Yes, people actually hate vegans enough that scientists are researching why.
And the reasons may not be what you expect.
In this video, we'll break down the findings of some of these studies.
And I'll also offer my own personal thesis: that if you bristle at the mention of veganism
or even outright hate vegans, you...
may just be a good person.
Hi, it's Emily from BiteSizeVegan.org, where you can find the article for this video with
all the studies we'll be discussing as well as some deeper dives into the science and
a note on terms and limitations.
Now, I will give you a little spoiler up top about a surprising thread I found throughout
the research: that the magnitude of passion and degree of polarization between vegans
and non-vegans is fuelled more by what we have in common than by our differences.
Before we explore why people hate vegans, let's take a moment to establish the presence
of anti-vegan bias.
When researchers asked omnivores to evaluate vegans along with several "common prejudice
target groups," they found that, "Strikingly, only drug addicts were evaluated more negatively
than vegetarians and vegans."
The study's authors also noted that "Unlike other forms of bias...negativity toward vegetarians
and vegans is not widely considered a societal problem; rather [it] is commonplace and largely
accepted."
And in fact, research has revealed widespread anti-vegan bias not only in the media but
even within academic research itself.
And the most disliked vegans of all are those motivated by ethical concerns for animals.
Given that most people care about animals and don't want to cause them harm, why is
there so much animosity toward people who try to cause the least harm possible?
This is one of the many questions social scientists have set out to answer.
Some social psychologists argue that negativity toward vegans has less to do with vegans themselves
than what they represent and bring to mind.
We usually don't think about eating animal products as a conscious choice.
It's simply what everyone else does.
However, the mere presence of a vegan immediately shifts meat-eating from the comfort of an
unexamined social norm to the disquieting reality of a choice.
This triggers what researchers call the "meat paradox:" simultaneously believing it's wrong
to harm animals, yet continuing to eat them.
"At the heart of the meat paradox," explains social psychologist Hank Rothgerber, "is the
experience of cognitive dissonance," the psychological tension caused by holding conflicting beliefs
at the same time, or taking actions that directly contradict one's values.
For example: “I eat meat" AND "I don’t like to hurt animals", or “I eat meat" AND
"compassionate people don’t hurt animals”.
In his research, Rothgerber identified at least fifteen defenses omnivores use to both
"prevent and reduce the moral guilt associated with eating meat."
One of these methods is to attack the person who triggered the discomfort.
It's human nature to lash out at anyone we perceive as a threat.
And vegans threaten something we hold very dear: our moral sense of self.
We like to think of ourselves as good and decent people.
We also believe that good and decent people don't harm animals.
We're generally able to maintain these conflicting beliefs without much discomfort because the
majority of society does as well.
Eating animals is accepted as normal, often considered necessary and natural—even completely
unavoidable.
But the existence of vegans alone challenges these comforting defenses.
Because it's so distressing to confront the moral conflict of both caring about and eating
animals, people may instead defensively attack vegans to protect their moral sense of self.
Interestingly, the source of this particular animosity toward vegans is not disagreement,
but actually a shared value and belief: that it's wrong to harm animals.
This is what I meant when I said that "if you bristle at the mention of veganism or
even outright hate vegans, you...may just be a good person."
While that's certainly an oversimplified statement designed for a catchy video intro, there is
truth to it.
Most people who eat meat and animal products don't want to hurt animals and experience
discomfort about this conflict.
If that's you, you're not alone.
We've all been taught not to listen to our emotions toward the animals we eat.
Feeling that conflict is not something to be criticized—it's a sign of your humanity.
It's a sign of empathy and compassion struggling against behavior, conditioning, identity,
and an understandable desire for belonging.
Vegans don't just pose a threat to our individual identities as moral people—they also pose
what researchers call a "symbolic threat" to group identities, cherished traditions,
cultural values, and social norms.
So much of our social customs are built around food.
This invariably leads to friction when someone is seen as challenging those customs.
Research shows the more firmly people associate meat-eating with their identity, the more
likely they are to perceive vegans as a threat to their way of life, and thus the more they
will engage in a variety of defenses, including stigmatizing and attacking vegans.
The threat vegans pose to the non-vegan majority can lead to a polarized "us" versus "them"
mentality.
Yet research shows that omnivores don't have exclusively negative attitudes about vegans.
A study led by researcher Ben De Groeve found that while omnivores do hold negative views
of vegans, they also tend to regard them as caring, committed, empathic, and dedicated.
Still, these positive traits were often overshadowed by the impressions of vegans being annoying,
self-righteous, judgmental, and arrogant.
Essentially, that vegans think they're better than everyone.
The most prominent negative impression of vegans across studies was that they think
they're better than everyone else.
Research indicates there is truth behind this stereotype.
Studies found that vegans tend to look down on vegetarians, ethically-motivated vegans
look down on health-motivated vegans, and vegetarians rate other vegetarians as more
virtuous than omnivores.
At the same time, omnivores ALSO rated vegetarians as more virtuous than non-vegetarians, and
viewed vegans and vegetarians overall as highly moral.
And this, researchers propose, may be where the most significantly charged tension originates.
Not so much from vegans thinking their actions are more moral (which they do), but rather
from when omnivores—at some level—agree with them.
Research shows that the more we share the same morals with someone, the more we resent
them when they're willing to act on those morals in a way we are not.
It comes across to us as an indictment not only of our actions—or lack thereof—but
of us as a person.
And that is the definition of being looked down upon.
This is all the more distressing if we are personally conflicted about the behavior we
feel is being criticized, and what it says about us.
We are likely to become preemptively defensive and assume the person thinks they're better
than us, whether they do or not.
No one likes to feel judged.
It instantly raises our defenses and threatens our sense of self.
This threat is so powerful that the judgment doesn't even have to be real for us to react
strongly.
This phenomenon is called "anticipated moral reproach"; it's when we assume someone is
judging our morality.
This can lead to us preemptively attacking and disparaging them in order to protect our
own self-image.
The more we think we're being judged, the more we resent the source of that presumed
judgment.
A study led by Julia Minson found that omnivores rated vegetarians more negatively if they
were first asked to imagine how vegetarians would judge them.
Studies indicate that omnivores tend to overestimate the degree of actual judgment from vegans
and, at times, create it entirely.
Even the mere mention of a theoretical person being vegetarian or vegan was shown to prompt
defensive reactions.
As we've discussed, some researchers propose that this heightened defensiveness has less
to do with the actual judgment of vegans than the self-judgment they trigger.
At the same time that omnivores anticipate being judged by vegans, vegans anticipate
being seen as judgmental by omnivores and take their own defensive measures.
The anticipation of judgment on all sides only escalates everyone's defenses, making
meaningful communication challenging.
But before you think it's hopeless, I want to highlight a particular study that will
lead us into what we can learn from all of this.
A fascinating study by Kelly Markowski and Susan Roxburgh held separate focus groups
of vegan, vegetarian, and omnivorous students to talk about their perceptions of vegans
and veganism.
They found that "when imagining what it would be like to be...vegan, non-vegans largely
imagined they would be viewed and treated in the same way they view and treat vegans:
negatively in a stigmatized fashion."
When asked what challenges they'd face if they were to go vegan, the non-vegans imagined
scenarios that were nearly identical to real-life painful experiences vegan participants had
described, such as rejection and mockery from friends and family.
Markowski and Roxburg concluded that the fear of receiving the same treatment as vegans
was a strong deterrent to ever going vegan or even associating with vegans—so much
so that both omnivores and vegetarians further judged and stigmatized vegans to create more
distance from the very kind of judgments they projected.
While these findings certainly highlight social barriers between non-vegans and vegans, I
think there's something promising in what the study participants shared: evidence that
we can see from each other's perspective.
With all the bias, judgment, self-righteous stereotyping, and social stigmatization that
we've covered, it may be hard for vegans and non-vegans to think the other group could
see from their perspective.
Especially if someone is actively voicing a negative opinion of them.
But the students in Markowski and Roxburgh's study demonstrated that we may not be as polarized
as we seem.
When asked what it is that people assume about vegans that makes them seem so unlikeable,
the very same vegetarian who earlier cast vegans as preachy said:
"I think it's that people just assume that vegans look down on others.
So, you don't have to be in someone's face about it, but just knowing they're vegan,
I think people think...'they are definitely judging me.’"
Similarly, an omnivore who described vegans as "militant, self-righteous, [and] overzealous"
expressed that if he went vegan, he'd have to learn to ignore people's negative opinions
of him because "they'd kind of think differently of me and treat me differently than they did
before."
With just a shift in questioning from what they thought about vegans to what they thought
people assumed about vegans or would think about them were they vegan, the same students
who were critical of vegans were quickly able to empathize with their experience.
Whether omnivore, vegetarian, or vegan, most of us want to be seen as good people.
We don't want to harm animals.
We don't like being judged or looked down upon.
We fear rejection, isolation, and mockery.
We often defensively inflict upon others what we fear experiencing most ourselves.
This is what I mean when I say it's often what we have in common that paradoxically
drives our polarization.
Social psychologist Hank Rothgerber proposes that the more we can understand what's underlying
the strain and tension between non-vegans and vegans, the better we can navigate our
interactions.
He suggests that even seemingly combative quips from omnivores "are not likely motivated
by personal cruelty but by personal distress."
In the final study we covered, when asked what would help them transition towards veganism,
omnivores and vegetarians alike emphasized the need for supportive friends and family,
and for people, in general, to be more open-minded.
Essentially, to know they’d be accepted and not have to fear being hated.
The more open-minded we as a society can become about transitioning away from eating animals,
the more welcome people will feel to make a change.
The less we fear rejection and judgment from one another, the more we can connect on our
shared values and all that makes us human.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments.
For a deeper dive into the science we covered and more content on the psychology of eating
animals and effective communication between non-vegans and vegans, be sure to check out
this video's article.
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Now go live vegan, and I'll see you soon.