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

Introduction

Veg*nism as a stereotype

In recent years, vegetarianism and veganism have begun to be discussed not only as diets, but also as phenomena of interest in social psychology. Veg*nism¹ may provide information about a person, and identifying as a veg*n can contribute to a person’s identity (Nezlek & Forestell, 2020). This information can also act as label, exerting an influence on how others see the person. Moreover, the perception of veg*ns is not always positive. Research in recent years indicates the existence of stereotypes toward veg*ns including the possible existence of a phenomenon called Vegaphobia (Cole & Morgan, 2011).

Researchers argue that veg*ns can be described as a minority group that is the object of discrimination as they are challenging the generally accepted standard in society of eating meat (Edwards, 2013). Although some studies suggest that the perception of vegetarians seems to be changing as attitudes toward this group are getting more positive, the perception of vegans is still mainly negative (Judge & Wilson, 2019). The reason for this difference may be that veganism is seen as an extreme variant of vegetarianism, and vegans are a group that rejects more strongly than vegetarians the accepted norms of society, as a vegan diet differs significantly from the diet of the typical omnivore (Thomas, 2016).

As in other cases of food consumption stereotypes (Vartanian et al., 2007), opinions about vegans are often formed on the basis of a single piece of information regarding what a person eats or what meal they choose to eat in a given situation. Some research has found that vegans are in general perceived negatively (Corrin & Papadopoulos, 2017), and other research suggests that the stereotypes people have about vegans are even stronger than those they have about vegetarians (Corrin & Papadopoulos, 2017). In some studies vegans have been described as being judgmental (Guerin, 2014), and some studies have found that their diet is perceived as less healthy and nutritious (Bryant, 2019).

Some of the perceptions omnivores (and possibly vegetarians) have of vegans can be explained by the previously mentioned fact of treating vegans as an outgroup. It is widely recognized that people prefer their own groups over outgroups. Social identity theory (SIT), for instance, posits that group membership is part of the building of social identity by individuals (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). As a consequence, people have a tendency to view their group as distinct from, and more positive than other groups, and this bias most commonly results in ingroup favoritism and prejudice toward outgroups (Brewer, 1979).

An interesting concept of stereotypes was proposed by Susan Fiske and colleagues (Fiske et al., 2007, 2002) in what is called the stereotype content model (SCM). The model assumes that people categorize outgroups in terms of two main dimensions: warmth and competence. In many cases, group stereotypes appear high on one dimension and low on the other and a particular configuration of these dimensions determines the type of stereotype and the emotions felt toward this group. For example, an outgroup high in warmth and low in competence, usually low-status and noncompetitive, e.g., the elderly or people with disabilities, often evokes paternalistic prejudices and emotions, such as pity and sympathy. On the other hand, a high-status and competitive outgroup that is low in warmth and high in competence often evokes envy prejudices.

MacInnis and Hodson (2017) applied this concept to the perception of vegetarians and demonstrated that both vegetarians and vegans are perceived as more competent than warm, likely making them the targets of envy. Furthermore, they showed that attitudes toward vegetarians and vegans were similar to or even more negative than toward other commonly stigmatized groups. Moreover, vegans (a group that challenges social norms more than vegetarians) were evaluated most negatively than vegetarians.

Gender bias in the perception of veg*ns

Previous studies also show that, in context of the influence of a veg*n diet on a person’s perception, the importance of gender cannot be ignored as women and men are perceived differently in this context. This influence is especially important in dieters who exclude foods that are typically associated with a certain gender. An example of such food is meat, which is linked to masculinity in most societies (Modlinska et al., 2020). The metaphorical association between meat and masculinity results in the perception of male vegetarians as less masculine than meat-eating men (Rozin et al., 2012; Ruby & Heine, 2011).

Given that masculinity is largely socially constructed rather than biologically determined, and that it is achieved through social displays, competition (Ruby & Heine, 2011), and position in the social hierarchy, it can be hypothesized that perceived masculinity will play a role in the context of vegetarianism. Moreover, in the perception of veg*ns, the gender of not only the target (the veg*n person being evaluated) but also the source (the person who evaluates veg*ns) may play a role. Existing research has found that non-veg*n men exhibit more negative (or less positive) attitudes toward vegetarians than non-veg*n women. For example, the analysis by Judge and Wilson (2019) showed that non-veg*n men expressed significantly less positive attitudes toward vegetarians and vegans than female non-veg*ns.

People’s stereotypes about veg*ns can be manifested in different ways. For example, the differences in attitudes toward people of different diets may be manifest when individuals begin intimate relationships (Timeo & Suitner, 2018). As mentioned previously, one’s dietary habits can cause the onset of a particular impression based on certain stereotypes, and the characteristics stereotypically associated with food intake originate, among others, from perceived gender roles (Vartanian, 2015). For example, those who eat “unhealthy” foods and larger meals may be perceived as more masculine (Vartanian et al., 2007).

This perception of food in terms of femininity–masculinity might also translate into classifying individuals with a preference for a specific diet into ’masculine’ and ’feminine’ groups and, consequently, into forming a preference for certain individuals. This effect appears in studies of potential vegetarian and omnivorous partners. Omnivorous men are rated as more attractive and women feel more positive about them than about vegetarian men. This effect is, once again, mediated by masculinity. Vegetarians might be less attractive because they are less masculine (Timeo & Suitner, 2018).

Gender bias in a job-related context

The effect of gender stereotypes, attitudes, and preferences has been studied in job-related situations (Budziszewska et al., 2014; Fuegen et al., 2004; Halper et al., 2019). These studies are based on social role theory, which predicts that people make inferences about social groups from their typical social roles, and occupation is one such role (Koenig & Eagly, 2014). This theory may be applied to gender. Professions in which either males or females are clearly overrepresented will be the professions from which perceivers infer gender stereotypes (e.g., attributes that females or males supposedly have). In general, gender stereotypes of men include being less warm and more competent than women (Halper et al., 2019).

As a result, male‐dominated jobs, including leadership and executive positions across many different occupations, tend to be stereotyped as requiring more competence (i.e., “male‐like” traits), whereas female‐dominated jobs tend to be stereotyped as requiring more warmth (i.e., “female‐like” traits; Cuddy et al., 2008). In occupations that are female dominated (usually those involving caregiving), it is believed that stereotypically feminine traits are required to do the job well. In contrast, if an occupational group is considered male (e.g., a stock broker), people believe that stereotypically masculine traits need to be displayed in order to be successful in that job (Vervecken et al., 2015).

Thus, the content of a stereotype can have far-reaching consequences, such as specific intergroup behaviors (Cuddy et al., 2008), including reduced pay and smaller chances of being hired or promoted (Heilman, 2012). Although gender discrimination in a job-related context usually affects women (e.g., González et al., 2019; Neumark et al., 1996), in general, men endorse more traditional views on gender roles (Davies, 2004) and exhibit a stronger gender bias than women do (Aosved & Long, 2006).

The gender stereotype research that has been conducted thus far has usually focused on one dimension of a stereotype (e.g., the gender stereotype in the context of vegetarianism or in the context of the job position, treated independently). However, studies show that the information about the person (e.g., hobbies a person has), not only his or her professional experience, is a crucial component of CV that can indirectly affect the perception of a person on the dimensions inferred from this information (Nuijten et al., 2017).

People generally have expectations of how a typical employee or candidate in an occupation behaves. In this context, a new question arises of what happens when several gender-related stereotypes are confronted: the veg*nism stereotype, the gender stereotype, and the job position stereotype. In other words, what happens when in the context of a job application for a certain position (stereotypically female or male) a candidate (female or male) discloses that he or she is veg*n or not (information which might strengthen female stereotype)? Since information about a veg*n diet evokes a female stereotype, we assume that this information will be better suited to an occupation associated with feminine qualities (stereotypically perceived as requiring feminine attributes) and a situation where the candidate is also a woman. Such a situation of stereotype consistency should facilitate the perception of a better fit between the person and the position.

On the other hand, when information about a vegetarian diet (stereotypically female) appears for a male candidate and a stereotypically male position, this will create a situation of the inconsistency of stereotypes. Consequently, such a situation of inconsistency should promote the perception of an inferior fit between the person and the position in question. Stereotypical inferences about diet may underlie discriminatory behavior, such as lower rates of hiring, and in this study, we focused on the warmth and competence as the two core dimensions of social judgment.

Research has found (e.g., Farber et al., 2017) that adding a stereotype changes the perception of a person already possessing a stereotypical trait. For example, women (stereotypically perceived as warm) in positions requiring warmth are perceived differently depending on their age (another stereotyped demographic trait). It is possible that men who do not consume meat, who are applying for stereotypically female jobs may pose a double threat to the social status quo, not only by violating gender role expectations in job context but also by following a diet that may be considered less masculine. On the other hand, men in general tend to be evaluated as less warm and, as a result, less suitable for job positions that stereotypically require female characteristics (e.g., warmth; Halper et al., 2019). It may be hypothesized that veganism in men could lead to the opposite effect where male vegans could be perceived as warmer than non-vegan men when applying for stereotypically female positions.

Current study

The present experiment was designed to determine how information about following a vegan diet changes the perception of women and men in the two dimensions of stereotype content: warmth and competence. Following the Thomas (2016) study, in the present research we activated a vegan stereotype instead of a vegetarian stereotype, because a vegan stereotype may be more extreme than a vegetarian stereotype and may have a stronger influence on person perception.

Based on social identity theory we can assume that information about following a vegan diet will activate a stereotype and will influence person perception. Information about a person’s diet (being vegan vs. not being vegan) will influence the perception of a person on the competence and warmth dimension depending on whether the applicant is a woman or a man. Moreover, gender stereotypes connected to the diet will be strengthened by the stereotype evoked by the gender of the candidate.

Hypothesis 1: Compared to job candidates who are not described as vegans, male candidates described as vegans will be perceived as more competent, whereas female candidates described as vegans will be perceived as warmer.

Based on social role theory, job positions can be perceived as more suitable for women or for men (Koenig & Eagly, 2014), and at the same time, require stereotypical traits of women or men. If this was the case, information about the diet a person follows (being vegan vs not being vegan) will have a different influence on person perception (the competence and warmth dimensions) depending on which position the person will apply for (a stereotypically female or male position). Stereotypes connected to the diet will have a different influence depending on the job position (stereotypically female or male) and the gender of the candidates, the strength of this influence and its direction will depend on the consistency of these dimensions.

Hypothesis 2: There will be an interaction of diet of the candidate, gender of the candidate, and stereotyped gender of job.

Hypothesis 2a: Vegan male candidates will be evaluated less positively than non-vegan male candidates when applying for a stereotypically male position. In contrast, vegan male candidates will be evaluated more positively than non-vegan male candidates when applying for a stereotypic female position.

Hypothesis 2b: Vegan female candidates will be evaluated more positively than non-vegan female candidates when applying for a stereotypic female position. In contrast, vegan female candidates will be evaluated less positively than non-vegan female candidates when applying for a stereotypic male position.

In addition, we controlled for the gender of the respondent to determine if perceptions of vegans differ between women and of men.

Method

Participants

The study was conducted in Poland, on an online research panel specializing in social studies (Computer Assisted Web Interview, CAWI) in April 2020. A total of 867 people participated in the study (531 women; 336 men), aged 18–85 years (M = 40.24, SD = 13.84). A total of 22% of the respondents lived in the countryside, 11% in a small city (up to 20,000 residents), 25% in a medium-sized city (up to 99,000 inhabitants), 23% in a big city (with a population up to 500,000), and 19% in a large city (with more than 500,000 inhabitants). Most of the participants (89%) had secondary or higher education, of which 46% had a university degree. Therefore, the sample is similar to a representative sample based on the distribution of age, education, and the size of the place of living. The diet of the participants was also controlled: nearly 97% of the sample ate meat, 3% of the sample was vegetarian, and less than 1% (n = 3) were vegan. 4% of vegetarians and vegans were removed from further analysis because the perception of the in-group member may differ from the judgment of the out-group member (Park & Judd, 1990). Therefore, the effective sample was n = 838.

Sample sizes were estimated a priori based on power analyses using G*Power (Faul et al., 2007). This showed that, given α = 0.05 and 0.95 power, a sample size of 400 participants would be sufficient to detect medium effects (ƒ = 0.25). Our final sample was larger (the panel delivered a bigger sample than we had ordered), allowing us to detect medium to small size effect (ƒ = 0.17).

The respondents were randomly assigned to eight experimental conditions with controlling proportions of women and men in each condition. All the participants gave their consent to participate in the research after having received detailed information on the purpose and procedure of the study.

Research design

The research was an experimental design in which respondents were randomly presented with one of eight versions of a CV (2x2x2 design). The participants were faced with a fictitious situation of evaluating a candidate for a job based on his/her CV. The experimental conditions (versions of a CV) differed in three dimensions: (a) approach to food (diet) – being vegan or not; (b) gender of the job candidate – woman or man; (c) job position – consistent with the stereotype of a female occupation (psychologist) or a male stereotypical occupation (financial analyst).

Materials and procedure

In the first stage of the study, the participants were presented with the following instructions:

Sometimes there are situations in life where we have to make a decision based on a limited amount of information. We would like to see how the impression of people applying for different jobs is formed based on the limited information provided in a CV. You will soon see a CV that contains a small amount of information about the candidate. Imagine that a new person is to be hired for the company you work for. This person is supposed to be a psychologist/financial analyst (depending on the condition). You are assigned the task of choosing the most suitable candidate for this position. To do this, read the CV you are about to see very carefully. It contains very little information but try to make a judgment about the candidate as a person and decide whether he or she should be hired.

After reading the introduction, respondents were randomly assigned to one of the eight experimental conditions and were presented with one of the eight versions of the candidate’s CV. In the resume, some basic information was also presented (including previous experience in the given position and education related to the position. The CVs are displayed in supplementary materials. The minimum CV exposure time was 60 seconds, after which the examined person could proceed to the next part of the study.

Next, the respondents were asked to imagine the person whose CV they had just read and to answer a series of questions about the candidate. The questions measured perceptions of warmth and competence. After that, the respondents answered questions about the suitability of the candidate for the job position and about their willingness to hire the candidate. At the end, control questions were asked about the diet of the respondent.

Manipulation of diet, gender, and job position

The CVs differed in terms of the candidate’s diet (vegan or non-vegan). In the vegan condition, the information of “plant-based cooking (I am vegan)” was added in the hobby section. In the non-vegan condition, the information only stated “cooking” as a hobby description. The decision to include “cooking” instead of a different diet was dictated by previous studies showing that different diets could also evoke different stereotypes (e.g., gluten free, Aloni et al., 2019). Other information such as the candidate’s name was chosen in such a way as to ensure that it was as neutral as possible and would not arouse particularly positive or particularly negative emotions. The full CVs presented to the participants can be found in the supplemental materials.

Because vegan stereotypes are linked to gender (Rozin et al., 2012), the gender of the job applicant was manipulated. In the female condition, the candidate had a feminine name, and in the male condition masculine version of the same name. Both names were frequently used names in Poland. In addition, gendered forms of verbs and nouns were used in the CVs (female forms in female conditions and male in male conditions).

The presented CV differed in terms of the job position for which the candidate applied and in which he/she has an experience. Two positions were presented: a financial analyst (stereotypically masculine) and a psychologist (stereotypically feminine). Caregiving professions are often perceived as jobs that require high warmth and sociability, which are characteristics that are more commonly associated with women, leading people to perceive them as “feminine” (Halper et al., 2019). In contrast, finance-related occupations are perceived as masculine, hence the choice of a financial analyst as a stereotypically male position.

Stereotype content – the warmth and competence scale

The warmth and competence scale (Fiske et al., 2002) was used to evaluate the job candidate. Participants were presented with 10 statements, asking for an assessment of how each of them fits the candidate described in the CV they had read earlier. The assessment was made on a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 – definitely does not fit, and 7 – fits perfectly. Five of the statements concerned aspects from the warmth dimension (warm, good-natured, friendly, trustworthy, and well-intentioned), and 5 from the competence dimension (competent, efficient, capable, confident, and intelligent).

Two dependent measures were created by summing responses for the warmth and competence items. The score for each dimension could range from 5 to 35. A higher value on a given scale indicates a stronger perception of the person in that dimension (competence or warmth). Both the warmth and competence measures were reliable (α = .92, .89 respectively).

Suitability for a position and willingness to hire

Since the subjects were informed in the instructions that their task would be to select the most suitable candidate for the job, after reading the CV, they were asked to indicate how suitable the person the person whose CV they read is for the position on a scale from 1 to 7 (1 – completely unsuitable, and 7 – completely suitable). Next, they were asked to answer the question of whether they would hire this person to work as a psychologist or financial analyst in their company (depending on the experimental condition). The respondents answered on a scale from 1 to 7 (1 – I would definitely not hire, and 7 – I would definitely hire). Those measures were used also to increase the participants’ involvement in the study and, on the other, to provide a more natural setting for the study.

Results

Preliminary analysis

The primary analyses were three-way analyses of variance: target diet (vegan vs. not), target gender (male vs. female), and position (financial analyst vs. psychologist). The dependent measures were perceived warmth, perceived competence, willingness to hire, and evaluation of the suitability for the position. All main effects and interactions not relevant to specific hypotheses are described in supplementary materials.

In addition, to determine if the gender of the participants played a role in the evaluation of the targets, a three-way analysis of covariance was conducted with gender of the participants as a covariate (Female = 1, Male = 0). Gender of participants was not significantly related to evaluation of competence, F <1, p = .72, warmth F(1, 829) = 1.96, p = .16, willingness to hire, F(1,829) = 2.14, p = .14, and suitability for the position, F(1,829) = 2.30, p = .08. Therefore, this variable was omitted in the analyses described below.

Tests of hypotheses

H1 – Effect of diet and gender on evaluation of the candidate

First, we examined if the perceived competence of vegan and non-vegan male candidates differed. A three-way analysis of variance showed that there was a main effect for diet in the evaluation of competence, F(1, 830) = 14.66, p <.001; however, this main effect was qualified by a significant interaction of diet and candidate gender, F(1, 830) = 19.18, p < .001. Planned comparisons showed that the perceived competence of men was significantly lower in the vegan condition than in the non-vegan condition (p < .001). However, there was no significant interaction effect between the diet and the gender in the evaluation of warmth, F < 1, p = .43. The mean evaluation scores for each of the design conditions are presented in Table 1. As predicted, compared to job candidates who are not described as vegans, male candidates described as vegans were perceived as less competent, whereas female candidates described as vegans, contrary to the predictions, were not perceived as warmer, which partially confirms H1.

Table 1. Perception of job candidate competence and warmth depending on the diet, gender, and job position – mean and standard deviation for each of the experimental conditions (N = 838).

Variable	Gender of the candidate
	Woman (n = 395)		Man (n = 443)
	Job position		Job position
	Psychologist (n = 195)	Financial analyst (n = 200)	Psychologist (n = 227)	Financial analyst (n = 216)
VEGAN diet (n = 416)	Woman, Vegan, Psychologist (n = 85)	Woman, Vegan, Financial analyst (n = 97)	Man, Vegan, Psychologist (n = 117)	Man, Vegan, Financial analyst (n = 108)
	Competence
	M = 24.40SD = 5.53	M = 24.28SD = 4.76	M = 22.75SD = 4.66	M = 20.18SD = 4.77
	Warmth
	M = 24.66SD = 4.53	M = 21.04SD = 4.56	M = 21.91SD = 4.92	M = 21.43SD = 4.26
NON-VEGAN diet (n = 441)	Woman, Non-Vegan, Psychologist (n = 110)	Woman, Non-Vegan, Financial analyst (n = 103)	Man, Non-Vegan, Psychologist (n = 110)	Man, Non-Vegan, Financial analyst (n = 108)
	Competence
	M = 23.85 SD = 5.19	M = 24.48SD = 5.49	M = 23.15SD = 4.10	M = 25.42SD = 4.92
	Warmth
	M = 22.41 SD = 5.33	M = 22.22SD = 5.14	M = 21.53SD = 4.43	M = 22.07SD = 5.30

Next, we determined if there were any differences in suitability for the job and willingness to hire of male vegans and non-vegans candidates. Only the main effect of the job position was significant, F(1, 830) = 24.96, p < .001, and a financial analyst was perceived as more suitable for the position in general (M = 5.29, SD = 1.19) than a psychologist (M = 4.85, SD = 1.31). There were no significant differences in the suitability of vegans and non-vegans and women and men for the position. There were also no statistically significant interaction effects in evaluation of suitability for the job between diet, job position, and gender of the candidate

In the next step, the same analysis was carried out for willingness to hire. Similarly to the suitability for the position, only the main effect of the job position was statistically significant, F(1, 834) = 29.44, p < 0,001 and, once again, the participants were more willing to hire a financial analyst candidate (M = 5.18, SD = 1.29) than a psychologist candidate (M = 4.65, SD = 1.45).

H2: Interaction of diet of the candidate, gender of the candidate, and gender stereotype of job.

There was a statistically significant three-way interaction among candidate gender, candidate diet, and job position in the evaluation of competence F(1, 830) = 9.01, p = .003. See, Figure 1. In contrast, there was no statistically significant three-way interaction in evaluation of warmth, F(1, 859) = 3.21, p = .07. See, Figure 2. Planned comparisons of competence evaluation showed that, according to the predictions (H2a), vegan male candidates were evaluated less positively than non-vegan male candidates when applying for a stereotypic male position (p < .001). However, contrary to the predictions, there was no difference in the evaluation of vegan male candidates and non-vegan male candidates when applying for a stereotypically female position, i.e., psychologist (p = .548).

Figure 1. Competence evaluation – interaction between job position and diet in men (1.1) and women (1.2) conditions.

Figure 2. Warmth evaluation – interaction between job position and diet in the men (2.1) and women (2.2) conditions.

Similar planned comparisons were made of the evaluations of female candidates. There was no significant difference in the evaluation of competence in female candidates and non-vegan female candidate when applying for a stereotypic female position (p = .443). However, vegan female candidates who were applying for a psychologist position were evaluated as warmer than non-vegan female candidates applying for this position (p = .001).

When applying for the stereotypic male position, vegan female candidates’ evaluation did not differ from non-vegan female candidates’ evaluation both in warmth (p = .084) and competence (p = .777). Obtained results only partially confirm H2b.

Conclusion and discussion

The present study investigated how being a vegan interacts with gender stereotypes to affect the decisions regarding competence and warmth of a person. As predicted (H1), information about being vegan decreased the perception of a male candidate on the competence dimension; however, in the case of women, information about the diet did not influence the perceived warmth or competence. These results may indicate that veganism, a diet strictly related to the avoidance of meat, which is metaphorically connected to masculinity, is important only in the perception of male stereotypes.

Vegan males may be perceived as less masculine, thus, having less stereotypically masculine traits (competence). This is in line with studies that have shown that men eating feminine foods (e.g., healthy and non-meat products) are perceived to be more feminine than those on stereotypically male diets (Bradbury & Nicolaou, 2012). Such an influence was not observed in the case of the female job applicant. The lack of difference in the case of women may be the consequence of veganism being in line with the gender stereotypes of women, thus, it does not affect their perception.

The obtained results show that, in line with previous studies (Rothgerber, 2013; Rozin et al., 2012), the vegan stereotype is still strongly connected to gender, and the perception of vegans has a different meaning in male and female targets. However, the lack of differences between women may also be due to sample size. A design and sample may be underpowered for detecting small effect sizes (the study sample was sufficient to detect a medium to small size effect). On the other hand, the effect for male candidates was medium (η² = 0.08), so the same effect size would have been expected for female candidates.

We found that the vegan stereotype is so strong that it can influence the perception of people even in a non-diet context. As predicted, information about a vegan diet acted alone but also in concert with the applicant’s gender to affect the applicant’s evaluations. When these factors interacted, the resulting pattern indicated a worse evaluation of competence in men, but only when applied to a stereotypically male job position (H2a). When the male participant was vegan and applied for a financial analyst position, the man was perceived as less competent than a male candidate for the same position who was not on a vegan diet. The diet of women did not influence their perceived competence, regardless of the job position for which they were applying. However, when woman applied for a stereotypical feminine position (psychologist) and was a vegan, she was evaluated as warmer. Although contrary to predictions (H2b), this gender, veganism, and job-position effect did not appear in the overall evaluation, however, it was observed that in general, vegans who applied for a stereotypically female position (psychologist) were perceived to be warmer than vegans applying for a stereotypically male position (financial analyst).

Our results further show that female stereotypes do not function identically across all groups of people. Men may be devalued by possessing stereotypically feminine traits (perceived as less competent), while women do not necessarily gain from the addition of female traits (e.g., being vegan). Our results may also indicate that veganism is not just a gender stereotype. The devaluation of vegans along the dimension of warmth speaks against the perception of vegans as “female.” According to MacInnis and Hodson (2017), perceptions of vegans are similar to those of other groups that challenge accepted norms (e.g., feminists).

In summary, our research shows that people use gender stereotypes to make judgments about others. Being vegan enhances the negative aspects of stereotypes about women and makes men less “masculine” and therefore less competent. Consequently, vegan men are seen as less competent to do stereotypically male jobs.

Limitations and further studies

The conducted study is not free from limitations. Although there were differences in the evaluation of warmth and competence, we did not obtain significant differences between any conditions in the evaluation of aspects related to the actual job. In general, CVs contained little information related to applying for a new position – completed school, previous employment, and information about hobbies. Participants were also not trained to make decisions about whether someone should be hired – they were not professional recruiters. Thus, it was a fictitious situation, the persons did not have adequate experience, and they also had little information to decide whether a person was suitable for the position – however, there was enough information to express an opinion about the person (at the level of warmth and competence assessment).

Our results show that male vegans may experience social exclusion rather than economic exclusion (and thus are disliked rather than unemployed). Vegans are not viewed negatively in an absolute sense, but rather in some specific area. The stigmatization of vegans may have the character of minimizing dissonance (Rothgerber, 2014), but the present results suggest that this does not translate into stronger types of exclusion such as not being hired. This explanation seems to be supported by previous studies that have found that reaction to vegans is one of joking and ridicule rather than behavioral prejudice (Cole & Morgan, 2011; Guerin, 2014).

In the study, the effect of gender of the evaluator was controlled and significant differences were not observed, meaning that women and men evaluated the candidates in the same way. This is not in line with previous studies, which stated that a negative attitude toward vegetarians occurs mainly among men. It should be noted that the study group was unequal in terms of gender, hence, the possibility of not obtaining any differences. In subsequent studies on this topic, more attention should be paid to the gender balance of the respondents.

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.

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.

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.

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.