Vegans and Drug Addicts: Why They're Judged More Harshly Than Almost Anyone Else
A few years ago, an article about why people hate vegans so much was published by BBC Future. I found it to be a fascinating and educational read. It helped me understand what I have known and experienced for many years!
My experience
Since shifting to a vegan lifestyle, I have changed the way I discuss my choices and the motivations behind them, and at times, I’ve even decided not to say anything unless explicitly asked. However, regardless of how I said something and no matter what I’ve said or not said, what I hear or sense from others may be milder, softer or even unspoken, but it’s still there.
The list below covers some of the reactions that I’ve come across:
It’s a phase, you’ll grow out of it in no time.
It’s not sustainable!
You’ll become ill!
You’ve lost weight, and you don’t need to!
What’s wrong with eating cheese?!?
Why can’t you be more flexible?
Do you have to tell anyone you’re vegan? Can’t you eat whatever’s there?
But I made it!
I want you to try it and tell me what you think!
It’s ‘blessed’ food, so you should eat it even though it’s not vegan!
You’re so pushy!
Why do you have to tell people why you’re vegan?
Even if they ask you, you shouldn’t talk about why you’re vegan!
Other responses have been a general angry or irritated vibe without anything specific being communicated. Like it just spills out into their way of being with me!
For the longest time, I tried to understand it and change it, but I couldn’t. The article goes a long way to explain why this was the case!
The rationale that’s explained in the article
The author, Zaria Gorvett, tackles the premise that although many people would probably like to see less suffering in the world, the mind boggles as to why there is such resentment towards those who do something about it!
The vegan haters are referred to as veganophobes. In my experience, vegans are perceived to be overly smug, disliked for not being consistent enough, and resented for being pure as snow or for coming across as holier-than-thou!
Zaria explains that some psychologists think that the widespread resentment is caused by deep-seated psychological biases.
The evidence to show that consuming meat is bad for us is mounting, and when our behaviour doesn’t change, it is understandable that we have to make sense of it! We have to find a way to justify this to ourselves and others.
“So what I’m looking at is, how do people rationalise that, and still feel like they’re a good person? ”
Rothgerber suggests that continuing to eat meat requires the brain to work very hard at finding a way to protect ourselves from realities that we don’t want to face!
I remember talking to a group of people at a networking event. I had a very short amount of time to explain what Plant Shift is and how I help people. I remember saying something like, I help people align their thoughts, words and behaviour. I shared the example that people are often, subconsciously, flummoxed by the fact that they say they love animals, but they eat them. Something unexpected happened! The room burst into laughter! Suddenly, I felt like I was doing stand-up when I was actually being serious. That was followed by some of the crowd looking at others and pointing, whilst others were being named and shamed for loving a particular animal and eating lots of meat! It was surprising and fascinating to see this cognitive dissonance on such a large scale, all at the same time!
What is cognitive dissonance?
“A state of mental discomfort that occurs when a person holds beliefs or opinions that are inconsistent, or that conflict with, an aspect of their behaviour.”
Some psychologists refer to this as “meat paradox”, and others have called it “moral schizophrenia”.
Rothgerber believes that we have about 15 strategies that help us justify and accept living in a way that doesn’t align with our thinking. They include:
Pretending that meat has no link to animals
To imagine that we eat less than we do
Wilful ignorance about how it’s produced
Believing that we only eat humanely farmed meat
Everyone does it
Do you find yourself nodding to any of these? If so, is the recognition about your own behaviour or is it about others?
You may think that this is a lot of talk about meat, and that it’s not relevant. However, all of this can be applied to understand why vegans are hated by omnivores and vegetarians alike! We’ve managed to align our thoughts, words and behaviour in a way which many others haven’t been able to! That in itself means that simply being present in a room irks them!
Being faced with a vegan shows that the diet which is perceived or described as normal and acceptable, is suddenly exposed for being the opposite! Simply being in the room, even if the vegan is quietly eating without discussing what they’re eating or why, people pick up on the difference between their plates, and they are suddenly forced to confront their cognitive dissonance and that makes them feel resentful, bitter, angry and irritated! Instead of reflecting on these feelings to understand the cause, they blame the catalyst, and the vegan-hating begins, or continues!
“In a study led by Julia Minson, a psychologist from the University of Pennsylvania, participants were surveyed about their attitudes towards vegans and then asked to think of three words that they associated with them. Just under half the participants had something negative to say, and intriguingly, 45% included a word which referred to their social characteristics. For example, vegans were associated with the words “weird”, “arrogant”, “preachy”, “militant”, “uptight”, “stupid”, and – mysteriously – “sadistic”.”
Benoit Monin, explains that there's a lot of research that shows we don't like members of groups who are seen as morally inferior, or in the wrong. However, he says:
“...it’s intriguing to me that we also reject members of groups who have made laudable choices on purpose.”
It appears that we are threatened by those who have similar views to us but they are prepared to go further than we are, to stick to them! I guess it makes sense! We wish we had that resolve, that discipline, that restraint, that level of compassion, that amount of empathy and that level of harmony between what we think and how we behave!
“In the end, our fear of being judged far outstrips any respect we might have for their superior integrity.”
Monin actually thinks that vegetarians are likely to be more threatened by vegans than non-vegetarians are! This also makes sense to me! It could be argued that vegetarians are closer to being vegan than omnivores are, so why don’t they just make the shift?!
“There’s mounting evidence that we’re particularly threatened by people who have similar morals to us, if they’re prepared to go further than we are in order to stick to them. In the end, our fear of being judged far outstrips any respect we might have for their superior integrity.”
Where do you stand in all of this?
Are you vegan, vegetarian, an omnivore or do you categorise your eating habits in some other way?
Does the above make sense to you?
Were you nodding your head while you were reading?
Did you see yourself being described in any way?
“Though it’s natural for people to disagree, the passionate rage – and even mild irritation – that veganism stirs up seems to defy rational sense. Research has shown that only drug addicts face the same degree of stigma – and the least popular vegans of all are those who cite animal cruelty as their reason.”