Seminar (Dept. of Marketing)

Title: Why Do Consumers Resist Lab-Grown Meat? A Life-Creation Perception Theory

Speaker: Qihui Chen（the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology）

Time: 10:00-11:30 am, April 24th (Wednesday), 2024

Venue: Room 712, Mingde Business Building

Language: English

Abstract：

Lab-grown meat is produced using cellular biotechnology and has been proposed as a promising solution to the environmental and food security issues associated with meat consumption. However, evidence from both scholarly research and the business sector seems to suggest that consumers are unwilling to incorporate lab-grown meat into their diets. This research investigates why consumers react to lab-grown meat particularly negatively and proposes a novel life-creation perception theory as a psychological mechanism. Eight studies demonstrate that consumers have more negative attitudes toward lab-grown meat than lab-grown dairy products because they associate lab-grown meat with artificially creating life and thereby violating the laws of nature to a greater degree. In addition, theory-based interventions are shown to increase consumer acceptance of lab-grown meat by disassociating lab-grown meat from creating life. Combining biological and psychological perspectives, this research provides a systematic theoretical understanding of consumer resistance to lab-grown meat and suggests important directions for future consumer research on food technology and environmental issues.

Short biography：

Qihui Chen is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, HKUST Business School. She received her PhD degree in marketing from University of Maryland, College Park. Her research concerns two streams. Her first stream of research examines the role of status pursuits in consumption. Her second stream of research examines consumer reactions to revolutionary innovations in the field of sustainability, such as lab-grown meat and other types of novel food. Her research has been published in top tier marketing journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing. She regularly presents her work at international academic marketing conferences, such as ACR and SCP conferences.