What to eat? Values and food choice

Aaron Meskin (Philosophy, Leeds)

Ethical values versus other values

“Producing it involved cruelty, but delicious…”

“It is harmful to the environment, but it’s great…”

“It’s unhealthy, but yummy…”

Two Hypotheses

1. Consumers’ food decisions (sometimes) don’t accord with their ethical values because they treat those values as isolatedfrom other food-related values.

2. Ethical values are not isolated from other food-related values.

ethicsother values

ethicsother values

Blade Runner 2049• Is it morally flawed?

• If it is morally flawed, does that make it aesthetically worse?

• If it is morally flawed, does that make it worse as a work of art?

Ikizikuri sushi• Is it morally flawed?

• If it is morally flawed, does that make it aesthetically worse?

• If it is morally flawed, does that make it worse food?

Empirical and philosophical approaches

• Do our ethical evaluations affect our aesthetic evaluations?

• Should our ethical evaluations affect our aesthetic evaluations?

Research

• An online study focusing on folk views of ethical effects on flavour, quality and nutrition.

• Laboratory studies exploring the effect of ethical information on food judgments.

Beth Armstrong (Sadler Seminar Research Fellow)

Project-related activities

• Unsuccessful bid to Leeds Social Science Impact Account for project-related work with Taylors of Harrogate

• Ongoing exploration of KTP bid with Taylors

• Project-related bid for interdisciplinary Leeds PhD

• Developing a project-related bid to Wellcome Trust

• Postdoc submitted project-related abstract to upcoming Psychology of Sustainable Consumption meeting in Philadelphia, PA.

• Upcoming project-related event at Be Curious Festival.

The Sadler Seminar Series

• Daily food choice is shaped by numerous values: aesthetic, ethical, religious, political, cognitive, and so forth.

• How do those values interact with one another? What are the psychological mechanisms by which these values play a role in food choice? Why do people find it so difficult to act in accordance with their value commitments regarding food, and what explains deviations from food values? How should we evaluate mismatches between food values and action, and which interventions motivate people to act in accordance with their food values? How can answers to these empirical questions shed light on normative issues about eating?

https://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/news/article/5008/sadler_seminar_-what_to_eat_values_and_food_choice

Previous and upcoming seminars

Semester 1

• Values and Flavour: Does Ethically Produced Food Taste Better?

• Values, Food, Avoidance

• Climate Change and Food Choice

Semester 2

• Rethinking Gluttony

• Ethics, Alcohol and Religion

• The Difficulty of Tasting