We Can’t Keep Meating Like This: Attitudes towards Vegetarian and Vegan Diets in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Animal agriculture is implicated as a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions, animal suffering and public health problems. This survey asked 1000 UK meat-eaters about their beliefs about vegetarian and vegan diets, and their intended consumption of meat and animal products one month in the future. One in six intended to reduce their meat consumption in the next month, and 14% intended to reduce their consumption of animal products. The majority agreed that vegetarian and vegan diets are ethical, good for the environment and healthy. The majority also agreed that both vegetarianism and veganism were socially acceptable. However, there were three consistent negative beliefs about vegetarian and vegan diets: that they are difficult, that they are not enjoyable and that they are expensive. Moreover, perceptions of vegan diets were significantly more negative than perceptions of vegetarian diets on most aspects. Significant differences in perceptions of each diet were observed between genders, by age, political inclination, level of education, and income. It is argued that most meat-eaters agree with the ethical and environmental arguments in favour of vegetarianism/veganism but do not follow these diets because of practical reasons relating to taste, price and convenience. New alternatives to animal products are discussed as a possible way to address these practical barriers. Finally, the case is made for more research on developing high-quality, low-cost and widely available animal product alternatives.

Full text

sustainability
Article
We Can’t Keep Meating Like This: Attitudes towards
Vegetarian and Vegan Diets in the United Kingdom
Christopher J. Bryant
Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK; C.J.Bryant@bath.ac.uk
Received: 25 October 2019; Accepted: 26 November 2019; Published: 2 December 2019


Abstract:
Animal agriculture is implicated as a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions, animal
suffering and public health problems. This survey asked 1000 UK meat-eaters about their beliefs
about vegetarian and vegan diets, and their intended consumption of meat and animal products one
month in the future. One in six intended to reduce their meat consumption in the next month, and 14%
intended to reduce their consumption of animal products. The majority agreed that vegetarian
and vegan diets are ethical, good for the environment and healthy. The majority also agreed that
both vegetarianism and veganism were socially acceptable. However, there were three consistent
negative beliefs about vegetarian and vegan diets: that they are difficult, that they are not enjoyable
and that they are expensive. Moreover, perceptions of vegan diets were significantly more negative
than perceptions of vegetarian diets on most aspects. Significant differences in perceptions of each
diet were observed between genders, by age, political inclination, level of education, and income.
It is argued that most meat-eaters agree with the ethical and environmental arguments in favour
of vegetarianism/veganism but do not follow these diets because of practical reasons relating to taste,
price and convenience. New alternatives to animal products are discussed as a possible way to address
these practical barriers. Finally, the case is made for more research on developing high-quality,
low-cost and widely available animal product alternatives.
Keywords: vegetarian; vegan; attitudes; consumer behaviour; meat reduction
1. Background
1.1. The Case against Animal Products
Global animal agriculture is a substantial contributor to environmental degradation, human
health problems and animal suffering. First, animal agriculture exacerbates a number of serious
environmental issues. According to recent comprehensive environmental analyses, rearing animals for
food is a major cause of eutrophication, acidification, freshwater withdrawal, deforestation and climate
change [
1
,
2
]. It is estimated that 14.5% of anthropic greenhouse gas emissions are associated with animal
agriculture [
3
]. Additionally, due to the demand put on land for rearing animals or growing their feed,
animal agriculture is responsible for up to 91% of deforestation in the Amazon [
4
]. The implications
of these emissions and land use for climate change are dire. The inefficiency of converting plant calories
to animal calories means that animal rearing is resource-intensive, and this contributes to global
food insecurity [
5
,
6
]. This is especially concerning given that demand for animal products is forecast
to increase dramatically as the global population grows and becomes more affluent [7].
In addition to environmental concerns, many have ethical objections to using animals for food [
8
].
In particular, a drive for economic efficiency has led to increasingly inhumane conditions for farmed
animals over the last number of decades [
9
]. It is estimated that globally, over 90% of farmed animals live
their lives on factory farms [
10
] where they are kept in cages, routinely mutilated without painkillers,
and painfully slaughtered [
11
]. This represents billions of animals every year [
10
]. If we take this
Sustainability 2019,11, 6844; doi:10.3390/su11236844 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 2 of 17
suffering seriously, the sheer scale and intensity surely means that today’s animal agriculture represents
one of the largest moral failings of our time.
There are also concerns around the effect of excessive animal product consumption on human
health, though the evidence here is less clear due to the difficulty of studying the health effects
of different diets [
2
]. Nonetheless, there are several epidemiological studies which show a correlation
between animal product consumption and various health problems, including cardiovascular disease,
type 2 diabetes, cancer and overall mortality [
12
–
16
]. This has led to the view that a substantial
reduction in animal product consumption is necessary for a global shift towards healthier diets [2].
There are good arguments for individuals to move towards vegetarianism or veganism for ethical,
environmental and health reasons. Indeed, some data suggest that an increasing number of consumers
in the UK are doing precisely that.
1.2. Vegetarianism and Veganism in the UK
There are several surveys estimating the number of vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians and
flexitarians in the UK in the last decade (see Table 1). With the exception of one outlier here [
17
],
representative surveys generally estimate the number of vegans at around 1–2% of the adult population,
vegetarians around 2–7% and pescatarians 3–9%. The estimates for those who are flexitarian and/or
have some desire to reduce their meat consumption vary more because those are less well-defined
categories, and different surveys use different questions.
Table 1. Survey results indicating levels of vegetarianism and veganism in the UK.
Survey Sample Vegan Vegetarian Pescatarian Flexitarian
Willing/Intending
to Reduce Meat
Consumption
[18]‘More than 2000’ UK
residents 2% 6% 4% - 25%
[19] 9933 adults (age 15+) 1.1% 2.3% - - -
[20]
1715 UK adults (age 18+)
- 7% - - 34%
[21]
2023 UK adults (age 18+)
1% 6% 9% - 20%
[22] 2000 UK adults 1.3% 6.9% 4.1% - 10%
[23]UK, further information
not given 1% 3% 3% 14% 29%
[17]UK, information
not given 7% 14% - 31% -
[24]
2241 adults (aged 16+)
in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland
1% 3% - - -
[25]
3118 adults (aged 16+)
in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland
<1% 3% - - -
[26]3453 adults (aged 16+)
across the UK - 2% - 3% -
[27]3231 adults (aged 16+)
across the UK - 2% - 3% -
[28]3163 adults (aged 16+)
across the UK - 3% - 4% -
Whilst surveys rarely put the number of vegetarians and vegans in the UK above 10%, many
recent surveys have found that a substantial number intend to, or are willing to, reduce their meat
consumption. Existing research provides some insight on the reasons why people feel compelled
to give up eating meat, and the barriers they face in doing so [29].
1.3. Motivations and Constraints
Recent research has identified the major motivations and constraints around vegetarian and vegan
diets [
30
]. The main motivations to move towards a vegetarian or vegan diet are animal welfare,
the environment and personal health, whilst the major barriers are sensory enjoyment of animal

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 3 of 17
products, convenience and financial cost [
30
]. Mullee et al. [
31
] found that, when asked about
possible reasons for eating a more vegetarian diet, the most popular option chosen by omnivores
and semivegetarians was their health. The environment and animal welfare were chosen by fewer
participants, and for omnivores, these reasons ranked below ‘to discover new tastes’, ‘to reduce
weight’, and ‘no reason’. This finding has been replicated elsewhere [
32
,
33
] and implies that, for those
not currently reducing their meat consumption, potential personal benefits are more important than
environmental or ethical benefits. More specifically, consumers often recognise health benefits such as
decreased saturated fat intake, increased fruit and vegetable intake and disease prevention [
32
,
34
].
On the other hand, some worry about not getting enough protein or iron from a vegetarian diet [35].
Interestingly, this prioritisation of health motives appears to be reversed for vegetarians and
vegans. According to a survey published by Humane League Labs [
36
], whilst health and nutrition
reasons for reducing animal product consumption are the most commonly cited by omnivores and
semivegetarians, animal welfare is the most common reason given by vegetarians and vegans. This is
logical, because improving one’s health or reducing one’s environmental impact can be achieved by
consuming incrementally fewer animal products; viewing animal products as the product of animal
suffering and exploitation, however, is more conducive to eschewing them altogether.
In a systematic review of consumer perceptions of sustainable protein consumption, Hartmann
and Siegrist [
37
] found that it is common for consumers to underestimate the ecological impact of meat
consumption. This has been observed in many different studies [
33
,
38
–
40
] and may imply a lack
of knowledge about the environmental impact of meat consumption. Alternatively, this could reflect
that consumers are generally unwilling to reduce their meat consumption [
40
] and are subsequently
motivated to minimise their perceptions of the negative consequences of their choices [41].
Indeed, such motivated reasoning appears to be evident with respect to animal welfare issues.
Most people eat meat but disapprove of harming animals, a conflict that has been dubbed ‘the meat
paradox’ [
42
]. Rothgerber [
43
] identified a number of ways in which dissonance around harming
animals arises in meat-eaters, and a number of strategies which are used to reduce this dissonance.
Dissonance-reducing strategies include denial of animal mind, denial of animals’ ability to feel pain
and dissociating meat from its animal origin [
43
]. This motivated reasoning results in a number of odd
conclusions, such as lower mental capacity being ascribed to food animals compared to nonfood
animals and increased denial of animal mind when one anticipates immediate meat consumption [
44
].
One can understand the motivation to continue eating animal products; the literature has identified
several considerable constraints to adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet. Studies have consistently
found that the strongest of these is simply enjoyment of eating meat [
34
,
45
,
46
]. This was by far the
number one reason for not being vegetarian in a recent UK survey [
47
] and was the biggest constraint
for online survey respondents who indicated that they do not want to go vegetarian or vegan [
36
].
Despite the many potential benefits, the taste of meat and animal products is enough of a barrier
to prevent dietary change for most people.
The second most important barrier is convenience, with many consumers saying vegetarian
dishes are difficult to prepare and that there is a lack of options when eating out [
33
,
38
,
48
]. Humane
League Labs [
36
] found that a lack of options when eating out was the most common factor that people
said made it difficult to eat meat-free meals, whilst Schenk, Rössel and Scholz [
30
] have argued that
the additional time, knowledge and effort required to buy and prepare vegetarian or vegan food is
especially a barrier to those newly transitioning diets.
Finally, for some, there is a financial barrier [
49
], although there is considerably less consensus on
this in the literature [
30
]. A UK survey found that the high cost of meat substitutes was a barrier for
58% of consumers, though this survey conducted by VoucherCodesPro [
47
] may have been inclined
to focus on financial considerations. Another study found that a vegetarian diet is actually cheaper
than one containing meat, but that a vegan diet is most expensive of all [
22
]. This may be due to the
relatively high cost of plant-based milks and other specialist products.

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The present study investigates UK meat-eaters’ views of various aspects of vegetarianism and
veganism. Whilst the common motivators and constraints to vegetarian and vegan diets are well
documented, there is a paucity of open data assessing how meat-eaters evaluate the relevant aspects
of each of these diets. This study seeks to address this gap by providing quantitative evaluations
of the relevant aspects of vegetarian and vegan diets. Additionally, there is currently no quantitative
comparison of these factors with respect to vegetarianism versus veganism. Therefore, this study
compares ratings of common motivators and barriers between vegetarian and vegan diets. Finally,
little is known about how these evaluations of vegetarian and vegan diets vary amongst different
demographic groups. Therefore, this study examines the overall mean ratings of each of these factors
and investigates how these views vary between different demographics.
2. Methods
2.1. Participants
Meat-eaters living in the UK aged 18 and over were recruited (n =1000). Participants were
recruited through the online research platform, Prolific, and each participant was paid £0.45 for a 5
min survey. Recruiting participants through this type of online platform has its limitations, including
the possibility of recruiting an unrepresentative sample, and asking questions in a contrived setting
which may not be ecologically valid [
50
]. Nonetheless, this sampling technique does offer low cost
and fast recruitment of specifiable samples, and the use of Prolific as a recruitment tool in academic
research is therefore increasingly common and generally considered acceptable [
51
–
53
]. Although
recruitment was for meat-eaters only, there was a small number of vegetarians in the original dataset
(n =25); these participants were removed, and their responses were replaced with more meat-eaters.
The final sample was 49.8% male and 49.8% female (0.3% did not disclose gender, 0.1% ‘other’), and
the mean age was 34.02 (SD =11.67).
2.2. Procedure
This study received ethical approval from the University of Bath’s Department of Psychology Ethics
Committee (PREC 18-219). The full anonymised dataset is available via OSF (see Supplementary Materials).
First, participants read some brief information about the study and gave their consent to take part.
They were then given definitions of vegetarianism and veganism and asked to give their opinions about
11 different aspects of vegetarian and vegan diets using 7-point bipolar scales. The order of these scales
and the order in which participants were asked about vegetarianism and veganism were randomised
to control for order effects. Next, participants answered questions about their intended consumption
of meat and their intended consumption of animal products ‘one month from today’. On 6-point scales,
participants could indicate that they would eliminate, greatly reduce, slightly reduce, maintain about
the same, slightly increase or greatly increase their consumption of both meat, and animal products
generally. Similar scales have been used in previous research [54,55].
It is worth noting that this measure is conservative. Compared to asking about intentions to reduce
consumption in general, defining a specific action and a specific, short time period is likely to make
participants reflect critically about their own likely behaviour. Additionally, as participants answered
this question, they saw the phrase ‘Thank you for being honest!’ which was intended to mitigate the
social desirability effect (i.e., over-reporting of intentions to reduce animal product consumption).
Finally, participants gave demographic information, including their age, gender, political
orientation, education and income. They also indicated whether they ate ‘at least occasionally’
beef, lamb, pork, chicken, fish, eggs and dairy. Participants were then debriefed and compensated.
2.3. Data Analysis
Data were analysed using SPSS version 25. First, the dataset was cleaned to verify that participants
met the inclusion criteria of being aged 18 or over and being a meat-eater. All respondents were aged

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 5 of 17
18 or over, but 25 indicated that they did not eat meat. These participants were removed from the study
and replaced with new respondents.
Shapiro–Wilk tests indicated that the ratings of the different aspects of vegetarianism and veganism
were non-normally distributed, and therefore, nonparametric statistical tests were used.
The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare ratings of different aspects of vegetarianism
against veganism. This is a nonparametric test used to compare related groups, similar to a paired t-test.
The Mann–Whitney U test was used to compare responses between genders; this is a nonparametric
test used to compare two independent groups, similar to an independent t-test.
Finally, Spearman’s rank order correlation was used to investigate correlations of the outcome
measures with age, political views, education level and income level. This is a nonparametric measure
of correlation used to indicate the strength of a relationship between two variables, similar to Pearson’s
correlation coefficient.
The significance level of p=0.05 was chosen for all tests. However, since some of these involved
testing multiple variables, results which are significant at a level of p=0.002 (Bonferroni-corrected) are
also highlighted.
3. Results
3.1. Overall Attitudes to Vegetarianism and Veganism
The purpose of these analyses is to assess what meat-eaters in the UK think about various aspects
of vegetarian and vegan diets overall.
Figure 1shows the mean scores for each aspect of vegetarianism and veganism. Each aspect was
rated on a 1
−
7 scale, where 1 represents the most negative view of this aspect, 7 represents the most
positive view, and 4 is the midpoint. Displaying the data in this way allows us to see which aspects are,
on average, rated positively, negatively or neutrally.
Sustainability2019,11,xFORPEERREVIEW7of21
3.1.OverallAttitudestoVegetarianismandVeganism
Thepurposeoftheseanalysesistoassesswhatmeat‐eatersintheUKthink
aboutvariousaspectsofvegetarianandvegandietsoverall.
Figure1showsthemeanscoresforeachaspectofvegetarianismandveganism.
Eachaspectwasratedona1−7scale,where1representsthemostnegativeviewof
thisaspect,7representsthemostpositiveview,and4isthemidpoint.Displaying
thedatainthiswayallowsustoseewhichaspectsare,onaverage,ratedpositively,
negativelyorneutrally.

Figure1.Meanratingsofeachaspectofvegetarianismandveganism.*indicatesasignificant
differencebetweentheratingsforvegetarianismandveganism.
Figures2and3showtheproportionofrespondentswhogavepositive(5−7on
thescale),negative(1−3onthescale)orneutral(4onthescale)ratingsforeachaspect
ofvegetarianismandveganism.
Figure 1.
Mean ratings of each aspect of vegetarianism and veganism. * indicates a significant difference
between the ratings for vegetarianism and veganism.
Figures 2and 3show the proportion of respondents who gave positive (5
−
7 on the scale), negative
(1−3 on the scale) or neutral (4 on the scale) ratings for each aspect of vegetarianism and veganism.

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 6 of 17
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
Figure2.Theproportionofrespondentswithpositive,negativeorneutralviewsaboutaspectsof
vegetarianism.

Figure3.Theproportionofrespondentswithpositive,negativeorneutralviewsaboutaspectsof
veganism.
AsshowninFigure1,thefactorswhichareusuallyconsideredmotivationsfor
goingvegetarianorveganare,indeed,ratedpositivelyonaverage.Onmeasuresof
health,nutrition,environmentalimpactandethics,meat‐eatersratedvegetarianand
vegandietspositivelyonaverage.Inaddition,Figures2and3demonstratethata
majorityofmeat‐eatershadpositiveviewsoftheseaspectsofvegetarianismand
veganism.Thatistosay,mostmeat‐eatersagreethatvegetarianandvegandietsare
ethical,healthyandgoodfortheenvironment.Anotableexceptionisthenutrition
ofvegandiets,whichjust41.5%ratedpositivelyand37.7%ratednegatively.
Figure 2.
The proportion of respondents with positive, negative or neutral views about aspects
of vegetarianism.
Sustainability2019,11,xFORPEERREVIEW8of21

Figure2.Theproportionofrespondentswithpositive,negativeorneutralviewsaboutaspectsof
vegetarianism.

Figure3.Theproportionofrespondentswithpositive,negativeorneutralviewsaboutaspectsof
veganism.
AsshowninFigure1,thefactorswhichareusuallyconsideredmotivationsfor
goingvegetarianorveganare,indeed,ratedpositivelyonaverage.Onmeasuresof
health,nutrition,environmentalimpactandethics,meat‐eatersratedvegetarianand
vegandietspositivelyonaverage.Inaddition,Figures2and3demonstratethata
majorityofmeat‐eatershadpositiveviewsoftheseaspectsofvegetarianismand
veganism.Thatistosay,mostmeat‐eatersagreethatvegetarianandvegandietsare
ethical,healthyandgoodfortheenvironment.Anotableexceptionisthenutrition
ofvegandiets,whichjust41.5%ratedpositivelyand37.7%ratednegatively.
Figure 3.
The proportion of respondents with positive, negative or neutral views about aspects
of veganism.
As shown in Figure 1, the factors which are usually considered motivations for going vegetarian or
vegan are, indeed, rated positively on average. On measures of health, nutrition, environmental impact
and ethics, meat-eaters rated vegetarian and vegan diets positively on average. In addition, Figures 2
and 3demonstrate that a majority of meat-eaters had positive views of these aspects of vegetarianism
and veganism. That is to say, most meat-eaters agree that vegetarian and vegan diets are ethical,
healthy and good for the environment. A notable exception is the nutrition of vegan diets, which just
41.5% rated positively and 37.7% rated negatively.

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 7 of 17
Conversely, the factors which are usually considered constraints to adopting a vegetarian or vegan
diet are, on average, rated as neutral or negative and are particularly negative with regard to veganism
(see Figure 1). Ease, convenience, taste, enjoyableness and affordability of veganism were all rated
negatively, on average. The average ratings for vegetarianism were more neutral, though ease and
convenience were still rated negatively. As shown in Figures 2and 3, the majority of meat-eaters had
negative views of these aspects of veganism, and most had negative or neutral views of these aspects
of vegetarianism.
In terms of the aspects relating to the social perspectives of each diet, the data overall suggest that
meat-eaters on average think that vegetarianism and veganism are socially acceptable, but most stop
short of calling them aspirational. As shown in Figures 2and 3, the majority have positive views of the
social acceptability of both vegetarianism and veganism. However, the majority have negative or
neutral views of these diets in terms of considering them aspirational. As with other factors, views of
veganism are more negative than views of vegetarianism.
3.2. Intentions to Reduce Consumption of Meat and Animal Products
Table 2shows how respondents rated their intended change in consumption of meat and animal
products. This was a more conservative measure of intended change in consumption than has been
used in previous research, in that it specifies a timeframe of one month within which respondents said
they intended to change their consumption.
Table 2. Intended consumption of meat and animal products within one month.
Response Meat Animal Products
Eliminate (1) 0.1% 0.2%
Greatly decrease (2) 3.5% 2.4%
Slightly decrease (3) 13.0% 11.3%
Maintain the same (4) 81.0% 84.3%
Slightly increase (5) 1.9% 1.5%
Greatly increase (6) 0.5% 0.3%
Mean (SD) 3.83
(0.537)
3.85
(0.483)
As shown in Table 2, the majority of respondents said that their consumption of meat and animal
products would be about the same in one month. However, a sizeable minority said they would slightly
decrease their consumption of meat and animal products. Further, 3.5% said they would greatly
decrease their consumption of meat, whilst 2.4% said they would greatly decrease their consumption
of animal products. Just 0.1% and 0.2% said they would completely eliminate their consumption
of meat and animal products, respectively. Some said they would slightly increase their consumption
of meat and animal products, whilst a small number said they would greatly increase their consumption
of meat and animal products.
3.3. Comparison of Attitudes to Vegetarianism and Veganism
In order to test whether these differences in perceptions of vegetarianism and veganism were
statistically significant, Wilcoxon signed rank tests were conducted on the ratings for each aspect
of vegetarianism and veganism. The mean ratings, standard deviations and the results of the Wilcoxon
signed rank tests are shown in Table 3.
As shown in Table 3(and Figure 1), vegan diets are viewed significantly more negatively than
vegetarian diets on almost every aspect. The only aspects in which there are no significant differences
in opinions of the two diets are in how ethical they are and how good for the environment they are.

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 8 of 17
In other words, meat-eaters on average perceive no additional benefits in terms of animals and the
environment of a vegan diet compared to a vegetarian diet, whereas they do see a vegan diet as worse
in other ways. This may be because respondents consider a vegan diet to be further from their own
diet and therefore rate it less favourably to reduce dissonance.
Table 3. Mean ratings for aspects of vegetarianism and veganism with Wilcoxon signed rank tests.
Aspect Vegetarianism
Mean (SD)
Veganism
Mean (SD) Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests
Healthy 5.20
(1.44)
4.44
(1.73)
*Z=−15.249,
p<0.001
Ethical 5.50
(1.28)
5.45
(1.51)
Z=−1.618,
p=0.106
Environment 5.35
(1.29)
5.32
(1.50)
Z=−0.836,
p=0.403
Convenient 3.70
(1.52)
2.54
(1.44)
*Z=−19.610
p<0.001
Affordable 4.18
(1.70)
3.15
(1.76)
*Z=−17.175,
p<0.001
Tasty 4.19
(1.71)
3.32
(1.66)
*Z=−16.838,
p<0.001
Enjoyable 3.97
(1.68)
3.02
(1.65)
*Z=−18.026,
p<0.001
Acceptable 5.65
(1.33)
4.88
(1.54)
*Z=−16.095,
p<0.001
Aspirational 4.22
(1.56)
3.76
(1.74)
*Z=−9.609,
p<0.001
Nutritious 4.87
(1.50)
4.03
(1.74)
*Z=−15.944,
p<0.001
Easy 3.71
(1.59)
2.33
(1.40)
*Z=−20.569,
p<0.001
* indicates the difference between vegetarianism and veganism was significant at p=0.05.
3.4. Comparison of Different Demographic Groups
It is also informative to consider how perceptions of different aspects of vegetarianism and
veganism might vary between different demographics.
First, Mann–Whitney U tests were used to compare the ratings of each aspect of vegetarianism
and veganism between men (n=498) and women (n=498). The variables for which men differed
significantly from women are displayed in Table 4. Since this analysis involved multiple comparisons
(for 22 different variables), listed here are all differences which are significant at p=0.05, and additionally
indicated with a * those which are significant at p=0.002 (this is based on a Bonferroni correction of
p=0.05 ÷22 =0.002).
As shown in Table 4, women tended to have more positive views of vegetarianism and veganism
compared to men. This is in line with previous research which has indicated that men tend to consume
more meat and are less likely to be vegetarian or vegan compared to women [
56
,
57
]. Notable exceptions
here were that men rated veganism as easier and more affordable compared to women.
Secondly, Spearman correlation analyses were used to examine which ratings were significantly
correlated with age, political views, levels of education and income. The variables which were
significantly correlated with these factors are shown in Table 5. Positive rvalues indicate that this aspect
of vegetarianism or veganism was viewed more positively by older respondents, more right-wing

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 9 of 17
respondents, respondents with higher levels of education and respondents with higher levels of income;
negative rvalues indicate the opposite. Again, since this analysis involved multiple comparisons (for 22
different variables), differences listed here are significant at p=0.05, and additionally indicated with a
* those which are significant at p=0.002 (this is based on a Bonferroni correction of
p=0.05 ÷22 =0.002
).
Cells are empty for correlations which were not significant at p=0.05.
Table 4. Perceptions of vegetarianism and veganism with significant gender differences.
Diet Aspect Male Rating
(Mean, SD)
Female Rating
(Mean, SD) Mann-Whitney U Test
Vegetarianism
Convenient 3.58
(1.535)
3.82
(1.496)
U=11,158,5
p=0.005
Tasty 4.00
(1.649)
4.38
(1.745)
*U =10,739,4
p<0.001
Enjoyable 3.75
(1.612)
4.19
(1.728)
*U =10,490,7
p<0.001
Nutritious 4.77
(1.458)
4.97
(1.533)
U=11,302,7
p=0.014
Veganism
Affordable 3.29
(1.756)
3.01
(1.755)
U=11,208,1
p=0.008
Tasty 3.21
(1.656)
3.43
(1.661)
U=11,430,4
p=0.030
Easy 2.42
(1.459)
2.23
(1.339)
U=11,533,5
p=0.047
* indicates that the difference was significant at the level of p=0.002, deduced using a Bonferroni correction.
Table 5.
Perceptions of vegetarianism and veganism significantly correlated with age, political views,
education and income.
Spearman’s Rank-Order Correlation
Diet Aspect Age Political Views Education Income
Vegetarianism
Healthy - *r =−0.131,
p<0.001 - -
Ethical -*r =−0.188,
p<0.001 - -
Environment -*r =−0.131,
p<0.001 - -
Convenient r=0.073,
p=0.022
r=−0.099,
p=0.004 - -
Affordable -r=−0.103,
p=0.003
r=0.080,
p=0.011 -
Tasty -r=−0.086,
p=0.012 - -
Enjoyable r=0.063,
p=0.048
r=−0.085,
p=0.013 - -
Acceptable - *r =−0.168,
p<0.001 - -
Aspirational - *r =−0.156,
p<0.001
r=0.066,
p=0.037 -
Nutritious - *r =−0.168,
p<0.001 - -
Easy r=0.084,
p=0.008
r=−0.069,
p=0.044 - -

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 10 of 17
Table 5. Cont.
Spearman’s Rank-Order Correlation
Diet Aspect Age Political Views Education Income
Projected change in meat consumption -r=−0.099,
p=0.003
r=0.067,
p=0.034 -
Veganism
Healthy *r =−0.121,
p<0.001
*r =−0.128,
p<0.001 - -
Ethical r=−0.073,
p=0.022
*r =−0.206,
p<0.001
*r =0.105,
p=0.001 -
Environment -*r =−0.197,
p<0.001 - -
Convenient -*r =−0.067,
p=0.049 - -
Affordable *r =0.128,
p<0.001 - - -
Tasty -r=−0.076,
p=0.026 -
r=
−
0.069,
p=0.038
Enjoyable -*r =−0.103,
p=0.002 - -
Acceptable -*r =−0.139,
p<0.001 - -
Aspirational r=−0.086,
p=0.006
*r =−0.144,
p<0.001
r=0.069,
p=0.029 -
Nutritious -*r =−0.164,
p<0.001 - -
Easy r=0.071,
p=0.024 - - -
Projected change in animal product consumption
- - r=0.075,
p=0.018 -
* indicates that the difference was significant at the level of p=0.002, deduced using a Bonferroni correction.
As shown in Table 5, older people tended to view some aspects of vegetarianism and veganism
more positively than younger people. Higher age correlated with increased ratings of ease for both
diets, as well as increased ratings of convenience and enjoyableness for vegetarianism. However,
older participants tended to rate veganism as less healthy, less ethical, and less aspirational than
younger participants.
Political views were the demographic factor most strongly correlated with opinions of vegetarianism
and veganism. Every aspect of each diet was viewed more positively by more left-wing people with the
exception of ease and affordability of veganism. Left-wing people were also significantly more likely
to say they would reduce their meat consumption.
Education was positively correlated with various opinions of vegetarianism and veganism;
in particular, those with higher levels of education viewed vegetarianism as more affordable and viewed
veganism as more ethical. Higher education was also correlated with viewing both vegetarianism
and veganism as more aspirational, and with increased likelihood to say they would reduce their
consumption of meat and animal products
Income level had few correlations with opinions of vegetarianism and veganism. The only
significant aspect associated with income was that higher-income respondents viewed veganism as
less tasty.
Whilst these attitudinal measures showed some significant differences based on gender and age,
intentions to change consumption of animal products showed no significant differences on this basis.

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 11 of 17
4. Discussion
4.1. More Positive Attitudes towards Vegetarianism than Veganism
The analyses demonstrated that veganism is rated as significantly less positive than vegetarianism
on every aspect except for ethics and the environment, where no significant difference was
observed. This reflects findings from elsewhere, which have highlighted a perception of veganism as
over-the-top and excessively restrictive [
58
–
60
]. It may be that vegan diets are considered further from
meat-eaters’ own, and more difficult to follow, and therefore, meat-eaters are more inclined to use
the dissonance-reducing strategies identified by Rothgerber [
43
] as a way to justify their current diet.
This could lead them to rate veganism as worse than vegetarianism in terms of practical aspects and
rate veganism as no better than vegetarianism in terms of the ethical and environmental aspects.
Animal advocates might therefore consider promoting vegetarianism rather than veganism,
because the former likely seems like a more achievable goal to meat-eaters. Whilst a tacit endorsement
of consuming eggs and dairy will seem unsavoury to many advocates, a vegetarian diet may be
a necessary stepping stone for many meat-eaters [
61
]. Indeed, Humane League Labs [
36
] find some
evidence that omnivores are more likely to transition to vegetarianism, pescatarianism and meat
reduction than outright veganism. This analysis seems to suggest that many who eventually become
vegan have followed a meat reduction path through flexitarianism and vegetarianism first. Endorsing
and encouraging any type of meat reduction is likely to be helpful in this context, whereas purist
‘vegan or nothing’ messages are unlikely to be effective [62].
4.2. Agreement in Principle, Disagreement in Practice
Overall, the data here support Schenk, Rössel and Scholz’s [
30
] typology of motivations and
constraints regarding vegetarian and vegan diets. Health, environmental and ethical aspects are generally
rated positively, whilst price, taste and convenience are generally rated negatively. Furthermore, vegetarian
and vegan diets are considered socially acceptable, but most stop short of calling them aspirational.
Strikingly, there appears to be strong awareness of, and agreement with the ethical and
environmental arguments for vegetarianism and veganism. A large majority of UK meat-eaters
said that vegetarian and vegan diets are good for the environment and are ethical.
In terms of the environmental aspect, this finding appears to be in contrast with previous
research, which has found that the majority of consumers are not aware of the negative environmental
impact of animal products [
37
]. This may mean that the public has become more aware of this
during that time, which seems plausible after a number of high-profile media stories on the link
between meat and climate change [
63
,
64
]. However, it may also be a result of framing the question as
vegetarianism/veganism being good for the environment, as opposed to meat and animal products
being bad for the environment. The latter would appear to invite more disagreement, as meat-eaters’
own behaviour is directly implicated.
Additionally, most respondents rated vegetarianism as healthy (72.1%) and nutritious (63.6%),
indicating that the majority of UK meat-eaters do not have serious health concerns about giving up
meat. Whilst previous research has highlighted concerns around specific nutritional deficiencies [
35
],
the current data indicate that most meat-eaters do not consider a vegetarian diet to be lacking in nutrition
in any significant way. A slight majority also agreed that veganism is healthy (50.3%), with just 29.5%
saying it is unhealthy. There was lower agreement that veganism is nutritious, however: Just 41.5%
agreed with this, whilst 37.7% said it is not nutritious. It appears that respondents were more sceptical
about the healthiness of a vegan diet overall.
Moreover, 80.6% said vegetarianism is socially acceptable, while just 6.0% said it is not socially
acceptable. It appears that few people actively disagree with vegetarianism or find vegetarians
to be a social annoyance. Indeed, 41.5% said that vegetarianism is aspirational. Most respondents
said veganism is acceptable (59.6%), though a minority said it is aspirational (33.1%). Indeed, more

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 12 of 17
respondents said veganism is not aspirational (39.3%) suggesting that there is more of a stigma towards
veganism in general.
With regard to the finding that most people think vegetarianism and veganism are ethical, this is
less surprising. Indeed, this appears to be in line with findings that a substantial portion of the public
agrees that animal farming and slaughterhouses should be banned [
65
]. However, there is likely some
framing effect here, also: Whilst 72.7% of respondents in this study rated veganism as ethical and
32.3% rated it at the top end of the ‘ethical’ scale, Sentience Institute [
65
] found that 96% of Americans
agreed that eating animals is a personal choice, and nobody has the right to tell them not to [65].
These data provide another example of the meat paradox [
42
], which is now a well-documented
phenomenon amongst meat-eaters. Many meat-eaters recognise, on some level, that their behaviour
causes animal suffering, and this is a moral problem. The maintenance of this behaviour is more likely
justified on practical grounds than ideological grounds, which again is demonstrated here: Though
people rated vegetarian and vegan diets positively in terms of health, ethics, and the environment,
they rated them negatively in terms of taste, price and convenience.
Unfortunately, price, taste and convenience are repeatedly highlighted as major predictors of food
choice in practice [
66
–
72
]. This suggests that vegetarian and vegan diets, which are rated poorly
on these aspects here and in previous research [
29
,
30
], are inevitably unappealing to most people.
However, these barriers are not intractable and may be able to be addressed by technological advances
which improve the quality, affordability and availability of animal product alternatives [73].
4.3. Addressing Objections through Animal Product Alternatives
Animal advocates often highlight the ethical and environmental arguments for vegetarianism
and veganism, and indeed, much research has been conducted comparing the relative persuasiveness
of these and other rational arguments [
55
,
62
,
74
]. However, these findings indicate that the majority
of meat-eaters do not need persuading of these arguments. The data suggest that many meat-eaters
recognise the benefits of avoiding animal products but find vegetarianism/veganism to be too
inconvenient, expensive or simply not enjoyable. These objections are practical rather than ideological
and may be able to be addressed through practical solutions rather than ideological persuasion.
Hoek et al. [
73
] have argued that replacement of meat consumption is likely to be best achieved not
by reiterating reasoned arguments for reducing meat consumption, but by significantly improving the
sensory quality of meat substitutes. Based on these data, and Schenk, Rössel and Scholz’s [
30
] typology
of motivations and constraints, such alternatives need not just high sensory quality, but low cost and
wide availability to address all of the main barriers to vegetarian and vegan eating. Developing good
quality, low cost and familiar replacements for animal products is likely to be the best route to replacing
animal product alternatives.
First, taste and enjoyability must be addressed. Plant-based meat analogues are becoming
increasingly realistic, and some consumers now find it difficult to distinguish them from conventional
meat [75]. Plant-based dairy alternatives have been popular for some time and have been implicated
in a 7.5% year-on-year fall in dairy sales in the USA [
76
]. Emulating the sensory properties
of animal products using plant-based ingredients is one possible way to overcome the taste barriers
to vegetarianism and veganism, though many existing alternatives fail to satisfy meat-eaters [73].
Another approach to overcoming the taste and enjoyability barrier is by creating identical animal
products using cellular agriculture [
77
]. In particular, scientists in academia and industry are working
to further the development of cultured meat, which can be grown from animal cells rather than by
rearing animals [
78
]. Cultured meat production does not need to harm animals and potentially has
a lower environmental footprint than conventional meat [
79
]. Therefore, producing meat in this way
could allow consumers to continue enjoying the taste and texture of animal meat whilst circumventing
many of the ethical and environmental concerns around meat production. However, widespread
consumer acceptance of these products is far from certain [80].

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 13 of 17
Second, vegetarian and vegan diets must be easier and more convenient to follow. Again, there is
reason to be optimistic here. Several high-profile mainstream food outlets have added vegan options
to their menus recently, seemingly driven by a rise in demand [
81
,
82
]. One analysis by Foodable
Labs [
83
] found that 51% of chefs in the USA added vegan options to their menu in 2018, an increase
of 31% from the previous year. Vegan options at chain restaurants and supermarkets are increasingly
common, improving easy and convenient access to vegan options. Moreover, meat analogues sold
in supermarkets provide a direct replacement for meat in dishes, meaning that consumers can cut out
meat whilst keeping the same recipes they are used to. As research has demonstrated, familiarity and
ease of cooking are important factors in willingness to substitute meat [84].
Third, affordability of alternatives must improve. Indeed, one analysis found that a vegetarian
diet tended to be cheaper than one including meat, but a vegan diet was most expensive of all [
22
].
This is likely because some animal product alternatives (including plant-based milks and plant-based
meat analogues) tend to be more expensive than conventional animal products. This may be a result
of their status as relatively niche, and therefore low supply. As consumer interest in these products
grows, we may see their price fall in the coming years. Indeed, one analysis has argued that the price
of plant-based meat analogues is likely to fall due to supply catching up with demand, higher quality
ingredients being produced at larger scale, the development of infrastructure, economies of scale
brought in by established food businesses investing in the space and a shift in focus from research and
product development to scaling up production [85].
4.4. Limitations
There are some limitations to this study which must be considered. Firstly, research using
self-reported attitude and intention measures is perennially prone to social desirability bias, particularly
around moralised issues [
86
]. In order to counter this, a very specific intention measure was used:
Participants said how they thought their consumption would change ‘one month from today’, a specific
quantifiable target. Participants also saw the message ‘Thank you for being honest!’ in an attempt
to prevent people overestimating their intended changes. Nevertheless, Humane League Labs [
87
]
have recommended against relying on self-reported intentions measures like these in future.
Secondly, the sample was younger than the general UK population, and therefore, these results
may not be generalizable to older portions of the population. The median age in the sample was 30,
compared to the median age in the UK of 40.2 [
88
]. This may be linked with more positive evaluations
of vegetarian and vegan diets than one would expect amongst the general population, since evidence
suggests that younger people are more likely to embrace these diets [36,89].
4.5. Future Research
The present research focused on evaluations of specific aspects of vegetarianism and veganism
and found that the major negative views of these diets related to their price, taste and convenience.
Indeed, many meat-eaters recognise the arguments for vegetarianism and veganism but do not change
their diet because of practical, rather than ideological, reasons. The most promising avenue of future
research for reducing the consumption of animal products, therefore, is the development and marketing
of products designed to address these deficiencies. Bringing products to market which can replace
animal products and are familiar, enjoyable, affordable and widely available is likely to be an excellent
strategy for reducing consumption of animal products in the long term.
Supplementary Materials: The full dataset for this study is available at https://osf.io/rkdaz/.
Funding:
This research was partially funded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of a PhD
grant [Grant number: ES/J50015X/1]. This research was also partially funded by Viva!, a vegan charity [http:
//www.viva.org.uk]. The APC was funded by the University of Bath.
Conflicts of Interest:
The author is vegan and carried out this work while working at the vegan charity, Viva!
[http://www.viva.org.uk], who also partially funded the work. The funder had no role in the design of the study,
the collection, analysis or interpretation of data, or the writing of the manuscript.

Sustainability 2019,11, 6844 14 of 17
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