Corporate welfare reforms produce positive incremental change for farmed animals on a large scale but are a relatively new aspect of advocacy, without much research backing their effectiveness. Recent Faunalytics research provided a first step in this direction, and showed that corporate pledges to move toward cage-free egg suppliers are generally well-perceived by the public. This is good news for the movement, given the high dollar value of support flowing toward these campaigns, but more research is needed to determine which campaigns have the greatest potential impact for animals.

There are several aspects to understanding that potential: the animal welfare improvements associated with different types of reform, institutions’ receptivity to those reforms, and public support for those reforms. Estimating direct impact on animals is outside Faunalytics’ scope of expertise, but this project will support the other two key elements. While any welfare reform could produce positive change for animals, corporate pledges and follow-through are most likely for campaigns with broad public support, because institutions are driven by their bottom line.

In other words, the goal of this project is to identify welfare campaigns that will produce advocates and allies rather than apathy and opposition in the general public. We will conduct an experiment in which we present participants with information about one of several possible welfare reforms and then measure their attitudes toward the reform as well as their intentions to purchase that product and animal products more broadly. The potential impact for animals is substantial because the results will (a) identify campaigns that institutions should want to support because their customer base supports them, and (b) identify campaigns with direct positive impact on consumer behavior, thereby reducing suffering at the level of individual purchases as well as institutional change.

Funding sought: $20,000