Abstract
While the diets of most people include meat, millions of individuals follow a meat-free diet. But why do people eat what they eat? Here we explored differences and commonalities in the eating motives of omnivores and veg*ns (i.e., both vegetarians and vegans). Specifically, we compared mean levels and rank order of 18 eating motives in two samples (Study 1: 294 omnivores, 321 veg*ns; Study 2: 112 omnivores, 622 veg*ns). We found that omnivores were more motivated than veg*ns by the eating motives of Traditional Eating and Habits, while veg*ns were more motivated by Animal Protection and Environmental Protection. Differences among groups in Health were inconsistent across studies. Despite these differences in mean levels, the rank order of the eating motives was very similar: Two of the top four eating motives of both diet groups in both studies were Liking and Health, while Social Norms, Social Image, and Religion were among the four least important motives of both groups. Overall, while we did find differences in the absolute importance of certain motives, we also found striking similarities in the relative importance of eating motives, suggesting that including a wide range of eating motives could be beneficial when examining dietary behaviors.
Highlights
While people following an omnivore diet make up the majority of consumers in Western countries, following a vegetarian or vegan diet is far from a fringe occurrence
Omnivores were most motivated–indicated by the highest values in the respective columns in Table 1–by Liking, Needs & Hunger, Health, and Habits, while veg∗ns were most motivated by Liking, Health, Animal Protection, and Need & Hunger. Both omnivores and veg∗ns were least motivated by Religion, Social Image, Affect Regulation, and Social Norms
We found that omnivores were more motivated than veg∗ns by the eating motives of Traditional Eating and Habits, while veg∗ns were more motivated by Animal Protection and Environmental Protection
Summary
While people following an omnivore diet make up the majority of consumers in Western countries, following a vegetarian or vegan diet is far from a fringe occurrence. In the US in 2018, the proportion of adults following a vegetarian diet was around 5%, with around 3% following a vegan diet [2] While these proportions are small compared to omnivores, they represent several million people. Insights into commonalities and differences in the eating motives of omnivores and veg∗ns might be important for researchers who study changes in dietary behavior, it might inform studies into motives or barriers and experiences people make when adopting a different diet. This insight may in turn shed light on why people do or do not maintain a new diet. For marketeers, more knowledge about eating motives of omnivores or veg∗ns might help them to create more targeted interventions or advertisements
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