Vegan stereotypes and person perception in a job application situation – differences depending on the type of job and the gender of the candidate

ABSTRACT

The objective of the study was to examine the influence of vegan stereotypes on person perception in the context of a job application. The study was conducted online on a representative sample of Polish adults (N = 838). Participants evaluated a fictitious CV of a candidate applying for a job. The CV varied in three dimensions: (a) diet of the candidate (vegan or not); (b) gender of the candidate; and (c) job position (stereotypically male or female). The candidate was evaluated on the dimensions of warmth and competence (based on the stereotype content model). A three-way analysis of variance (2x2x2) showed that in the case of a male candidate applying for a stereotypically male job (financial analyst), information about veganism lowered his perception on the competence dimension (stereotype inconsistency). These results indicate that vegans are targets of ambivalent stereotypes and that bias toward this group depends on the gender of the person following a vegan diet.

KEYWORDS:

• Veganism
• stereotypes
• gender differences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/b68mq.

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/b68mq.

Notes

1. The term “veg*n” and “veg*nism” are used in the text to define both vegans and vegetarians. If a distinction between those two groups is necessary, the single term “vegan” or “vegetarian” is used.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, from the funds awarded to Dominika Adamczyk by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the form of a subsidy for the maintenance and development of research potential in 2020 (501-D125-01-1250000 zlec. 5011000236).

Notes on contributors

Dominika Adamczyk

Dominika Adamczyk is a doctoral student at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests focus on food choices in adults, especially novel food.

Dominika Maison

Dominika Maison is a Professor at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw. Her research interests concern unconscious consumer processes, food attitudes and behavior, and the methodology of consumer research.