Health, environmental, and animal rights motives among omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans and the associations with meat, dairy, and egg commitment

Abstract

Dietary groups differ from each other in how much they value health, environmental, and animal rights motives to reduce or quit meat consumption. In an online survey study, we investigated whether omnivores (N = 237), vegetarians (N = 151), and vegans (N = 377) not only differ in their motives for meat reduction or meat-free diets (vegetarian eating motives) but also in their motives for dairy and egg reduction or the adoption of a fully plant-based diet (vegan eating motives), and how strongly these motives are associated with lower commitment to eating meat, dairy, and egg products. The results showed that omnivores rated health as the most important motive for both meat and dairy/egg reduction. However, among omnivores, only environmental and animal rights motives, and not health, were associated with reduced meat and dairy commitment, while environmental motives were also associated with reduced egg commitment. Vegetarians and vegans were more strongly motivated by environmental and animal rights concerns for meat and dairy/egg reduction compared with omnivores, yet vegetarians were less strongly motivated by animal rights than vegans, especially for dairy/egg reduction. However, among vegetarians, only animal rights motives, and not environmental and health motives, were associated with lower dairy and egg commitment. These findings provide new insights into the relative importance of dietary motives for reducing meat, dairy, and egg commitment among different dietary groups and highlight the importance of environmental and animal rights motives for reducing animal product commitment among omnivores and of animal rights motives for reducing dairy and egg commitment among vegetarians.