Information Avoidance with Regard to Pig Farming and Its Implications for Communication Strategies of The Agricultural Livestock Sector

Abstract

In the agri-food industry, public relations work relies on consumers who are willing to receive information. However, studies have shown that people often avoid using information, a behavior known as information avoidance. Sweeny et al. (2010) identify three main motives for this behavior: avoiding negative effects on action, affect or cognition. Currently, the effectiveness of agribusiness communication strategies and information formats in improving acceptance and trust in intensive livestock farming may be limited. There have been no published studies to date that address the suitability of communication strategies employed by the agri-food industry in light of information avoidance and its underlying motives, particularly with regard to pig farming. This present exploratory study aims to fill this research gap. The study employed Howell and Shepperd's (2016) 8-item information avoidance scale to measure the relationship between the occurrence and impact of three motives for information avoidance and information avoidance in pig farming. The influence of sociodemographics, personality-related characteristics and level of acceptance regarding pig farming on information avoidance has been tested in addition to the basic model specification. The impact of the motives for information avoidance showed some significant results on tendency to avoid information. Expected contradiction to one's own beliefs (cognition) has a negative effect on information avoidance, while expected negative effects on affect has a positive impact on information avoidance. This findings align with the meat paradox, which is a form of dissonance. Consumers use information avoidance as a strategy to reduce emotional discomfort caused by moral contradictions. Therefore images, formulations or information content that tend to be seen as emotionally charged regarding animals should not be used for public relations work. Suitable target groups for public relations work are primarily intellectually open-minded people who are, according to our results, interested in new information, even if this could create a contradictory image to their previous attitudes. In addition, people who are completely opposed to pig farming are generally interested in information on this topic and could therefore potentially be reached well with factual information and neutral arguments. Furthermore, it has been shown that consumers with a low level of acceptance of pig farming tend to avoid information on the subject. It is important to consider this when preparing and disseminating information about pig farming, as it could limit the success of public relations work in the agricultural industry.