Social media research found that those who oppose veganism have often previously attempted and struggled with it and also see animal death and consumption as a natural part of life.
REBECCA GREGSON: Vegans are examples of “moralised minority practice identities” (or “moral-identity minorities” for short): small segments of the population who engage in or abstain from practices for ethical reasons.
In western societies, these moral-identity minorities are sometimes met with resentment. They often represent a challenge or threat to the majority view. Indeed, research suggests vegetarians and vegans are disliked more by people who endorse traditional values, including submission, aggression, and conventionalism.
Additionally, moral-identity minorities may make for thorny allies because minority practices cast a critical light on the practices of those who might be sympathetic to their cause. For example, the personal dietary choices of those who abstain from animal foods are often taken as public condemnation of others’ behaviour…
Vegans, even more than vegetarians, have been the target of antipathy due to their more extreme practices. For example, between 2015-2022, The Times reported a total of 172 vegan hate crimes in the United Kingdom alone. Influential figures publicly add fuel to the anti-vegan fire, with threats ranging from Piers Morgan’s “vegan resistance” to William Sitwell’s desire to kill vegans “one by one.”
As a response to increasing anti-veganism, in 2020, legal protections were put in place in the U.K. to protect ethical vegans from discrimination in the workplace (see Costa v the League Against Cruel Sports)…
To date, most of what we know about the form and content of anti-veganism comes from questionnaires where people are asked what they think of vegans. We sought to examine vegan prejudice as it unfolds in the real world. To do this, we turned to the popular social media platform Reddit.
We chose to focus on the subreddit group r/AntiVegan, given their explicit, public stance on veganism. r/AntiVegan is a growing community of 21,200 Reddit users—the largest, self-proclaimed “anti-vegan” community on the internet. Our subsequent dataset was comprised of a sample of 48,909 posts made between 2014 and 2019 by 3,819 r/AntiVegan users…
Our analysis revealed that r/AntiVegan users exhibit interest in dark humour. This style of humour is considered by some an outlet for people to express prejudicial attitudes, and it may be indicative of a broader ideological root to vegan prejudice, which may connect to other forms of prejudice…
We examined longitudinal changes in language use amongst r/AntiVegans by employing Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software, which identifies linguistic markers indicative of underlying psychological processes.
This analysis revealed that r/AntiVegan users increased their use of group-focused (“we”) language and reduced their use of self-focused (“I”) language over time, indicating an increasing identification with the group. Second, users’ language became more confident and certain, suggesting that participation in the forum solidified users’ critical stance towards veganism…
Our study of anti-vegan sentiment revealed many illuminating and even surprising findings that may help improve vegan and non-vegan relations. We found that those who oppose veganism:
– Have often previously attempted veganism and struggled with it. This might suggest that a more inclusive approach to veganism, one that encourages diversity of practice and imperfection, could benefit the movement.
– May, at times, express prejudices in other domains, which speaks to the need to address the deeper roots of intolerance more broadly.
– May have legitimate concerns about the nutritional value of a vegan diet, which may suggest that vegan diet education remains an important obstacle to the movement’s growth and acceptance.
– May see animal death as a natural part of life and like vegans, concern themselves with how factory-farmed animals are treated. This may be some common moral ground for vegans and non-vegans to build upon.
– May participate in online anti-vegan forums that can solidify group identities and perspectives, creating echo chambers that potentially damage efforts to move toward a more diverse and tolerant world. SOURCE…
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