Politics may reach all the way to the taste buds. In two US consumer studies, Republicans expected meat to taste better and ate it more often, while Democrats gave higher taste ratings to plant protein foods and ate them more often.
The research was done by Jonathan C. Kershaw, Alissa A. Nolden, Adam R. Brown, Tara Hites and Laura K. Jefferies, and appeared in the December 2023 issue of Food Quality and Preference as “Tastiness of meat and plant protein foods are associated with political partisanship and may be influenced by partisan messaging.”
A survey and a taste test
The first study was an online survey experiment with 930 American adults recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Partway through, the team added a screen for Republicans to offset an overrepresentation of Democrats. Participants rated how tasty they expected meat and plant protein foods to be and how likely they were to buy and eat them.
The second study moved to a central location taste test, where participants actually ate meatballs, some made from plants and some from beef and pork.
Both studies also tested a new persuasion strategy: telling participants that leaders of their own party endorsed eating plant-based foods.
The endorsement backfired on meat
The partisan gaps were consistent. Democrats reported higher expected taste, purchase intention, consumption intention and eating frequency for plant protein foods. Republicans reported higher expected meat tastiness, meat consumption intention and meat consumption frequency.
The endorsements did little to make plant-based foods seem or taste better. One effect did appear: when party leaders who matched a participant’s affiliation endorsed plant-based eating, the participant liked the taste of the beef and pork meatball less.
The authors also found that moral satisfaction from eating, attachment to meat and perceived social norms differed by party, and these factors were linked to how tasty people expected or found both kinds of food. They argue that taking political identity into account could help target campaigns promoting plant-based eating.
Study Details:
- Title: Tastiness of meat and plant protein foods are associated with political partisanship and may be influenced by partisan messaging
- Authors: Jonathan C. Kershaw, Alissa A. Nolden, Adam R. Brown, Tara Hites, Laura K. Jefferies
- Journal: Food Quality and Preference
- Publication Date: December 2023
- DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2023.105039