A FORK IN THE ROAD: Attitude, behavior, and social stigma in the adoption of veganism
While veganism has been receiving increasing attention, questions remain on how factors such as health, environmental beliefs, and anti-speciesism values influence vegan attitudes and behavior. This research study shows both anti-speciesism values and health beliefs have a positive effect on attitude toward veganism, while environmental beliefs have a declining and weaker attitudinal effect. Furthermore, contrary to the literature, the results show study participants didn’t appear to place importance on social stigma that would significantly influence their vegan behavior.
ANNE RENEE BROUWER: While veganism has been growing and receiving increasing attention, there is a gap on how factors such as health and environmental beliefs and anti-speciesism values, that create attitude towards their diets, influence their vegan behaviour. Furthermore, the role of social stigma experienced by vegans has not been examined within this context. Building on the value-attitude-behaviour model, the present study addresses this gap by conceptualizing these different streams of variables to build a testable conceptual framework for understanding how these factors contribute to maintaining a vegan lifestyle. The study uses structural equation modelling to analyze the data on 315 vegan consumers, testing the framework and its variables. The study shows that the value-attitude-behaviour model can successfully be applied to vegan behaviour.
This study argues that veganism should be investigated more broadly to understand the underlying drivers and antecedents of adopting a vegan lifestyle, including but not limited to their effects on vegan behaviour. The sheer tenacity of coming to grips with this idea of becoming vegan has given rise to many questions of how consumers are motivated towards veganism and the critical impacts it can have on their end goals such as maintaining the lifestyle. Although we assumed that there was a positive association with attitudes, our research shows one negative relationship. Both anti-speciesism values and health beliefs have a positive effect on attitude, while environmental beliefs have a declining effect on attitudes. This indicates that the stronger the environmental beliefs for being vegan, the weaker the attitude impact on the vegan diet.
It is likely that environmental beliefs in the case of adopting a vegan diet play a role in protecting the environment and may not necessarily impact attitudes positively because attitudes to maintain a strict vegan diet are more focused on the individual self. Those with anti-speciesism values generally have a strong moral imperative not to harm animals, and not eating any animal derived products is imperative to anti-speciesism (also looking at the large contribution of animals to the human diet) and thus likely contributing to a positive attitude towards their vegan diet. Those following a vegan diet for health beliefs have been found to see a change in terms of weight-loss and personal wellbeing which as a result also likely leads to a positive attitude toward the diet.
Even though not all values and beliefs are significant predictors of favourable attitudes toward a vegan diet, the results of this study do show that attitudes have a positive effect on behaviour, providing evidence that the value-attitude-behaviour hierarchy model can be applied to vegan behaviour, positively infuencing behaviour. The stronger the affinity towards social stigma, the weaker is the influence on behavioural intention. In this research, consumers didn’t appear to place importance on social stigma that would influence behaviour. This is different from literature looking at non-vegans adopting a vegan lifestyle fInding that vegan stigma is a barrier that inhibits dietary shifts.
This is an interesting finding as this previous research indicates that non-vegans are of the perception that vegans severely disrupt social conventions associated with food and that vegans are susceptible to stigma. Yet our research shows social stigmatization not at all important in influencing a vegan diet. So, it does not inhibit consumers from maintaining a vegan lifestyle. In terms of practical relevance, future research should explore the behavioural segments of vegan versus non-vegan differently as their aspirations parallel their experiences differently.
This study shows that the conceptual framework combining the factors is critical to understanding how consumers respond to maintaining vegan lifestyles. Firstly, anti-speciesism values and health beliefs appear to be intrinsically positively linked to attitudes, as also found in previous literary works. Secondly, our research shows that social stigmatization around following a vegan lifestyle, including a vegan diet which is profoundly a strong social activity, does not affect behaviour severely. Our results support that veganism not only infuences food choices but is a part of an emerging social movement that prioritizes animal welfare and animal rights and encompasses a broader vegan lifestyle behaviour, not signifcantly affected by social stigma. SOURCE…
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