An article by HAI Lab members in Ecological Economics

The April issue of the prestigious journal Ecological Economics (Journal Impact Factor 7.0) published an article, “Hard to digest investments: people oppose investment in both conventional and cultured meat producers,” written by two members of the HAI Laboratory (Humans & AI Laboratory; https://hai.ue.poznan.pl) – Dr. Pawel Niszczota and Jakub Blaszczynski (a graduate student at the Institute of International Economics and former chairman of the board of the HAI: Humans & AI SKN).

The research described in the article is inspired by the fact that we are standing at the threshold of mass production of lab-grown meat, which is, compared to traditional slaughter, a more environmentally sustainable and less harmful method of meat production for animals. The authors of the article examined how people evaluate investments in companies that produce traditional and lab-grown meat. Intuitively, both the consumption of laboratory meat and investment in its producers should be socially acceptable, or even desirable. However, the results showed that people show reluctance to invest in both traditional meat producers and, paradoxically, laboratory meat. This effect depends on concern for animal welfare and disgust with animal meat, highlighting the strong affective nature of such decisions. The results suggest that for many people, laboratory meat producers may be controversial investment targets.

The article is available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800923003579. The accepted for print version of the article is in open access, at: https://psyarxiv.com/2bes3/download?format=pdf

The article is based on the thesis of Mr. Jakub Blaszczynski (supervisor: Dr. Pawel Niszczota). The work on it was funded by grant 2018/31/D/HS4/01814 from the National Science Center (supervisor: Dr. Pawel Niszczota).