This article is Republished from Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
Humans have long wrestled with their conscience about killing and eating animals. the “The meat paradox” (There may be a conflict between people’s preference for meat and their interest in animals.) Cave paintings inspired 37,000 years ago. Since then, many Great thinkers They, including Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Mary Shelley, and Mahatma Gandhi, shunned meat.
today, Half of adults in the United States and Three quarters of UK adults Opposing factory agriculture that produces Almost all of their meat, but only approx One in 10 Follow a meat-free diet.
Vegetarian diets are becoming increasingly delicious and cheap in many countries. Adopting them would save even more lives 80 billion animals Year and will cause – Reduce environmental damage by 75% From meat diets.
Benefits of relying on plants health and longevity It has become increasingly well established and has given rise to prominence cardiologist To note: “There are two types of cardiologists: vegans and those who haven’t read the data.”
Despite these proven advantages of a vegetarian diet, most people continue to eat meat using strategies such as: “defensive reasoning” or Moral deviance and avoidance To reduce any psychological disorders.
In January of every year since 2014, vegetable The campaign – which encourages people to eat a plant-based diet in January – attempted to break down these psychological defenses with images of tiny piglets and fluffy chicks, and an invitation to try the challenge. Last year, approx 25 million peopleincluding about 4% of the UK populationShe joined.
Research conducted by Veganuary indicates that more than 80% of participants maintain significant reductions in meat consumption, cutting their intake by half or more. Six months later.
At the University of Exeter, we independently conducted three online studies of vegetarian participants (a fourth is underway) and found that when people reduce or avoid meat intake, they also begin to see meat and themselves differently.
Disgust of meat
On average, people reported liking meat less, and some even found it less so gross. This completes our Previous research It shows that 74 percent of vegetarians and 15 percent of flexitarians find meat disgusting.
Another of our studies (under peer review) suggests that this “meat disgust” runs deep. Those who report this (mostly vegetarians) respond to the idea of eating meat in a similar way to how omnivores react to the idea of eating meat. Eating feces, or human or dog meat.
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Caption: Meat disgust runs deep.
Credit: Philip Ober/Alamy Stock Photo
If such negative feelings arise when people avoid meat during vegetarianism, then giving up meat in the long term may not be the sacrifice many expect. We are now collecting data 12 months later from 100 people who participated in our vegetarian study last year and will see whether negative feelings about meat predict long-term changes in meat consumption.