• Food is personal & universal– “Psychology has paid minimal attention to the major

domains of life” Rozin, 2006

• Food is political – 1 billion hungry people; food riots in dozens of

countries; S. Korean protests of U.S. Beef imports; growing food sovereignty movement

• 6 to 30 million U.S. vegetarians alone (3 to 10%)– Distinct social and political attitudes

– Close relationships mostly with non-vegetarians

– Stigma and prejudice against vegetarians

• Women‟s politics: – 2 to 3 times as many female vegetarians

– Consistently across issues, women support more humane relations with animals (effect size d=0.49)

• Feminist scholars: meat consumption replicates and reinforces gender/power hierarchies 1

• Environmental movements: meat is wasteful, polluting, inhumane, and unhealthy 2

• Religious perspectives: some claim meat as a birthright 3 others prohibit or restrict it 4

• Anthropology: nearly universally, men hunt; women tend agriculture & gather foods.5 Meat sharing reinforces political/family coalitions 6

• Psychology research: meat evokes „moralized‟ disgust;7 heavy meat consumers are higher in Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orient.;8

vegetarians are stigmatized/stereotyped;9

vegetarians have distinct social/political attitudes10

1.Adams, 1990; Luke 2007; 2.Schlosser, 2001; Motavalli, 2002; 3.Cockburn, 1996/2005 4.Simoons, 1995; 5.Marlowe, 2007; 6.Morris, 1998; Stanford, 1999; 7.Rozin, et al, 1997; 1999; 8.Allen, et al, 2000; 9.Vartanian, et al, 2007; 10. Gale, et al, 2007; Kalof, et al, 1999

• 93/94 General Social Survey

• Most findings unaffected by combining Full & Part pops.

• U.S. Vegetarians are present in higher proportions among people of color, the urban, foreign born, never married and low religiosity pops.

• Vegetarianism in the U.S. was not related to age, social class, smoking, or education

• U.S. Vegetarians scored lower in vocabulary, science & environmental knowledge

Always 2.6%

(N=76)

“Full-time

Vegetarians”

Sometimes 7.1% (204) “Part-time

Vegetarians”

Often 20.6%

(594)

“Part-time

Vegetarians”

Never 69.7%

(2008)

“Non-

Vegetarians”

Women Men

Full-Veg 3.2% 1.9%

Part-Veg 35.4% 23.6%

Non-Veg 61.4% 74.5%

Proportions by Sex

“How often do you refuse to eat meat for

moral or environmental reasons?”

Cramer‟s V = 0.13

Even while controlling for vegetarian‟s liberal/left political beliefs,

sex, race, region of residence, religion and community size/type:

• Environmental politics: vegetarians see more danger from pollution, are more willing to sacrifice to be green, and participate in more green political actions

• Lower Authoritarian traits: Vegetarians express less nationalism, have a less patriarchal idea of God, oppose police use of violence, less likely to stereotype the poor, and have a more positive attitude towards blacks

• Higher sociality: Vegetarians are members of more voluntary social groups, have more social interaction with non-kin and watch less television.

• Data from Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic,

Germany (East and West), Great Britain, Hungary,

Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New

Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, the Philippines,

Poland, Russia, Slovenia, and Spain.

• Various random probability sampling frames;

nationally representative samples of adults

• Respondents surveyed on various topics regarding

nature the environment and green politics.

Classification

tree analysis

reveals unique

distributions in

Spain/Norway

(heavy meat

consumption),

& Philippines

(low meat

consumers)

Alway s Of ten Sometimes Nev er

W. Germany 2.9% 15.5% 32.6% 49.0%

E. Germany 1.9% 10.6% 28.7% 58.8%

Great Britain 4.6% 5.0% 18.7% 71.7%

N. Ireland 2.9% 6.0% 15.7% 75.5%

USA (f rom GSS) 2.6% 7.1% 20.6% 69.7%

Ireland 2.6% 4.1% 12.7% 80.5%

Netherlands 1.9% 7.2% 24.8% 66.1%

Norway 0.8% 1.6% 7.9% 89.6%

Czech Republic 1.1% 4.7% 19.4% 74.8%

Slov enia 3.4% 6.9% 31.7% 58.0%

Poland 2.3% 5.3% 26.9% 65.6%

Bulgaria 2.3% 4.2% 21.3% 72.2%

Russia 2.3% 6.3% 26.0% 65.4%

New Zealand 2.2% 3.6% 13.7% 80.6%

Canada 3.3% 6.1% 21.5% 69.1%

Philippines 5.5% 16.1% 59.8% 18.7%

Israel 6.0% 4.7% 9.2% 80.0%

Japan 2.1% 4.5% 13.1% 80.3%

Spain 1.0% 2.4% 10.2% 86.4%

Ov erall 2.9% 7.1% 25.1% 64.9%

Ref use meat f or moral or env ironmental reasons

• Most findings unaffected

by combining Full & Part pops.

• Vegetarianism is most

consistently associated with:

Sex (women), higher subjective social class, undoubted belief in God and church attendance.

• Most countries had ethnic and regional differences, when measured

• Vegetarianism was not consistently associated with: age, education, income, or political beliefs

• Vegetarians consistently scored lower in both science and environmental knowledge

Women Men

Full-Veg 3.2% 2.3%

Part-Veg 33.9% 28.5%

Non-Veg 63.0% 69.2%

Overall Proportions by Sex

Cramer‟s V = 0.07

Even while controlling for political beliefs, sex, age, income,

ethnicity, religion , community size/type, and region of residence:

• Environmental politics: vegetarians are more likely

to believe that environmental issues are a threat

and in the efficacy of green campaigns or social

change efforts. On the other hand, they also

believe that environmental change may be coming

too late and is too difficult to achieve.

• Green political behavior: vegetarians are much

more likely to have in the last 5 years: (1) signed

an environmental petition; (2) joined a group

dedicated to the environment; and (3)

demonstrated for environmental causes

Even while controlling for political beliefs, sex, age, income,

ethnicity, religion , community size/type, and region of residence:

• Authoritarian traits: vegetarians overall are more

likely to believe that it is the responsibility of

government to reduce the differences between the

rich and poor.

However, in some countries, vegetarians do place

a higher priority on law and order concerns (vs.

democratization or free speech), and are more

likely to teach their children obedience (vs.

thinking for themselves).

• Surveys in 18 nations replicate, to a large

extent, the findings from the US General

Social Survey

• Vegetarians are exceptionally aware of and

active in environmental politics

• Vegetarians may be lower in Social

Dominance Orientation /Authoritarianism

• Some stereotypes of vegetarians are

incorrect: age, race economic class, and

education expectations not generally true

• Vegetarianism in some nations (W.

Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands)

seems related to left/progressive politics

and may be associated with low SDO/

Authoritarian traits, lower prejudice.

• Vegetarianism in some other nations

(Spain, Japan, Czech Republic, Slovenia)

is more related to religious identity and

more conservative politics. The patterns

listed above may be weaker or reversed.

For the future:

– Repeat the meat refusal question in the

upcoming ISSP, environment module

– Distinguish between religious, health, emotional-

and ideologically-motivated vegetarians

– New studies directly testing hypotheses related

to gender attitudes, social dominance orientation,

and political and social behavior

– Study “shameless carnivores,” omnivores, and

comparatively study other “food non-conformists”