In a study led by chartered psychologist, Dr Roxane Gervais, comparing the behaviour of meat-eating users against flexitarians, it was found that 59% of meat-eaters agreed that not seeing images when viewing a recipe would help stop any food biases when attempting to cut meat products from their diet.
Surveying users of CHAI Cooking, an app that supports flexitarians to transition to plant-based food choices through customised meal plans, it was revealed that flexitarians are significantly more food curious than meat-eaters.
Expressing a greater willingness to try novel ingredients, 70% of flexitarian users demonstrated an openness to trying meals with new, less familiar ingredients. On the contrary, nearly 50% of meat-eaters were more likely to choose a recipe containing familiar ingredients, with 66% of meat-eaters avoiding a recipe entirely if it included an ingredient that they had not tried previously.
Further, 40.81% of meat-eaters, compared to just 10.34% of flexitarians, were more likely to state that their food preferences would hinder the likelihood of them switching to a new diet.
CHAI Cooking deliberately avoids using images in its on-app recipes. Endorsed by social media food influencers, the platform aims to support guide users through a transition to reduce or eliminate meat products from their diet over a 12-month personalised meal programme.
Founder Danielle decided to build the CHAI Cooking app without images in order to “go against the normal way of doing things”, a move that users appreciate, with over three-quarters (76.72%) surveyed expressing a like for the app’s use of no-image content.
