Health, environmental, and animal rights motives for vegetarian eating.
Health, the environment, and animal rights represent the three main reasons people cite for vegetarian diet in Western societies. However, it has not been shown that these motives can be distinguished empirically, and little is known about what kind of people are likely to be compelled by these diff...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2020-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230609 |
| _version_ | 1818667190674522112 |
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| author | Christopher J Hopwood Wiebke Bleidorn Ted Schwaba Sophia Chen |
| author_facet | Christopher J Hopwood Wiebke Bleidorn Ted Schwaba Sophia Chen |
| author_sort | Christopher J Hopwood |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Health, the environment, and animal rights represent the three main reasons people cite for vegetarian diet in Western societies. However, it has not been shown that these motives can be distinguished empirically, and little is known about what kind of people are likely to be compelled by these different motives. This study had three goals. First, we aimed to use construct validation to test whether develop health, environmental, and animal rights motives for a vegetarian diet could be distinguished. Second, we evaluated whether these motivations were associated with different demographic, behavioral, and personality profiles in three diverse samples. Third, we examined whether peoples' motivations were related to responses to vegetarian advocacy materials. We created the Vegetarian Eating Motives Inventory, a 15-item measure whose structure was invariant across three samples (N = 1006, 1004, 5478) and two languages (English and Dutch). Using this measure, we found that health was the most common motive for non-vegetarians to consider vegetarian diets and it had the broadest array of correlates, which primarily involved communal and agentic values. Correlates of environmental and animal rights motives were limited, but these motives were strong and specific predictors of advocacy materials in a fourth sample (N = 739). These results provide researchers with a useful tool for identifying vegetarian motives among both vegetarian and non-vegetarian respondents, offer useful insights into the nomological net of vegetarian motivations, and provide advocates with guidance about how to best target campaigns promoting a vegetarian diet. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T06:16:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7f013b05d3b444e0913e3cb809a833a0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T06:16:29Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-7f013b05d3b444e0913e3cb809a833a02022-12-21T22:00:30ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032020-01-01154e023060910.1371/journal.pone.0230609Health, environmental, and animal rights motives for vegetarian eating.Christopher J HopwoodWiebke BleidornTed SchwabaSophia ChenHealth, the environment, and animal rights represent the three main reasons people cite for vegetarian diet in Western societies. However, it has not been shown that these motives can be distinguished empirically, and little is known about what kind of people are likely to be compelled by these different motives. This study had three goals. First, we aimed to use construct validation to test whether develop health, environmental, and animal rights motives for a vegetarian diet could be distinguished. Second, we evaluated whether these motivations were associated with different demographic, behavioral, and personality profiles in three diverse samples. Third, we examined whether peoples' motivations were related to responses to vegetarian advocacy materials. We created the Vegetarian Eating Motives Inventory, a 15-item measure whose structure was invariant across three samples (N = 1006, 1004, 5478) and two languages (English and Dutch). Using this measure, we found that health was the most common motive for non-vegetarians to consider vegetarian diets and it had the broadest array of correlates, which primarily involved communal and agentic values. Correlates of environmental and animal rights motives were limited, but these motives were strong and specific predictors of advocacy materials in a fourth sample (N = 739). These results provide researchers with a useful tool for identifying vegetarian motives among both vegetarian and non-vegetarian respondents, offer useful insights into the nomological net of vegetarian motivations, and provide advocates with guidance about how to best target campaigns promoting a vegetarian diet.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230609 |
| spellingShingle | Christopher J Hopwood Wiebke Bleidorn Ted Schwaba Sophia Chen Health, environmental, and animal rights motives for vegetarian eating. PLoS ONE |
| title | Health, environmental, and animal rights motives for vegetarian eating. |
| title_full | Health, environmental, and animal rights motives for vegetarian eating. |
| title_fullStr | Health, environmental, and animal rights motives for vegetarian eating. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Health, environmental, and animal rights motives for vegetarian eating. |
| title_short | Health, environmental, and animal rights motives for vegetarian eating. |
| title_sort | health environmental and animal rights motives for vegetarian eating |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230609 |
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