HMN 2025: How Vegetarianism is linked to values of autonomy and non-conformity

The values of vegetarians diverge sharply from these of meat-eaters, revealing a profile much less about kindness and extra about individuality, in keeping with psychologist John B. Nezlek at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities and the College of William & Mary.

Contrary to some typical narratives, vegetarians constantly charge energy, stimulation, and achievement as extra central to their private values than their omnivorous friends.

Growing curiosity in plant-based consuming has been shaping conversations round not simply food regimen, however id, and ethics as nicely.

As extra folks scale back or eradicate meat, researchers have turned to psychological frameworks to know the values that accompany these shifts. Much of that work has centered on slender domains equivalent to well being, animal welfare, ecological issues, and sure character traits, leaving the broader motivational structure unexplored.

Psychological research usually lean on character indicators like Openness or Agreeableness to characterize vegetarians, but such traits solely approximate the deeper currents that form decision-making. Beneath these traits lie fundamental human values, summary beliefs that affect decisions throughout cultures and conditions.

Schwartz’s concept of human values has develop into an influential framework for finding out values. Core ideas like custom, self-direction, and universalism are grouped into ten classes that predict real-world habits. Widely used throughout disciplines, this framework has not often been utilized to diet-based teams.

In the research, “Rethinking vegetarianism: Differences between vegetarians and non-vegetarians within the endorsement of fundamental human values,” published in PLOS ONE, Nezlek designed a cross-cultural comparability, grounded in Schwartz’s model of human values, to find out whether or not elementary values differ systematically between individuals who establish as vegetarians and people who don’t.

Three unbiased samples fashioned the idea of the evaluation: one from the United States and two from Poland. Nezlek surveyed 1,054 adults within the US, 636 within the first Polish cohort, and a couple of,102 within the second.

Across all samples, 3,792 adults participated, 883 categorised as vegetarians and a couple of,909 non-vegetarians. To guarantee enough statistical energy, vegetarians had been oversampled within the US and the primary Polish study.

In every dataset, individuals self-identified their dietary habits and gender earlier than finishing worth assessments. Women made up the bulk in all samples, and the typical participant age ranged from the late 30s to early 50s. Participants had been drawn from on-line survey panels, and solely these choosing binary gender classes had been included within the evaluation.

Participants accomplished standardized measures of human values and dietary identification. Values had been assessed utilizing Schwartz’s Portrait Value Questionnaire—both the 57-item revised model within the US or the 21-item type in Poland. Each merchandise requested individuals to charge how a lot an outline of a fictional particular person was like themselves, utilizing a six-point scale. To decrease response bias, scores had been centered on every participant’s general common.

Ten worth domains fashioned the analytical core: Universalism, Benevolence, Conformity, Tradition, Security, Self-direction, Stimulation, Hedonism, Achievement, and Power. Dietary standing was self-reported utilizing predefined classes.

Those figuring out as vegan, plant-based, lacto-vegetarian, or lacto-ovo-vegetarian had been categorised as vegetarians. All others had been designated non-vegetarians, though one Polish pattern excluded pescatarians and semi-vegetarians.

Nezlek analyzed worth scores utilizing two-way ANOVAs to evaluate the consequences of food regimen and gender. To account for a number of comparisons, p-values had been adjusted utilizing the Benjamini–Hochberg process. All individuals offered digital knowledgeable consent, and the analysis was permitted by ethics committees at SWPS University in Pozna?.

Vegetarians constantly rated Benevolence, Security, and Conformity values as much less essential than non-vegetarians throughout all three samples.

Stimulation, Achievement, and Power values had been rated as extra essential by vegetarians, reflecting a repeated sample of distinction. Traditional values had been additionally decrease amongst vegetarians, although this distinction reached statistical significance solely within the Polish cohorts. Benevolence was in constructive territory for vegetarians, simply comparatively decrease than omnivores.

In the United States, vegetarians positioned larger significance on Universalism than non-vegetarians did. In Poland, no vital variations appeared. Self-direction values diverged by nation: extra essential for non-vegetarians within the US, but extra essential for vegetarians in Poland, where the distinction reached statistical significance in a single pattern.

Environmental values, a subcomponent of Universalism, adopted the identical sample—vital within the US, not in Poland. No constant gender-related variations emerged, and interactions between food regimen and gender had been uncommon. All reported results remained statistically sturdy after controlling for a number of comparisons utilizing the Benjamini–Hochberg process.

Nezlek concludes that vegetarianism could mirror a sample of independence and nonconformity moderately than a heightened concern for social concord. Across cultures, vegetarians expressed decrease regard for values linked to social order and custom, equivalent to Conformity, Security, and Benevolence.

At the identical time, they rated values tied to private company, together with Stimulation, Achievement, and Power, as extra essential. Nezlek interprets this mix as proof that vegetarianism could operate much less as an ethical crucial and extra as a type of self-definition by means of resistance to dominant norms.

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