Researchers know that people are motivated to be vegetarian for a variety of reasons – the most common in Western cultures are health, the environment, and animal rights. But how convincing are these different factors to non-vegetarians?
University of California, Davis, researchers from the Department of Psychology surveyed 8,000 people of different ages and ethnicities, in bilingualism, both in the United States and in the Netherlands, to help determine why non-vegetarians decide to become vegetarian.
A paradox for advocacy
The results showed that the main motivation for non-vegetarians to become vegetarians is health, with environmental and animal rights motives being less common. However, people most committed to a vegetarian diet were most motivated by the environment or animal rights.
“The most common reason people say they are going vegetarian has to do with health… But people who are primarily driven by health motives generally respond the least to vegetarian advocacy,” said Christopher J. Hopwood, psychology professor and co-author of the article.
The researchers found that health motives were associated with conventionality and masculinity, while people who cite environmental or animal rights motives are curious, open to experience, likely to volunteer and interested in art.
