Do you eat meat or other animal products?
Should you?
Last month, I defended my PhD thesis about perceptions of vegetarians and vegans (short: veg*ns) in promoting #plantbased diets.
Why did I pursue this topic and what did I discover?
Find out in this #ThesisThread.
1/20
Why this topic? The widespread consumption of animal products🥓🥛🍳causes a lot of harm:
🐖billions of animals suffer & die each year
🌍it damages planetary health
💙threatens public health
📽️tinyurl.com/et4f5jf4
👨🔬To reduce these harms, we can adopt #plantbased diets
2/20
Nevertheless...
📢Calls for change by those who do not eat meat #vegetarians or other animal products #vegans are often challenged by the majority of people who continue to eat meat #omnivores.
❓How can veg*ns attract more omnivores and promote #plantbased diets?
3/20
🔎In my PhD thesis, I focused on one potential barrier in promoting social attraction and #plantbased diets: stereotypes.
📖A stereotype is a widely held belief about a category of people.
Stereotypes can be:
➕positive or➖negative
✔️accurate or❌not/too simplistic
4/20
❓Which stereotypes come to mind when you think of veg*ns?
👨🔬Because veg*ns are often morally motivated, we expected a broad range of impressions, from being admired to being seen as less socially attractive due to do-gooder derogation (stigma for moral motives).
5/20
Most stereotypes are captured by a small set of dimensions. To predict the social attractiveness of veg*ns, I used a model with 3 dimensions, capturing if a person/group:
❣️is helpful (/harmful) = moral
🧑🤝🧑is able to socialize = sociable
🎯can attain its goals = competent
6/20
🔮Because veg*ns are stigmatized for their status as morally motivated minorities, I predicted that they would be perceived as:
❣️more moral, but also as
🧑🤝🧑less sociable &, consequently,
🧲less socially attractive
🎯I expected no differences for perceived competence
7/20
Furthermore, I predicted that a lower perceived sociability & social attractiveness would be predicted by two other attributes linked with morally motivated minorities:
👽eccentricity = seeming abnormal & slightly strange
😤moralism = seeming self-righteous & narrow-minded
8/20
💻To test my hypotheses, I made a questionnaire.
🇬🇧UK omnivores were asked questions about either typical omnivores, vegetarians or vegans.
1⃣First, I prompted participants to freely associate traits with assigned group
2⃣Next, I measured stereotypes & social attraction
9/20
Results:
👍Perceptions of veg*ns are generally quite positive/mixed.
Omnivores associate positive traits with veg*ns:
❣️morality
💪commitment to attain goals
🐖🌍💙concern about animal ethics, the environment and health
🎯no differences for competence, as expected
10/20
However, veg*ns are disapproved, relative to omnivores, for seeming:
🧑🤝🧑less sociable
👽more eccentric
😤more moralistic
👎Moralistic stereotypes largely predict veg*ns’ lower sociability & social attractiveness, and vegans in particular arouse more negative perceptions.
11/20
❓Why are vegans often characterized as moralistic?
✅Evidence supports each of the statements below. Vegans may look down on omnivores to some extent, yet many try to avoid appearing rude or moralistic, and a mere exposure to vegans may put omnivores on the defensive.
12/20
👨🔬Just like there is a belief system that defends *not* using animals for food – #veganism – there is a belief system that defends eating animal products🥓 called #carnism.
📽️
❗️Endorsing carnism may support moralistic stereotyping.
13/20
💭I theorized that two dimensions of moralistic stereotypes can be distinguished: arrogance and overcommitment, which can be viewed as negative reflections of morality and commitment, respectively.
🏷️I named this mixed-valence perception of vegans the #veganparadox …
14/20
Inspired by the #meatparadox: people often care about animals but also harm them via food.
More generally, omnivores may experience a conflict:
❣️“I want to be good & avoid causing harm.” #moralidentity
🥓“I’m not vegan & want to eat animal products.” #carnistidentity
15/20
❓How to deal with this conflict?
1⃣💪Behavior change:
Omnivores accept the belief that the widespread consumption of animal products is:
😿#harmful for animals/planetary & public health
🌱#avoidable by adopting (more) #plantbased diets
➡️#veganism is validated
16/20
2⃣🤔Psychological:
Omnivores defend eating animal products as:
🙈#harmless by ignoring or #neutralizing harm
🏴#unavoidable by appealing to:
health reasons #necessary💙
pleasure #nice😋
social reasons #normal🧑🤝🧑
biological fatalism #natural🧬
➡️#carnism is reinforced
17/20
So, when vegans argue that eating animal products is #harmful & #avoidable, this may trigger the #meatparadox & the #veganparadox, with diverging effects on omnivores’ willingness to:
🧑🤝🧑affiliate with vegans
🌱change their diet
18/20
Finally:
📢I developed a future research agenda to inquire vegan advocacy
🎭realize: minority influence is often indirect, private & delayed, thus easily overlooked
❣️my work has important implications for the use of evidence & reason to promote compassion #sentientism
19/20
🔎Sources: tinyurl.com/yzbx4e83 tinyurl.com/b95cyb3e
📨Get in touch via Twitter or e-mail me for more info: Ben.DeGroeve@UGent.be
🙏Special thanks to my supervisors Liselot Hudders & @Brent_Bleys, my jury, @D_L_Rosenfeld @faunalytics @FWOVlaanderen @VLIRnws!
🐖🌍💙
20/20
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