Anti-vegan users commonly referred to vegans as militant and inflexible in their beliefs. Their posts reflected a strong dislike of moral messages that vegans use, particularly when they compare animals to oppressed minority groups.
LINDSEY STOWELL: With the ongoing rise of vegan culture, there has also been a startling increase in the number of people opposed to it. As veganism becomes more prominent, research has continued to show potential benefits of a vegan diet for both the environment and human health. With this in mind, researchers are exploring the motivations and discussions among people who claim to be against veganism.
This study aims to explore anti-vegan discussions among people actively opposing veganism in a natural, anonymous setting. Reddit, a social media platform with millions of users, has a group called r/AntiVegan that features ideal data for this study. The researchers collected all posts and comments in the group from 2014 to 2019. They used various methods of text analysis to understand how r/AntiVegan users differ from general Reddit users, what they discuss most often, and how the language of users changes over time as they engage with the community…
Many anti-vegan arguments from r/AntiVegan fell into one of two categories: logical arguments based in science or narratives featuring experiences from ex-vegans. While some discussions featured genuine critique of research into veganism, many users criticized vegans for misusing scientific evidence for their cause. Meanwhile, there were many personal anecdotes or second-hand negative experiences with veganism shared in the community. These typically featured an ex-vegan outlining the negative health consequences of a vegan diet…
Anti-vegan users commonly referred to vegans as militant and inflexible in their beliefs. Their posts reflected a strong dislike of moral messages that vegans use, particularly when they compare animals to oppressed minority groups. Because they proudly hold speciesist views, users argued that such comparisons are insulting. As a result, they might have been pushed further into their beliefs that farming animals is morally acceptable. Insights like this may help build vegan campaigns in the future as advocates learn what strategies to avoid…
Health was a popular topic, particularly surrounding the potential dangers of a vegan diet. Users were primarily concerned with nutritional deficiencies that could result from a vegan diet. Many vegans take supplements for nutrients that are more difficult to obtain. In r/AntiVegan, this was seen as evidence that a vegan diet isn’t natural for humans…
Although r/AntiVegan represents a significant sample of people who are actively anti-vegan, Reddit users in general tend to be young, English-speaking men. That being said, this study reveals valuable insights into crafting new vegan campaigns. It also suggests a few commonalities between vegans and anti-vegans that can be used as a stepping stone for future discussions. SOURCE…
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