THIS ARTICLE is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Humans have long struggled with their conscience about killing and eating animals. The “meat paradox” (the conflict between people’s preference for meat and concern for animals) may have inspired cave 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 US adults and three-quarters of UK adults oppose factory farming that produces almost all meat, but only about one in 10 follow a meat-free diet. Plant-based diets are increasingly palatable and affordable in many countries. Adopting them would save the lives of more than 80 billion animals every year and would cause 75 percent less environmental damage than a meat diet. There are two types of cardiologists: vegans and those who haven’t read the data. strategies like “defense reasoning” or moral disengagement and avoidance to reduce psychological unease. Every January since 2014, the Veganuary campaign-which encourages people to eat a plant-based diet in January-has tried to break down this psychological defense with images of cute piglets, chicks soft, and an invitation to challenge. Last year, around 25 million people, including about 4 percent of the UK population, joined. Research by Veganuary suggests that more than 80 percent of participants maintain a large reduction in meat consumption, reducing their intake by half or more, after six months. At the University of Exeter, we have independently conducted three online studies of Veganuary participants (a fourth is underway) and found that when people reduce or avoid meat, they also start to look at meat and themselves. Beda.Meat Disgust On average, people report liking meat less, even some find it disgusting. This complements previous research showing that 74 percent of vegetarians and 15 percent of flexitarians find meat disgusting. Our other studies (under peer review) suggest that this “disgust of meat” is deep. Those who reported (mainly vegetarians) reacted to the idea of eating meat in the same way as meat eaters react to the idea of eating feces, or human or dog meat. IMAGE Description: Disgust of meat to the core. Credit: Filip Obr/Alamy Stock Photo If the feelings are negative it appears that when people avoid meat during Veganuary, giving up meat in the long run may not be enough of a sacrifice that many would expect. We are now collecting 12 months of data from 100 people who participated in the Veganuary study last year and will see if negative feelings towards meat predict long-term changes in meat consumption.
