Meat consumption and commitments on meat policy: combining individual and public health

Although meat consumption plays a significant role for individual and public health, there is only little empirical research on the motives of meat consumption informed by health psychology and hardly any on socio-political commitments concerning general meat production taking on a public health perspective. To fill this gap, a questionnaire study was conducted to examine the links between both disciplines. Correlational and multiple regression analyses reveal that individual meat consumption is primarily based on self-centred judgments of control beliefs protecting ones health and of taste, whereas socio-political commitments are based on a mixture of self-centred judgments and animal ethics. Based on these results, it is concluded, that models on health behaviour should integrate the social perspective, and that in intervention programs issues of individual as well as public health should be given equal importance.