Sentientism | Don't underestimate your influence! - Chris Bryant of Bryant Research - Sentientism Ep:183 @Sentientism | Uploaded January 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Chris is the Director of Bryant Research and the Head of Policy at the Alternative Proteins Association. He is a social scientist and an expert on alternative protein markets and marketing. He has published several papers on consumer acceptance, policy, nutritional value, and other social dimensions of cultivated meat, plant-based meat and fermentation-derived animal product alternatives. He has worked with alternative protein companies and non-profits, including THIS, Formo, Ivy Farm Technologies, Aleph Farms, Wild Type, ProVeg International, Mercy For Animals, and the Good Food Institute.
Bryant Research (bryantresearch.co.uk/) is a team of researchers using expertise in social science, market research, and policy analysis to help mainstream alternative proteins and meat reduction. They work with alternative protein companies and animal protection non-profits, as well as conducting their own original independent research.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & https://anchor.fm/sentientism.
We discuss:
00:00 Clips!
00:53 Welcome
02:55 Chris' Intro
- Social science research and analysis helping those "trying to move our food system away from animals and towards alternatives"
- "Industrial animal farming... one of the biggest utility sinks"
06:46 What's Real?
- Growing up in a "nominally religious" household... "vaguely Christian"
- Turning to #atheism and thinking "what is the answer then... what does matter?"
- An interest in philosophy at university "realised that philosophy was the thing I had been talking about"
- Going #vegetarian
- #effectivealtruism "an incredibly powerful tool... applying empirical evidence to altruistic intentions... trying to come up with the best ways of doing good... given limited resources"
- "I had a good go at #hedonism in the interim though"
- Naturalistic #epistemology and "being willing to be wrong about things"
- The dangers of unquestioned assumptions
- Crash testing ideas that go against the mainstream (e.g. are "processed" foods really unhealthy?)
- Choosing good sources, doing research and running experiments
- How people form and update beliefs: cognitive dissonance, motivated reasoning, working backwards to justify what we want to believe or do (e.g. consuming animal products)...
- Even before that: ignorance (not knowing) and neglect / avoidance (not thinking about it) "Most people have probably never thought about that question [e.g. what % of animals are factory farmed]". "It's important to reach those people [~50%?] with just the reality and the facts"
- Strongly and weakly-held beliefs
- "For some people that's progress... at least they're having to do the mental gymnastics whereas before it had just never occurred to them"
- "The fact that so few people have thought about it should be some kind of weird hope for vegetarians and vegans"
- Push [away from animal products - ethics, environment, health] and pull [towards the alternatives - cheap, healthy, appealing, available] factors. "Really for long time we didn't have very good pull factors... appealing alternatives to offer people."
- Motivated reasoning: "If I lose this argument I'll have to go vegan and only eat beans... but if you can have burgers and nuggets and everything else... I'm not very motivated to try and defend this view any more"
- Social norms & the expectations of others "Not just what I think of veg*ism but what do others think of it"
- Not shying away from the push factors. "Animal cruelty content is actually pretty impactful in getting people to change their eating habits" compared to environmental/health factors
- People will try to avoid animal cruelty content "formats... where it's just hard to avoid"
- "You want to give them enough dissonance that they feel uncomfortable enough that now they feel motivated to go and do something about it"
- "Inviting people to collide with the reality of animal farming as frequently and graphically as we can get away with is an important part of the solution"
27:03 What Matters?
- "#utilitarianism was always the most appealing framework to me." Can handle scale and severity of wellbeing and suffering.
44:55 Who Matters?
59:22 How to Make a Better World?
01:47:43 Follow Chris
- twitter.com/SirChrisBryant
- twitter.com/Bryant_Research
- bryantresearch.co.uk
- linkedin.com/company/bryant-research-ltd
& much more... (sentientism.info for full notes)#sentientism
#sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all #sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall sentientism.info/wall/.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. E.g.: facebook.com/groups/sentientism.
Chris is the Director of Bryant Research and the Head of Policy at the Alternative Proteins Association. He is a social scientist and an expert on alternative protein markets and marketing. He has published several papers on consumer acceptance, policy, nutritional value, and other social dimensions of cultivated meat, plant-based meat and fermentation-derived animal product alternatives. He has worked with alternative protein companies and non-profits, including THIS, Formo, Ivy Farm Technologies, Aleph Farms, Wild Type, ProVeg International, Mercy For Animals, and the Good Food Institute.
Bryant Research (bryantresearch.co.uk/) is a team of researchers using expertise in social science, market research, and policy analysis to help mainstream alternative proteins and meat reduction. They work with alternative protein companies and animal protection non-profits, as well as conducting their own original independent research.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & https://anchor.fm/sentientism.
We discuss:
00:00 Clips!
00:53 Welcome
02:55 Chris' Intro
- Social science research and analysis helping those "trying to move our food system away from animals and towards alternatives"
- "Industrial animal farming... one of the biggest utility sinks"
06:46 What's Real?
- Growing up in a "nominally religious" household... "vaguely Christian"
- Turning to #atheism and thinking "what is the answer then... what does matter?"
- An interest in philosophy at university "realised that philosophy was the thing I had been talking about"
- Going #vegetarian
- #effectivealtruism "an incredibly powerful tool... applying empirical evidence to altruistic intentions... trying to come up with the best ways of doing good... given limited resources"
- "I had a good go at #hedonism in the interim though"
- Naturalistic #epistemology and "being willing to be wrong about things"
- The dangers of unquestioned assumptions
- Crash testing ideas that go against the mainstream (e.g. are "processed" foods really unhealthy?)
- Choosing good sources, doing research and running experiments
- How people form and update beliefs: cognitive dissonance, motivated reasoning, working backwards to justify what we want to believe or do (e.g. consuming animal products)...
- Even before that: ignorance (not knowing) and neglect / avoidance (not thinking about it) "Most people have probably never thought about that question [e.g. what % of animals are factory farmed]". "It's important to reach those people [~50%?] with just the reality and the facts"
- Strongly and weakly-held beliefs
- "For some people that's progress... at least they're having to do the mental gymnastics whereas before it had just never occurred to them"
- "The fact that so few people have thought about it should be some kind of weird hope for vegetarians and vegans"
- Push [away from animal products - ethics, environment, health] and pull [towards the alternatives - cheap, healthy, appealing, available] factors. "Really for long time we didn't have very good pull factors... appealing alternatives to offer people."
- Motivated reasoning: "If I lose this argument I'll have to go vegan and only eat beans... but if you can have burgers and nuggets and everything else... I'm not very motivated to try and defend this view any more"
- Social norms & the expectations of others "Not just what I think of veg*ism but what do others think of it"
- Not shying away from the push factors. "Animal cruelty content is actually pretty impactful in getting people to change their eating habits" compared to environmental/health factors
- People will try to avoid animal cruelty content "formats... where it's just hard to avoid"
- "You want to give them enough dissonance that they feel uncomfortable enough that now they feel motivated to go and do something about it"
- "Inviting people to collide with the reality of animal farming as frequently and graphically as we can get away with is an important part of the solution"
27:03 What Matters?
- "#utilitarianism was always the most appealing framework to me." Can handle scale and severity of wellbeing and suffering.
44:55 Who Matters?
59:22 How to Make a Better World?
01:47:43 Follow Chris
- twitter.com/SirChrisBryant
- twitter.com/Bryant_Research
- bryantresearch.co.uk
- linkedin.com/company/bryant-research-ltd
& much more... (sentientism.info for full notes)#sentientism
#sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all #sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall sentientism.info/wall/.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. E.g.: facebook.com/groups/sentientism.
