Eat your veggies … and rule the world
A new study has found that vegetarians, on average, have a greater desire to wield power than their meat-eating counterparts.
Vegetarians, it turns out, are not just keen on saving the planet – they’d quite like to run it too.
A study has found that vegetarians, on average, have a greater desire to wield power than their meat-eating counterparts.
They were also more likely to value social status and less inclined to prize kindness.
The differences in attitudes between those who ate meat and those who did not were modest. Professor John Nezlek of SWPS University in Warsaw, who led the research, believes the results are valuable because they challenge the 1970s caricature of the vegetarian as a mild-mannered, tofu-nibbling peacenik.
Instead, compared with their omnivorous peers, they were more likely to endorse values traditionally seen as “manly”.
Professor Nezlek said: “There’s this long association between meat and masculinity. It’s far more common for women to adopt vegetarianism than men, and there are three main reasons that people become vegetarians: health, the environment, and animal welfare ethics.
“When you pile all of that together, you might start to think that vegetarians would be more benevolent, a little less assertive, generally more ‘huggy’ people but I found the opposite.”
The study assessed the values of more than 3500 adults in Poland and the US. Participants were presented with thumbnail sketches of fictional individuals alongside descriptions, such as: “Being very successful is important to him. He likes to impress other people.”
They were then asked: “Do you see yourself in that person?” They responded on a scale from one (not like me at all) to six (very much like me).
In Poland and the US, the vegetarians were more likely to align with values linked to power. They were also more likely to prize achievement and stimulation, suggesting higher levels of personal ambition and a keener appetite for “excitement, novelty and challenge in life”.
By contrast, meat eaters placed more emphasis on benevolence (caring for close family and friends), security (safety and social stability), conformity (not upsetting others) and tradition (respecting established norms).
Vegetarianism remains a minority pursuit but is becoming more popular. As of January, 6 per cent of UK adults identified as vegetarian and 3 per cent as vegan, according to a YouGov poll.
The study, published in the journal PLOS One, did not find a vast gulf between the values of vegetarians and meat eaters.
Professor Nezlek said: “These are small differences, but small effects can have large outcomes over time and accumulatively.”
He suspected the results reflected how vegetarians had historically felt like a besieged minority, adding: “If you look at it through that lens, it starts to make sense: to maintain a vegetarian diet, a certain psychological toughness might be required.”
The Times
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