Meat-Eaters Often View Vegans With Contempt, Study Finds

Meat-eaters think plant-based eaters are moral, health-conscious, and environmentally friendly. But they also view them with fear and contempt, and may even treat them with aggression, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Vaasa in Finland recruited 3,600 participants from four European countries. The participants evaluated fictitious consumers based on three shopping lists containing varying combinations of meat products and plant-based alternatives. The researchers compared the participants’ “stereotypical beliefs, emotional responses, and behavioral treatment tendencies” of shoppers based on their purchases.

The meat shoppers were seen as less moral, health-conscious, and environmental than plant-based shoppers, and provoked less envy and admiration. But participants felt more fear, anger, and contempt towards plant-based shoppers, and were more inclined to think about actively harming them, such as by insulting or bullying them.

Need for status and affiliation

plant-based alternatives — sheilaf2002 – stock.adobe.com A need for status increased feeling of envy towards plant-based shoppers

The researchers used a framework call BIAS map, which is designed to understand the social prejudices and perceptual biases of specific groups of people. It works by applying a “shared cultural perspective,” reflecting how most people in a society perceive the target group – in this case, plant-based eaters and flexitarians.

The researchers analyzed the participants’ need for status and group affiliation to explain their reactions. They found that the greater need for status caused stronger feelings of envy and anger towards plant-based shoppers. The need for group affiliation made participants see flexible shoppers as more socially acceptable, lowering levels of contempt, anger, and inclination to harm.

The researchers suggest that people who covet status are “highly sensitive” to societal norms, i.e. meat-eating, and as a result see plant-based diets as “symbolically threatening.” They may also be “painfully aware” that lowering meat consumption is an “ideal” solution to environmental crises. “This realization could then explain their envious response toward” plant-based eaters, “whose behaviors cannot be copied without some degree of self-sacrifice,” the researchers suggest.

The research adds to the evidence that meat-eaters react negatively to plant-based eaters to protect their identity and choices. A recent Danish study found that even when people knew eating less meat would reduce their climate footprint, they came up with several justifications for not doing so. Among these was shifting the focus to perceived bad habits of vegans, such as eating avocados, and ridiculing vegans.