This article Republished from conversation under Creative Commons License.
Humans have long struggled with their conscience about killing and eating animals. The “meat paradox” – the contradiction between people’s preference for meat and their interest in animals – may have inspired 37,000-year-old cave paintings. Since then, many major thinkers have avoided meat, including Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Mary Shelley, and Mahatma Gandhi.
Half of US adults and three-quarters of UK adults now oppose factory farming, which produces almost all meat, but only 10 follow a meat-free diet. About 1 person per month.
Plant-based diets are becoming increasingly tastier and cheaper in many countries. Adopting them would save more than 80 billion animal lives a year and cause 75 percent less damage to the environment than eating meat.
The benefits of a plant-based diet when it comes to health and longevity are becoming increasingly established, with leading cardiologists saying, “There are two types of cardiologists: vegans and those who don’t read the data.” It has become.
Despite the proven benefits of a vegan diet, most people continue to eat meat, using strategies such as “defensive reasoning” and moral withdrawal and avoidance to reduce psychological anxiety.
Since 2014, the Veganuary campaign, which encourages people to adopt a plant-based diet every January, has attempted to break down these psychological defenses with photos of cute piglets and fluffy chicks and an invitation to try it. I did. Around 25 million people took part last year, including around 4% of the UK population.
Veganuary’s research suggests that more than 80% of participants maintained significant reductions in meat consumption, cutting their intake in half or more after six months.
The University of Exeter independently conducted three online surveys of Veganuary participants (a fourth is currently underway) and found that when people reduce or avoid meat, the way they view it and themselves changes. I did.
I hate meat
On average, people report that they don’t like meat that much, and some even find it disgusting. This complements previous research that found 74 per cent of vegetarians and 15 per cent of flexitarians find meat unpleasant.
Another study of ours (under review) suggests that this “meat aversion” is deep-rooted. People who report it (mostly vegetarians) react to the idea of eating meat in the same way that meat eaters react to the idea of eating feces or human or dog flesh.
photograph
Caption: Aversion to meat runs deep.
Credit: Filip Obr/Alamy Stock Photo
If such negative emotions emerge when people avoid meat during a period of vegetarianism, then cutting out meat long-term may not be the sacrifice many expect. We are currently collecting 12-month data from 100 people who took part in last year’s Veganuary study and will see whether negative feelings towards meat predict long-term changes in meat consumption. is.
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