Lancaster University, Department of Psychology, Lancaster, LA1 4YF, United Kingdom.
Lancaster University, Department of Psychology, Lancaster, LA1 4YF, United Kingdom.
Appetite. 2022 Nov 1;178:106143. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.106143. Epub 2022 Jul 1.
Despite the established health and ecological benefits of a plant-based diet, the decision to eschew meat and other animal-derived food products remains controversial. So polarising is this topic that anti-vegan communities - groups of individuals who stand vehemently against veganism - have sprung up across the internet. Much scholarship on veganism characterizes anti-vegans in passing, painting them as ill-informed, uneducated, or simply obstinate. However, little empirical work has investigated these communities and the individuals within them. Accordingly, we conducted a study using social media data from the popular platform, Reddit. Specifically, we collected all available submissions (∼3523) and comments (∼45,528) from r/AntiVegan subreddit users (N = 3819) over a five-year period. Using a battery of computerized text analytic tools, we examined the psychosocial characteristics of Reddit users who publicly identify as anti-vegan, how r/AntiVegan users discuss their beliefs, and how the individual user changes as a function of community membership. Results from our analyses suggest several individual differences that align r/AntiVegan users with the community, including dark entertainment, ex-veganism and science denial. Several topics were extensively discussed by r/AntiVegan members, including nuanced discourse on the ethicality and health implications of vegan diets, and the naturalness of animal death, which ran counter to our expectations and lay stereotypes of r/AntiVegan users. Finally, several longitudinal changes in language use were observed within the community, reflecting enhanced group commitment over time, including an increase in group-focused language and a decrease in cognitive processing. Implications for vegan-nonvegan relations are discussed.
尽管植物性饮食在健康和生态方面有其既定的益处，但人们对是否应避免食用肉类和其他动物源性食品的看法仍存在争议。由于这个话题非常两极化，以至于在互联网上出现了反对素食主义的群体，即坚决反对素食主义的人。许多关于素食主义的学术研究只是顺便提到了反素食者，将他们描绘成无知、没有受过教育或只是固执己见的人。然而，很少有实证工作研究过这些群体和其中的个体。因此，我们使用了来自流行平台 Reddit 的社交媒体数据进行了一项研究。具体来说，我们收集了 r/AntiVegan 子版块用户（N=3819）在五年内的所有可用帖子（约 3523 个）和评论（约 45528 个）。我们使用一系列计算机化的文本分析工具，研究了公开认同反素食主义的 Reddit 用户的社会心理特征、r/AntiVegan 用户如何讨论他们的信仰，以及随着社区成员身份的变化，个体用户如何变化。我们的分析结果表明，有几个个体差异将 r/AntiVegan 用户与社区联系在一起，包括黑暗娱乐、前素食主义和对科学的否认。r/AntiVegan 成员广泛讨论了几个话题，包括素食饮食的伦理和健康影响以及动物死亡的自然性的细微差异，这与我们的预期和对 r/AntiVegan 用户的刻板印象相悖。最后，在社区内观察到语言使用的几个纵向变化，反映了随着时间的推移，社区对群体的承诺度提高，包括群体关注语言的增加和认知处理的减少。讨论了素食主义者与非素食主义者之间的关系。
