Thread by @BenDeGroeve

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: [e-mail]

🙏Special thanks to my supervisors Liselot Hudders & @Brent_Bleys, my jury, @D_L_Rosenfeld @faunalytics @FWOVlaanderen @VLIRnws!
🐖🌍💙

20/20