Personality Profiles, Values and Empathy: Differences between Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarians and Vegans

Abstract

Background: Vegetarian nutrition is gaining increasing public attention worldwide. While some studies have examined differences in motivations and personality traits between vegetarians and omnivores, only few studies have considered differences in motivations and personality traits between the 2 largest vegetarian subgroups: lacto-ovo-vegetarians and vegans. Objectives: To examine differences between lacto-ovo-vegetarians and vegans in the distribution patterns of motives, values, empathy, and personality profiles. Methods: An anonymous online survey was performed in January 2014. Group differences between vegetarians and vegans in their initial motives for the choice of nutritional approaches, health-related quality of life (World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF)), personality traits (Big Five Inventory-SOEP (BFI-S)), values (Portraits Value Questionnaire (PVQ)), and empathy (Empathizing Scale) were analyzed by univariate analyses of covariance; P values were adjusted for multiple testing. Results: 10,184 individuals completed the survey; 4,427 (43.5%) were vegetarians and 4,822 (47.3%) were vegans. Regarding the initial motives for the choice of nutritional approaches, vegans rated food taste, love of animals, and global/humanitarian reasons as more important, and the influence of their social environment as less important than did vegetarians. Compared to vegetarians, vegans had higher values on physical, psychological, and social quality of life on the WHOQOL-BREF, and scored lower on neuroticism and higher on openness on the BFI-S. In the PVQ, vegans scored lower than vegetarians on power/might, achievement, safety, conformity, and tradition and higher on self-determination and universalism. Vegans had higher empathy than vegetarians (all p < 0.001). Discussion: This survey suggests that vegans have more open and compatible personality traits, are more universalistic, empathic, and ethically oriented, and have a slightly higher quality of life when compared to vegetarians. Given the small absolute size of these differences, further research is needed to evaluate whether these group differences are relevant in everyday life and can be confirmed in other populations.

Examining the “Veggie” personality: Results from a representative German sample

“…In contrast to our finding in Study 1, in which vegetarians had lower scores in conscientiousness than meat eaters, prior studies have consistently reported that conscientiousness is negatively related to meat consumption (Keller & Siegrist, 2015;Kessler et al, 2016). It should be noted, however, that the present studies compared self-reported and selfidentified vegetarians and meat eaters, and did not assess actual meat consumption.…”

“…In a study of older adults in Scotland, Mõttus et al (2013) further reported that openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were positively associated with a health-aware diet that included less meat consumption. Kessler et al (2016) investigated personality traits in an online survey of members and supporters of the German Vegetarian Society. In this study, vegetarians showed significantly less extraversion, along with higher openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness compared to meat eaters; in addition, vegans reported significantly less neuroticism and extraversion, as well as higher openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness compared to meat eaters (Kessler et al, 2016).…”

“…Openness has been negatively associated with meat consumption (Goldberg & Strycker, 2002;Mottus et al, 2012Mottus et al, , 2013 and vegetarians often score higher in openness compared to meat eaters (Kessler et al, 2016). Because most people in Western societies are raised as meat eaters, trying vegetarian or vegan foods and changing to a vegetarian diet should therefore logically also be related to openness to new experiences, and open individuals have indeed been found to be more open to new foods (Steptoe et al, 1995).…”

Āyurveda's Contributions to Vegetarian Nutrition in Medicine

“…While motivations of vegetarians living in Western countries are mainly individual compositions of health, economic, environmental, social, ethical, and spiritual factors, vegetarians in India relate their dietary habits mainly to religious beliefs and traditional values [3]. …”

Veg* in der Medizin - schon längst viel mehr als nur ein Trend

“…Dr. Ram Manohar, einer der führenden Forscher aus der indischen Ayurvedamedizin und aus dem Land mit den mit Abstand meisten Vegetariern (40%) kommend, liefert eine Synthese über Bedeutung und medizinischen Nutzen vegetarischer Ernährungsweise aus Sicht der traditionellen indischen Medizin [12]. Dr. Christian Kessler, Dr. Holger Cramer und Kollegen berichten über die Ergebnisse einer Online-Umfrage bezüglich Werten und Persönlichkeitsaspekten von Vegetariern [13]. Dr. Markus Keller und Stine Müller schreiben schließlich über das Thema, das nach wie vor ein großer und vielleicht auch der letzte Gegenstand ist, der immer noch zu starken Kontroversen und Widerständen in der Medizin führt - vegane Ernährung in Kindheit und Schwangerschaft [14].…”