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Conservatives are more resistant to veganism, according to a new survey by a Canadian professor.
Gordon Hodson, psychology professor at Brock University, analyzed the results of a poll of 1,313 current and former vegans and found that conservatives ‘were at significantly greater odds of having lapsed from a vegan diet to meat consumption’.
This is the first study that showed that conservatism is a protective factor against the vegan lifestyle.
Study
The psychology professor has found that social justice plays the deciding factor in sticking to veganism.
“Specifically, a greater odds of returning to meat consumption was [determined] by ideology, because those higher in conservatism reported fewer justice reasons for attempting vegan practice in the first place,” he writes.
Hodson surveyed the importance of ‘meat cravings’ and ‘lifestyle inconvenience’ in people’s decision to stop being vegan, and he found that these inconveniences don’t make much of a difference.
The professor discovered that credence in ‘social justice’ values is what matters – and since right-wing leaning individuals are less likely to adhere to social justice, they’re also less likely to stay vegan.
Activism
The new study concluded that more vegan activism is needed.
Hodson says: “For example, exposure to documentaries or books on the impact of meat consumption on animals and the environment could help those who striving to achieve a vegan diet as their own personal goal.”
He also suggests that recruiting ‘prominent figures on the right’ to promote veganism could also help.
Ideology
Gordon Hodson told Campus Reform he did the study because of the growing role of political ideology in everyday life.
“Increasingly, research is showing that ideology matters to our day-to-day lives (i.e., not just in the voting booth),” he said.
“Given that there are left-right differences in meat consumption, it made sense to us to consider left-right differences in avoiding meat among those attempting to stop.”
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