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In countries where gender equality is becoming more of a reality, men’s meat consumption tends to rise relative to women’s, a new study shows. The phenomenon was seen mainly in richer countries in North America and Europe, and was not seen at all in large but less affluent China, India and Indonesia. Why? Researchers believe it’s due to men in wealthier, more gender-equal nations having more control over their meal choices — and choosing meat more often. The trend is “more likely to be driven by more extensive meat consumption among men in developed countries, in which greater wealth creates more opportunities for men to choose meat, than by lower meat consumption among women,” the researchers concluded. The study was led by Christopher Hopwood, a professor of psychology at the University of Zurich, in Switzerland. It was published June 13 in the journal Scientific Reports. The researchers started off with one longstanding statistic: Almost everywhere, men tend to eat more meat than women. But would that carnivore gender gap close once women made gains in equality with respect to men? To find out, Hopwood’s team looked at survey data collected in 2021 from almost 21,000 people from 23 countries in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Participants reported their gender and how frequently they ate meat. As expected, in most countries (with the exception… read on > read on >