Where the Rubber Meats the Road: Relationships between Vegetarianism and Socio-political Attitudes and Voting Behavior

ABSTRACT

Previous research has found that omnivores are more hierarchical and more authoritarian than vegetarians. To examine if such differences extend to political behavior a sample of American undergraduates (N = 1211) described their diets, endorsement of social policies, political orientation, and voting behavior. Consistent with previous research, we found that compared to vegetarians and semi-vegetarians, omnivores favored conservative policies more strongly and liberal polices less strongly, identified more closely with the Republican party and less closely with the Democratic party, were less liberal, approved of Donald Trump’s performance more, and were more likely to have voted for Trump.

KEYWORDS:

• Vegetarianism
• voting behavior
• conservatism
• liberalism
• Trump

Conflict of interest

The authors declare there are no conflicts of interest.

Research ethics

The authors confirm that the manuscript adheres to ethical guidelines specified in the APA Code of Conduct as well as the ethical guidelines of the IRB of the authors’ home institution. The authors declare that the research was conducted ethically, the results have been reported honestly, the submitted work is original and not (self-)plagiarized, and the authorship reflects individuals’ contributions.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any funding from agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.