Matthew B Ruby

Biographic Data

ID828744
NAMEMatthew B Ruby
GIVEN NAMESMatthew B
FAMILY NAMERuby
SIGNATURERUBY M B
AFFILIATIONSLa Trobe University
ORCID0000-0002-9562-6510
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS35
TOTAL CITATIONS508
AUTHOR COUNT35
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1990
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX8

  • Food Cultures: Understanding Traditional and Modern Eating

    Open AccessGudrun Sproesser, Matthew B Ruby et al.CHAPTERHandbook of Eating and Drinking2026

  • A meta-analytic review of cultural variation in affect valuation

    Open AccessJeanne Tsai, Daniel S Chen et al.ARTICLEPsychological Bulletin2025

    What affective states do people ideally want to feel and why? In Affect Valuation Theory, Tsai et al. (2006) proposed and observed that (a) how people would ideally like to feel (their "ideal affect") differs from how they actually feel (their "actual affect"), and (b) cultural factors shape people's ideal affect even more than their actual affect. In this individual participant data meta-analysis, we reexamined these two premises in a combined d…

  • A license to eat meat? Exploring processes underlying the effect of animal labels on meat consumption

    Open AccessJessica Schiller, Matthew B Ruby et al.ARTICLEAppetite2025References: 59

    The environmental, health, and animal welfare challenges associated with meat consumption underscore the urgent need to reduce meat intake, particularly in high-income countries. This study investigated the impact of animal-related labels with varying emotional valences (negative, neutral, and positive) on reducing meat selection, focusing on their effects on dissociation, emotional responses, and moral licensing. In an online experiment with the…

  • Flexibly navigating cultural diversity: How polycultural identity facilitates a meaningful and rich life

    Open AccessAriane Virgona, Matthew B Ruby et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of…2025References: 11

  • University Students' Condom Use During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Cross-Cultural Differences and What Predict Them

    Open AccessLamartine Dacosta, James S Morandini et al.ARTICLEJournal of Cross-Cultural…2025References: 65

    Humans instinctively adopt methods to reduce their risk of encountering harmful pathogens, yet their adherence to preventive health practices can often be erratic. Condoms exemplify one vital preventive tool against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that, despite their effectiveness, are not consistently utilized. This pattern of behavior appears to persist even during periods of widespread disease transmission, with varied data from the COV…

  • Raising Puppies: A Qualitative Exploration of Australian Dog Breeders' Rearing and Socialization Practices

    Open AccessJessica K Dawson, Tiffani J Howell et al.ARTICLEAnthrozoös2025Cited by: 1References: 47

  • Development and validation of the polycultural identity scale

    Open AccessAriane Virgona, Matthew B Ruby et al.ARTICLEJournal of Community & Applied…2024

    While globalisation brings opportunities for cultural enrichment, it may also present challenges as individuals attempt to make sense of and integrate fragmented and often conflicting cultural influences into a coherent self‐concept. A qualitative inquiry into contemporary Australians' cultural identity experiences indicated that some people perceive themselves as a product of multiple influences from diverse contacts and learnings, and they mix …

  • Speciesism and perceptions of animal farming practices as predictors of meat consumption in Australia and Hong Kong

    Open AccessKatherine Northrope, Matthew B RubyARTICLEPsychology of Human-Animal…2024

    Many people care about animals and do not wish to cause them harm yet continue to eat them. Past research, largely in Western cultural contexts, has found that people’s meat consumption is negatively related to how much they know about animal farming practices, and positively related to their endorsement of speciesism (the assignment of moral worth based on species membership). Little is known, however, about how these variables are related to me…

  • Differential responses to ethical vegetarian appeals: Exploring the role of traits, beliefs, and motives

    Open AccessLuke D Smillie, Matthew B Ruby et al.ARTICLEJournal of Personality2024

    OBJECTIVE: This research examines differential responses to ethical vegetarian appeals as a fuction of individuals' personalities. BACKGROUND: Ethical vegetarian appeals are persuasive messages promoting the adoption of a plant-based diet on moral grounds. Individuals may vary in their receptivity to such appeals, depending on their morally relevant traits (e.g., agreeableness), beliefs (e.g., speciesism), and motives (e.g., concerns about animal…

  • Vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based? Comparing how different labels influence consumer evaluations of plant-based foods

    Open AccessMatthew B Ruby, João Graça et al.ARTICLEAppetite2024Cited by: 2References: 52

    Market actors have a role to play in enabling sustainable food transitions. One challenge for these actors is how to promote plant-based foods in ways that appeal to a growing number of consumers. Here we test how different plant-based related labels affect consumer appraisals of a range of foods (cookies, sausages, cheese, chocolate, pasta). In two studies (pre-registered; NUSA = 1148, NGermany = 491), we examined the effects of a ‘vegetarian’, …

  • The psychology of eating animals and veg*nism

    Open AccessMatthew B Ruby, Hank Rothgerber et al.ARTICLEAppetite2023Cited by: 4References: 35

  • The vegan dilemma: Do peaceful protests worsen attitudes to veganism

    Open AccessRachel E Menzies, Matthew B Ruby et al.ARTICLEAppetite2023Cited by: 1References: 39

    A body of research has shown that violent protests reduce support for social movements. However, few studies have examined whether the same is true for protests which are peaceful, yet disruptive (e.g., blocking traffic). Across two pre-registered experimental studies, we explored whether pro-vegan protests that are depicted as causing social disruption lead to more negative attitudes towards veganism, compared to non-disruptive protests or a con…

  • Monitoring a meat-free pledge with smartphones: An experimental study

    Open AccessJared Piazza, Rebecca Gregson et al.ARTICLEAppetite2022Cited by: 2References: 65

    Pledges are a popular strategy to encourage meat reduction, though experimental studies of their efficacy are lacking. Three-hundred and twenty-five participants from three different countries (UK, Germany, Australia) were randomly assigned to pledge 28 days meat-free or not, and their behavior was tracked via smartphones. Participants answered daily surveys regarding their eating behavior, meat cravings, and shared photos of their meals. Baselin…

  • A cross cultural meat paradox: A qualitative study of Australia and India

    Open AccessTani Khara, Chris Riedy et al.ARTICLEAppetite2021Cited by: 4References: 60

  • We have to keep it a secret” – The dynamics of front and backstage behaviours surrounding meat consumption in India

    Open AccessTani Khara, Chris Riedy et al.ARTICLEAppetite2020Cited by: 2References: 37

  • Sustainable Consumption: The Psychology of Individual Choice, Identity, and Behavior

    Open AccessMatthew B Ruby, Iain Walker et al.ARTICLEJournal of Social Issues2020Cited by: 1References: 33

    The global human community is facing an increasingly urgent dilemma: How do we improve standards of living while lessening our impact on the environment? This special issue presents recent contributions from both psychological and interdisciplinary research on sustainable consumption. To situate these articles in a broader context, we first establish the necessity of improving sustainable consumption and discuss some of the foundational psycholog…

  • Bugs are blech, butterflies are beautiful, but both are bad to bite: Admired animals are disgusting to eat but are themselves neither disgusting nor contaminating

    Paul Rozin, Matthew B RubyARTICLEEmotion2019

    It is often assumed that things that are disgusting to eat are, themselves, disgusting, and that things that are disgusting to eat are also contaminating. We present data that counters both of these assumptions. In adult American and Indian samples, Study 1 provides evidence that, in contrast to many other insects, participants have positive attitudes toward butterflies. Participants are relatively unbothered by touching them or eating food that …

  • Understanding traditional and modern eating: The TEP10 framework

    Open AccessGudrun Sproesser, Matthew B Ruby et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2019

    Across the world, there has been a movement from traditional to modern eating, including a movement of traditional eating patterns from their origin culture to new cultures, and the emergence of new foods and eating behaviors. This trend toward modern eating is of particular significance because traditional eating has been related to positive health outcomes and sustainability. Yet, there is no consensus on what constitutes traditional and modern…

  • The Eating Motivation Survey: Results from the USA, India and Germany

    Open AccessGudrun Sproesser, Matthew B Ruby et al.ARTICLEPublic Health Nutrition2018

    Objective Research has shown that there is a large variety of different motives underlying why people eat what they eat, which can be assessed with The Eating Motivation Survey (TEMS). The present study investigates the consistency and measurement invariance of the fifteen basic motives included in TEMS in countries with greatly differing eating environments. Design The fifteen-factor structure of TEMS (brief version: forty-six items) was tested …

  • Henry Gleitman (1925–2015)

    Paul Rozin, Matthew B RubyARTICLEAmerican Psychologist2018

    Presents an obituary of Henry Gleitman (1925-2015). Gleitman was an author of major papers in animal learning, memory, theater, and the psychology of language, including one book with Lila Gleitman ( Phrase and Paraphrase , 1970). Gleitman was among the very best teachers in the history of psychology. He taught introductory psychology about 100 times, engaging the minds of some 30,000 students, each exposed to his enlightening, expansive, and ent…

  • Attitudes toward beef and vegetarians in Argentina, Brazil, France, and the USA

    Open AccessMatthew B Ruby, Marle Dos Santos Alvarenga et al.ARTICLEAppetite2016Cited by: 19References: 40

  • Rationalizing meat consumption. The 4Ns

    Open AccessJared Piazza, Matthew B Ruby et al.ARTICLEAppetite2015Cited by: 139References: 48

  • Can merely learning about obesity genes affect eating behavior

    Open AccessIlan Dar-Nimrod, Benjamin Y Cheung et al.ARTICLEAppetite2014Cited by: 8References: 36

  • Compassion and contamination. Cultural differences in vegetarianism

    Open AccessMatthew B Ruby, Steven J Heine et al.ARTICLEAppetite2013Cited by: 18References: 43

  • Not all collectivisms are equal: Opposing preferences for ideal affect between East Asians and Mexicans

    Matthew B Ruby, Carl F Falk et al.ARTICLEEmotion2012

    Previous research has revealed differences in how people value and pursue positive affect in individualistic and collectivistic cultural contexts. Whereas Euro-Americans place greater value on high activation positive affect (HAP; e.g., excitement, enthusiasm, elation) than do Asian Americans and Hong Kong Chinese, the opposite is true for low activation positive affect (LAP; e.g., calmness, serenity, tranquility). Although the form of collectivi…