Developing a Messaging Strategy to End Animal Farming Using Focus Groups (Pax Fauna)

##narratives

In this study, we designed and tested new messages for animal advocates based on findings from previous research. In particular, our goal was to develop new counter-narratives that have the potential to displace the dominant narratives around farming animals, which justify it.

These are our top recommendations:

The evolving together frame and the evolution metaphor are a great starting place for persuasive messages, but specific policy proposals still face many hurdles to public acceptance, especially concerning the affordability of animal-free food.
The meat-eating messenger: For messages involving emotion, the most important quality for messengers is not authority but relatability and trustworthiness. The most relatable and trustworthy messengers we tested were ordinary Americans who explicitly mentioned that they still eat meat, especially from demographics not usually associated with veganism (men, people of color, working-class people, and older people).
Advocates must strike a balance when including emotional appeals in their messages. Many people say they prefer messages focused on facts, especially when citations are provided. While creating an emotional connection with the issue is often a necessary first step, messages with an elevated emotional tone risk being dismissed as hysterical or over-the-top. Advocates can use toned-down emotional appeals and let images do the heavy emotional lifting. We can also explicitly make the case that an emotional response to animal abuse is sane and healthy (though still without the use of emotionally elevated language).
Tell stories of ordinary meat-eaters experiencing a shift in perspective away from the consumer frame and embracing the goals of the animal movement.
Target the humane deception and assert that it is “no secret” that welfare labels are nothing but a marketing ploy.
Consider the other new counter-narratives recommended in this report as well as our proposed modifications to narratives already in use.
Use the radical flank effect: campaigning for highly ambitious policy demands makes other policies more palatable. Moderate factions should highlight policies meant to make animal-free foods more affordable and accessible. Meanwhile, in order to activate radical flank effects around political viability, radical factions should focus on pressing for ambitious policies (such as meat bans) through credible pathways. Merely calling for such an outcome may not suffice; the public should believe that such measures are being seriously and credibly pursued.

Others in the Pax Fauna sequence