Moral rebels and dietary deviants: how stereotypes of moral minorities predict the social attractiveness of vegetables

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105284

Commentary

This study investigated why omnivorous dieters view vegetarians and vegans as socially unattractive as accused moral minorities.

Using the differences in morality and sociability demonstrated in research on the universal dimensions of stereotypic content, it was expected that vegetables would be perceived as more moral but less sociable than omnivores.

Lower perceived sociability predicted lower social attractiveness of vegetables, supported by two stereotypes that have been theorized to be associated with moral minorities: moral impressions and quirky impressions.

Those who consciously reduced their meat intake also complemented the quantitative analysis with an analysis of the stereotypical content omnivores freely associated with the diet group.

Thus, using a single-factor between-subjects design of experiment, a diverse sample of omnivores from the UK were randomly assigned to answer questions about either omnivores (n = 100), flexitarians (n = 101), vegetarians (n = 105) or vegans (n = 106).

The results confirmed most of the researchers' hypotheses.

Vegans were perceived to be more moral, but they were stereotyped more negatively. More specifically, they were seen as more eccentric, more moralistic in particular, and predictive of lower social attractiveness, although the indirect effects via sociability were relatively small.

And the quasi-vegetarians shared the positive attributes of both non-quasi-vegetarian groups.