address the dietary needs of different consumer groups. Maximum variation sampling was used to cover a wide range of meat consumption habits, and 46 individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews with consumers from urban areas in Germany were conducted. The goal was to inquire how financial and educational resources shape meat consumption patterns. Against the background of a meat-heavy culinary tradition, meat-reduced or meat-free diets require dietary changes, and consumers’ attitudes towards and capabilities for dietary change are strongly influenced by their socioeconomic position. These findings are discussed in the context of other studies and with reference to social-psychological literature on behavioral change.In der Kultursoziologie wird der Zusammenhang zwischen Kultur und Sozialstruktur häufig diskutiert. Auch die Frage von Ernährung und Geschmack spielt hierbei eine, wenn auch weniger prominente Rolle. Umfrage-Studien mit vielen Teilnehmenden zeigen, dass es eine Verbindung zwischen der Art der Ernährung und dem sozialen Hintergrund gibt, und dies gilt auch für den Fleischkonsum. Nicht ganz unumstritten, aber dafür populär ist die These, dass Konsument*innen mit weniger sozioökonomischen Ressourcen nicht nur mehr, sondern auch preiswerteres Fleisch essen als andere Konsument*innen – zumindest in Ländern mit einer westlich geprägten Ernährungskultur. Um einem hohen Fleischkonsum effektiv begegnen und Maßnahmen entwerfen zu können, die die unterschiedlichen Lebenssituationen und Bedarfe verschiedener Konsument*innen nicht aus dem Blick verlieren, sollten wir zunächst einmal verstehen, warum sich Ernährungsgewohnheiten so divers ausgestalten. Dieser Beitrag analysiert auf Basis von 46 qualitativen, semi-strukturierten Interviews mit Konsument*innen mit unterschiedlichen Fleischkonsum-Gewohnheiten aus städtischen Gebieten in Deutschland, wie finanzielle Ressourcen und formale Bildung diese Gewohnheiten beeinflussen und formen. In Esskulturen, die im Allgemeinen durch einen hohen Fleischkonsum geprägt sind, erfordert eine Reduktion des Fleischkonsums eine aktive Veränderung unseres Verhaltens. Doch aus verschiedenen Gründen fällt es nicht allen Konsument*innen gleichermaßen leicht, ihre Ernährungsgewohnheiten umzustellen – insbesondere ökonomische und kulturelle Ressourcen wirken hier förder- oder hinderlich. Der Artikel diskutiert diese These mit Rückbezug auf sozialpsychologische Studien zur Thematik, um unser Verständnis von Verhaltensänderungen und Ernährungsgewohnheiten zu erweitern.Introduction The link between (meat) consumption patterns and socioeconomic position Data and method Differences in food ideals? Meat consumption and dietary change Socio-psychological perspectives on dietary change Conclusion: Social class background, capacities for dietary change and meat consumption Notes Reference

Between the Hash Marks: The Absolute Power the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement Grants Its Commissioner

The National Football League has recently faced an onslaught of public criticism stemming from its handling of disciplinary matters over the last few years. This note engages in a comparative analysis of the disciplinary processes of the four major professional sports leagues, the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL), to determine why Commissioner Goodell’s disciplinary decisions have received such public criticism and have been challenged by the National Football League Players Association. While examining the cases of Tom Brady and Adrian Peterson, this note will address the question of whether Commissioner Goodell is acting outside the scope of his authority ordained by the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA), or if the language of the CBA, that grants Goodell such authority, is the source of the NFL’s flawed disciplinary process. In attempting to determine the source of the NFL’s flawed disciplinary process, Part I provides a brief history of the development of the four major leagues’ CBAs. Part II discusses the NFL CBA specifically, and the particular provisions that have caused issues in recent years. Part III examines how the NBA, MLB, and NHL, have deployed their CBAs in comparison to that of the NFL. Part IV proposes a change to the disciplinary process that limits the Commissioner’s power as the League’s sole disciplinarian when dealing with on-field player conduct or conduct deemed detrimental to the game of football. Such limits will provide players with a higher level of fundamental fairness in the appeals process

de Sitter Vacua, Renormalization and Locality

We analyze the renormalization properties of quantum field theories in de Sitter space and show that only two of the maximally invariant vacuum states of free fields lead to consistent perturbation expansions. One is the Euclidean vacuum, and the other can be viewed as an analytic continuation of Euclidean functional integrals on $RP^d$. The corresponding Lorentzian manifold is the future half of global de Sitter space with boundary conditions on fields at the origin of time. We argue that the perturbation series in this case has divergences at the origin, which render the future evolution of the system indeterminate without a better understanding of high energy physics.Comment: JHEP Latex, 13 pages, v2. references adde

The Changing Practice of Bankruptcy Law: An Analysis of How Bankruptcy Practice Has Changed in the Last Decade

The practice of bankruptcy law has changed drastically over the last decade. An attorney starting out in the field in 2009 faces different issue than one who began in 1999. However, it’s not just the issues that come up with clients that make the practice so different, but the law of bankruptcy itself has changed. The economic downturn of the last eighteen months has changed the way the public views bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005 and In re Bateman, a case decided in 2008, altered the landscape of bankruptcy practice forever. This article will walk through a decade of bankruptcy reform, from the points of view of an attorney practicing in 1999 and one practicing in 2009. The purpose of this article is to provide a practical review of the new bankruptcy laws and their impact on how attorneys should practice in today’s bankruptcy world. Through a discussion of the economic climate, legal reform, and the social reform surrounding bankruptcy, we hope to educate today’s attorneys not only of the present state of the law, but the future of bankruptcy practice as well

On Thermalization in de Sitter Space

We discuss thermalization in de Sitter space and argue, from two different points of view, that the typical time needed for thermalization is of order $R^{3}/l_{pl}^{2}$, where $R$ is the radius of the de Sitter space in question. This time scale gives plenty of room for non-thermal deviations to survive during long periods of inflation. We also speculate in more general terms on the meaning of the time scale for finite quantum systems inside isolated boxes, and comment on the relation to the Poincar\'{e} recurrence time.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, latex, references added. Improved discussion in section 3 adde