Take part in Veganuary and you will see yourself differently

THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons License.

Humans have long struggled with their conscience to kill and eat animals. U “meat paradox” (the conflict between people’s preference for meat and their concern for animals) can have inspired rock paintings from 37,000 years ago. Since then, many leading thinkers have avoided meat, including Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Mary Shelley and Mahatma Gandhi.

Today, half of American adults and three quarters of British adults he opposes the industrial agriculture that produces almost all of them of his flesh, but only approx one in 10 follow a meat-free diet.

Plant-based diets are becoming more palatable and cheaper in many countries. Adopt them save the life above 80 billion animals a year and will prove 75 percent less environmental damage than meat diets.

The advantages of going plant based Hi and longevity are increasingly well established and have prompted an eminent cardiologist to remark, “There are two types of cardiologists: vegans and those who haven’t read the data.”

Despite these proven advantages of a vegan diet, most people continue to eat meat, using strategies such as “defensive reasoning” o moral disengagement and avoidance to reduce any psychological disturbance.

Every January since 2014, the Vegan The campaign – which encourages people to eat a plant-based diet in January – tried to break down these psychological defenses with pictures of cute little pigs, fluffy chicks, and an invitation to take on the challenge. Last year, around 25 million peopleincluding approx 4 percent of the UK populationunited in

Veganuary research suggests that more than 80 percent of participants maintain large reductions in meat consumption, cutting their intake in half or more, after six months.

At the University of Exeter, we independently conducted three online studies of Veganuary participants (a fourth is underway) and found that when people reduce or avoid meat, they also begin to see meat and themselves differently.

Disgust of meat

On average, people say they like it less, with some even finding it disgusting. This complements ours previous research which shows that 74 percent of vegetarians and 15 percent of flexitarians find meat disgusting.

Another of our studies (under peer review) suggests that this “disgust of meat” is deep. Those who report it (mainly vegetarians) respond to the idea of ​​eating meat in a similar way to how meat eaters react to the idea of eat feces, or human or dog meat.

PHOTO
Caption: The disgust of the flesh is deep.
Credit: Filip Obr/Alamy Stock Photo

If such negative feelings emerge when people avoid meat during Veganuary, giving up meat in the long run may not be quite the sacrifice that many expect. We are now collecting 12 months of data on 100 people who participated in our Veganuary study last year and see if negative feelings towards meat predict long-term changes in meat consumption.