Usage and Attitude (U&A) surveys help to understand eating behaviors but can overlook implicit attitudes, sometimes socially stigmatized. As a result, understanding consumers’ views on meat and Plant-Based Meat Alternatives (PBMAs) cannot simply be reduced to asking them directly.
To go beyond these limitations, Prof. Dr GĂ©raldine Coppin co-conducted a scientific study published in Food Quality and Preference . The study combined a traditional questionnaire with an Implicit Association Test (IAT), specifically designed to measure implicit preferences for meat and PBMAs, among 170 French-speaking consumers.
This innovative approach allowed the researchers to segment consumers according to both their explicit and implicit attitudes. Several subgroups emerged. While some displayed consistent explicit and implicit attitudes, one subgroup – representing 21% of respondents – proved particularly interesting: these individuals rejected meat in their declared responses but nevertheless showed an implicit preference for it.
This research highlights the value of combining explicit and implicit measures to better understand barriers to adopting plant-based alternatives. The chosen approach captures often hidden dimensions of food attitudes and paves the way for more targeted strategies to support the transition toward plant-based alternatives to meat.
