Perceived Behavioural Control and Animal-Welfare Ethics Predict Cultured Meat Acceptance in India: An Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour Analysis

Cultured meat is proposed as a sustainable protein alternative, yet consumer acceptance remains the principal barrier to its commercialisation, and the evidence base is overwhelmingly Western. India — the world’s most populous nation, characterised by dietary pluralism and the principle of ahimsa — remains understudied. This study applied an extended Theory of Planned Behaviour to identify the psychological predictors of intention to try cultured meat among English-speaking Indian consumers (N = 255), using latent-variable structural equation modelling with a common-method-variance check. Perceived behavioural control was the strongest predictor of intention (β = 0.609, p < 0.001), followed by attitude (β = 0.295) and subjective norms (β = 0.263, sensitive to method variance); a dominance decomposition nonetheless attributed the largest share of explained variance to subjective norms. Ethical concern for animal welfare was the strongest predictor of attitude (β = 0.487) and disgust a significant negative predictor (β = −0.272); perceived unnaturalness, health concern, and dietary-group differences were non-significant. The model explained 69.9% of the variance in intention. Acceptance reflected perceived feasibility and ahimsa-aligned ethics rather than unnaturalness, diverging from Western evidence with implications for marketing and certification strategies.