Politics!
No, wait, don’t run off. It’s fine. It’ll all be fine. Hopefully. Probably.
That said, a recent study found that conservatives are far more likely to return to consuming meat after being on a vegan diet.
The study by Gordon Hodson – a psychology professor at Brock University – used a sample of 1,313 current and former vegans and looked at the reasons behind why some people return to eating animals after their initial decision to go vegetarian or vegan. The study investigated the importance of a variety of factors that could be behind people’s motivation including often cited reasons such as “meat cravings” and “lifestyle inconvenience” but found that one of the most important reasons was that of people’s “social justice” values.
Whilst it may not be entirely surprising, it appears that the main reason of this finding is down to a person’s political ideology. Hodson noted that “Specifically, a greater odds of returning to meat consumption was predicted by ideology because those higher in conservatism reported fewer justice reasons for attempting vegan practice in the first place, and because they reported feeling socially unsupported in their non-meat consumption endeavors.”
It may be tricky (or not) for some to stick with, or even start a vegan lifestyle for many reasons, however a little bit of help from those around you could be the biggest aide of all.
Hodson’s study has even gone as far as to point out a way of tackling the potential roadblock to veganism for those on the right-hand side of the political spectrum: more activism and more prominent vegan figures on the right. Almost all high profile vegans lean towards the left and in an increasingly politically divided world – this is another needless barrier to those who are interested in veganism.
In fact, in researching this topic it became clear that there are not a huge amount of prominent conservative vegans and that those who are began any discussion on it as defensively as this article began, citing incredible resistance to a vegan lifestyle from the right.
Are right-wing politics and veganism incompatible? No, of course not. It’s just a little barrier that needs breaking down a bit. Some “exposure to documentaries or books on the impact of meat consumption on animals and the environment could help those striving to achieving a vegan diet as their own personal goal” could be all it needs. Just not from some preachy, left-wing, snowflake, virtue signaller… Or whatever.
Image Credit: Marvin RECINOS/AFP/Getty Images | NBC
