Differences among vegans, non-vegan vegetarians, pescatarians, and omnivores in perceived social disapproval and approval as a function of diet and source of treatment

ABSTRACT

In studies conducted in the US and Poland, vegans, non-vegan vegetarians, pescatarians, and omnivores described how they perceived they were treated by others as a function of their diet. We found that vegans thought that others treated them more negatively because of their diets than vegetarians or pescatarians did, and pescatarians thought that others treated them less negatively than vegans and vegetarians did. In Study 1 (N = 96), we found that vegans, vegetarians, and pescatarians thought that others treated them more negatively because of their diet than omnivores did. Moreover, perceptions of negative treatment were positively related to how much participants’ diets differed from an omnivorous diet. We replicated these findings in Study 2 (N = 1744), and we also found that vegans, vegetarians, and pescatarians thought that others treated them more positively in some ways compared to omnivores. In Study 3 (N = 1322), we found that differences in perceptions of negative treatment by strangers among vegans, vegetarians, and pescatarians were larger than differences in perceptions of treatment by friends and family members.

KEYWORDS:

• Vegetarianism
• social identity
• vegans
• pescatarians
• social minority

Disclosure statement

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

Availability of data and materials

As noted in the text, all data and materials are available via the Open Science Foundation.

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/b93fv.

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/b93fv.

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 and prosociality.

Catherine A. Forestell

Catherine A. Forestell is an Associate Professor at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, USA. Her research interests include development of food preferences in children and psychological determinants of eating behaviors in adults

Joanna Tomczyk

Joanna Tomczyk is a doctoral student at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw. Her research interests include the effects of gratitude on well-being and vegetarianism.

Marzena Cypryańska

Marzena Cypryańska is an Assistant Professor at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland, and she is Director of Center for Climate Action and Social Transformation (4CAST) at SWPS. Her research interests include climate change mitigation and prosociality.