You are what you eat: an introduction to the special issue on the social psychology of vegetarianism and meat restriction: implications of conceptualizing dietary habit as a social identity

ABSTRACT

People’s diets can serve as a basis for social identity, and the papers in this special issue examine the social psychological implications of vegetarianism as a social identity. The papers run the gamut from examining how vegetarians are viewed by the omnivorous majority to examining interventions designed to reduce meat consumption. In this paper I provide background information to provide a context for understanding the articles. This information includes a discussion of definitions of vegetarianism, people’s motives for adopting a vegetarian diet, and some of the individual differences other than diet that distinguish vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

KEYWORDS:

• Vegetarianism
• social identity
• meat restriction
• veganism

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The preparation of this paper was supported by grant 2018/31/B/HS6/02822 from the Polish National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) to John Nezlek.

Notes on contributors

John B. Nezlek

John B. Nezlek is a Professor at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, and the College of William & Mary. His research interests include vegetarianism as a social psychological construct, prosociality, daily experience, and applications of multilevel modeling in personality and social psychology.