In recent years, edible insects, lab-grown meat, and vertically farmed produce have been praised as potential sustainable food alternatives to the increasingly unsustainable Western diet. Although these sustainable food alternatives offer considerable benefits, consumers typically reject them without much consideration. When prompted to explain their rejection, consumers often report specific concerns regarding these foods. Edible insects, for instance, are argued to carry “diseases,” lab-grown meat is seen as “unhealthy,” and vertically farmed produce is perceived to be “less natural.” Addressing these self-reported concerns has, however, proven insufficient in fully overcoming consumers’ rejection.

The results of the three empirical studies presented in this manuscript offer a new explanation as to why. Specifically, we argue that consumers’ self-reported concerns regarding sustainable food alternatives may not per se convey the root cause of their rejection. Instead, we argue that people may also report such concerns as the result of an underlying problem: sustainable food alternatives may elicit disgust because they typically deviate from what consumers have internalized to be normal food, causing consumers to intuitively reject them. Importantly, in an attempt to appear rational, disgusted consumers may consequently rationalize their intuitive rejection with seemingly reasonable concerns, such as “insects carry diseases.”

Rather than exclusively addressing consumers' self-reported concerns, our results suggest that marketers seeking to promote sustainable food alternatives should consider a subtle, less mentioned cause of consumers' rejection: the perception that these foods deviate from people's internalized norms.

近年来，食用昆虫、实验室培育的肉类和垂直养殖的产品被称赞为替代日益不可持续的西方饮食的潜在可持续食品。尽管这些可持续的食品替代品提供了相当大的好处，但消费者通常会不加考虑地拒绝它们。当被提示解释他们的拒绝时，消费者通常会报告对这些食物的具体担忧。例如，食用昆虫被认为携带“疾病”，实验室培育的肉类被视为“不健康”，垂直养殖的产品被认为“不太自然”。然而，事实证明，解决这些自我报告的担忧不足以完全克服消费者的拒绝。

本手稿中提出的三项实证研究的结果为解释原因提供了新的解释。具体而言，我们认为消费者自我报告的对可持续食品替代品的担忧本身可能无法传达他们拒绝的根本原因。相反，我们认为人们也可能将此类担忧报告为潜在问题的结果：可持续食品替代品可能会引起厌恶，因为它们通常偏离消费者已内化为正常食品的东西，导致消费者直觉地拒绝它们。重要的是，为了表现出理性，反感的消费者可能会因此将他们直觉上的拒绝合理化为看似合理的担忧，例如“昆虫携带疾病”。

我们的结果不是专门解决消费者自我报告的担忧，我们的结果表明，寻求推广可持续食品替代品的营销人员应该考虑消费者拒绝的一个微妙的、较少提及的原因：认为这些食品偏离了人们的内在规范。