This paper measures consumer preferences for different (ethical) product attributes of meat products by questionnaires and compares these results to the ones obtained using an individualized Information Display Matrix (IDM). The products considered in the study are pork and chicken cutlet. The findings firstly confirm that the IDM is able to reduce social desirability effects, a problem which likely is of importance in surveys investigating the relevance of ethical product characteristics. Secondly, using sequence analysis the paper provides information on the intensity of the information search process. In fact it can be shown that many consumers neglect almost half of the attributes presented. Thirdly, the paper shows that it is possible and can be considered a methodological advancement in IDM research to apply sequence analysis to data acquired via an IDM. Different indicators allow quantifying main characteristics of consumers’ information search process and make it possible to test for differences between data obtained from different IDM experiments.