Keeping a distance from food animals helps alleviate moral conflicts associated with meat consumption. Prior research on the ‘meat paradox’ has shown that physical distance from animals reduces negative emotional responses when consuming meat. However, even with physical distance, the presence of animals in meat advertisements and packaging can establish psychological contact. The impact of psychological distance on meat consumption and purchase inclinations has not been well explored. Through four experiments, we discovered that animal anthropomorphism psychologically brings consumers closer to food animals, resulting in reduced intentions to consume and purchase meat. Anthropomorphized animal images notably reduced social psychological distance for consumers with moderate to high (vs. lower) levels of anthropomorphic tendencies. Furthermore, the effect of anthropomorphism was influenced by moral self-efficacy. Specifically, when social psychological distance was reduced, consumers with higher (vs. lower) moral self-efficacy exhibited a significant decrease in their willingness to consume and purchase meat. These findings expand our understanding of the role of anthropomorphism in meat marketing, its limitations, and offer insights for sales strategies. Additionally, the research could inform public health policies on meat consumption, addressing environmental and ethical concerns tied to meat production amid growing worries about animal welfare.

中文翻译：

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过于拟人化而无法保持距离：社会心理距离对肉类偏好的作用

与食用动物保持距离有助于缓解与肉类消费相关的道德冲突。此前对“肉类悖论”的研究表明，与动物保持身体距离可以减少吃肉时的负面情绪反应。然而，即使有物理距离，动物在肉类广告和包装中的存在也可以建立心理联系。心理距离对肉类消费和购买倾向的影响尚未得到很好的探讨。通过四项实验，我们发现动物拟人化在心理上使消费者更接近食用动物，从而降低了消费和购买肉类的意愿。拟人化的动物图像显着缩短了具有中度至高度（相对于较低）拟人化倾向的消费者的社会心理距离。此外，拟人化的效果还受到道德自我效能感的影响。具体来说，当社会心理距离缩短时，道德自我效能感较高（相对于较低）的消费者消费和购买肉类的意愿显着下降。这些发现扩展了我们对拟人化在肉类营销中的作用及其局限性的理解，并为销售策略提供了见解。此外，该研究还可以为有关肉类消费的公共卫生政策提供信息，在人们对动物福利日益担忧的情况下解决与肉类生产相关的环境和道德问题。