As the practice of eating animals as meat faces increased scrutiny for its ethical, health, and environmental implications, a subfield devoted to its psychology has begun to flourish. Researchers have been especially interested in understanding how individuals morally care for animals and wish them no harm yet simultaneously eat them as food. Merging theories of cognitive dissonance, moral disengagement, and neutralization, the current review aims to provide a framework of meat‐related cognitive dissonance (MRCD) that explains this belief–behavior inconsistency. First, we evaluate the existing research on mechanisms that (a) prevent MRCD from occurring and (b) reduce MRCD once it has occurred. Second, we highlight promising avenues for further research on MRCD. The purpose of this review, ultimately, is to synthesize findings from this emerging area of research and to highlight its exciting future directions for the field of social psychology.

中文翻译：

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肉类相关的认知失调：食用动物的社会心理

随着人们越来越多地考虑以肉食动物的行为来应对动物的道德，健康和环境问题，致力于心理学的子领域开始蓬勃发展。研究人员对了解个人在道德上如何照料动物并希望它们没有危害但同时将其作为食物食用特别感兴趣。融合认知失调，道德丧失和中立的理论，当前的综述旨在提供与肉相关的认知失调（MRCD）的框架这解释了这种信念-行为不一致。首先，我们评估了有关（a）防止MRCD发生和（b）一旦发生MRCD减少机理的现有研究。其次，我们强调了对MRCD进行进一步研究的有前途的途径。这篇综述的最终目的是综合从这一新兴研究领域中得出的结论，并强调其在社会心理学领域令人兴奋的未来方向。