ORCID

Abstract

Cultured meat (CM) is considered to have a potential to address environmental, sustainability, ethical concerns, and food security, however, consumer acceptance remains a challenge. This study empirically validatesand extends the Cultured Meat Attitude and Perception Assessment (CAPA) model by analysing public discussions on X (Twitter) to understand consumer perceptions of CM. Using BERTopic for topic modelling and qualitative analysis, the study explored unprompted public narratives, mapping them to CAPA constructs to examine how public opinions align with or challenge existing theoretical concepts. The findings revealed a combination of cultural, political, ethical, and economic narratives shaping consumer behaviour and theirdecision-making processes related to CM acceptance. Existing constructs such as Information Influence, Product Attributes, Ethical Issues, and Social Influences were validated. However, the emergence of themes and subthemes such as Conspiracy Theories, Political Resistance, Specific Health Risk Narratives, and Economic and Market Forces suggests the need to refine the model providing a more comprehensive framework for understanding consumer behaviour. This study contributes to knowledge by offering a deeper understanding ofthe factors influencing CM acceptance, validating and extending the CAPA model, and demonstrating the effectiveness of combining machine learning with qualitative analysis. It highlights the importance of transparentcommunication to counter misinformation and ideological resistance, as well as the need for strategic communication for product positioning and policy development. This approach advances academic understandingand provides actionable insights to inform decision-making in the commercialisation of sustainable and ethical food innovations

Publication Date

2025-05-29

Event

11th International Conference on Decision Support System Technology (ICDSST 2025): Decision Support System Technology in the AI Era

Publication Title

Decision Support Systems XIV: Human-Centric Group Decision, Negotiation and Decision Support Systems for Societal Transitions

Publisher

Springer

ISBN

9783031908620, 9783031908637

Deposit Date

2025-10-16

Keywords

Cultured Meat, Decision making, opinion mining, social media data, Natural language processing

First Page

173

Last Page

173

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