What Does It Take to Get a Vegetarian to Eat Meat? The majority (54%) of vegetarians were open to the possibility of eating meat

Rosenfeld, Daniel L. 2019. “What Does It Take to Get a Vegetarian to Eat Meat? Factors Predicting Dietary Adherence.” PsyArXiv. October 8. doi:10.31234/osf.io/97a2s

Abstract: Many people say they are vegetarian yet still eat meat on occasion. Despite this paradox having been documented extensively, multivariate attempts to explain individual differences in vegetarians’ levels of dietary adherence are lacking. The current paper presents three highly powered studies (Ns = 589, 592, and 594) that examined what psychological constructs predict a vegetarian’s level of self-imposed dietary adherence, along with a meta-analysis (Study 4) of these studies. The meta-analysis indicated that the majority (54%) of vegetarians were open to the possibility of eating meat. Consistently, factors that distinguished low-adherence from high-adherence vegetarians were social identity variables related to vegetarianism, motivation for vegetarianism, disgust toward meat, and general liking of meat. Higher centrality of vegetarian dieting to one’s identity, greater disgust toward meat, lower liking of meat, longer duration of following a vegetarian diet, and considering oneself to be a vegan were unique predictors of higher dietary adherence intention. Implications for theory, research methodology, and practice are discussed.