Vegan voices

Abstract

____________________________________________ Carolyn Colvin v when you were a baby and, naturally, it wasn't easy. But as your father says, if you put your boots and every day and work hard, good things happen. And when you are tired and don't think you can go on any further, take solace in the people who matter to you most. For me that is you, and I thank you for being such a wonderful, genuine little being. You are such a bright star and I am so lucky to be your mother.vi ABSTRACT Approximately 7.5 million people in the U.S. subscribe to a vegan diet and thus don't consume any animal products such as meat, fish, dairy, or eggs. Despite the considerable growth of veganism in the last decade, little is known about how people communicate about such a seemingly restrictive diet and what implications this might have for communication theory and the growing field of food studies. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore how vegans communicatively negotiate their identity through the lens of Hecht's (1993) communication theory of identity (CTI).I conducted phone interviews with forty vegans residing across the U.S. and completed thematic analysis to qualitatively analyze interviews. Four themes emerged to describe the ways vegans enact their identity (Facilitating Smooth Interactions, Wearing Symbols of Veganism, Vegan Food Preparation and Consumption, Education and Community Engagement), and three themes emerged to illustrate the relational identities that vegans co-construct with members of their social network (Accepted and Supported, Inconvenience to the Family, Happiest with a Vegan (Friendly) Partner). Vegans explained that they engage in a variety of communication strategies (e.g., focusing on the positive) to thoughtfully craft an identity that will be wellreceived by others. Additionally, participants explained that they are not only supported by members of their social network, but that this support is an integral part of their relational identity. Lastly, I analyzed participant accounts to see if any discrepancies (i.e., identity gaps; Jung & Hecht, 2004) emerged between the ways vegans negotiate their identity. Results indicate that some vegans experience or create up to four different identity gaps between different layers of identity (Personal-Enacted Gap, Relational-Enacted Gap, Enacted-Enacted Gap, Community-Personal Gap). Implications and directions for future research are discussed. vii PUBLIC ABSTRACTCurrent research estimates that approximately 7.5 million people in the United States subscribe to a vegan diet and thus don't consume any form of animal products such as meat, fish, dairy, or eggs. Additionally, the number of non-vegans who periodically consume vegan and vegetarian products (often termed "flexitarians") for various reasons has also grown considerably. Despite the growth of the vegan (a.k.a. plant-based) food industry, relatively little is known about how people talk about veganism. Scholarly research demonstrates that the way people talk about their diet can not only influ...

Ideological resistance to veg*n advocacy: An identity-based motivational account

“…Because veg*ns often decide to consciously deviate from carnist norms based on strong moral motivations, they tend to strongly internalize their diet as an important aspect of who they are ( Rosenfeld and Burrow, 2018 ; Rosenfeld, 2019b ) and as a part of their moral identity ( Chuck et al, 2016 ; Feinberg et al, 2019 ), i.e., their identity as a morally committed person and associated thoughts, feelings, and behaviors with regard to promoting or protecting the welfare of others ( Aquino and Reed, 2002 ; De Groeve and Rosenfeld, 2022 ). The labels “vegetarian” and “vegan” may be a source of ingroup pride ( Rosenfeld, 2018 ), facilitate cooperative group formation ( Smaldino, 2019 ) and moral identity signaling ( Aquino and Reed, 2002 ; Paxman, 2016 ), so that omnivores may readily perceive veg*ns as morally committed advocates who attract attention for “their” cause ( Markowski and Roxburgh, 2019 ; De Groeve et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Indeed, there are a lot of actions veg*ns may partake to promote their diet and moralized identity, such as sharing messages on social media, signing petitions, donating money to campaigns and/or protesting ( Thomas et al, 2019 ). Veg*ns may participate in various education and community engagement – from cooking and sharing veg*n food with others, to writing books or articles, to engaging in outreach (e.g., giving lectures, advertising stalls) ( Chuck et al, 2016 ; Paxman, 2016 ). Yet, there is a lot of heterogeneity in how veg*ns construe their identity and engage in different forms of advocacy ( Chuck et al, 2016 ; Paxman, 2016 ; Thomas et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Veg*ns may participate in various education and community engagement – from cooking and sharing veg*n food with others, to writing books or articles, to engaging in outreach (e.g., giving lectures, advertising stalls) ( Chuck et al, 2016 ; Paxman, 2016 ). Yet, there is a lot of heterogeneity in how veg*ns construe their identity and engage in different forms of advocacy ( Chuck et al, 2016 ; Paxman, 2016 ; Thomas et al, 2019 ). While only a radical minority engages in illegal actions such as clandestine investigations and animal rescue operations in pursuit of social change ( Thomas et al, 2019 ), many veg*ns may detach from the veg*n label in some circumstances, see it as a personal burden, and are reluctant to discuss their dietary preferences with others ( Chuck et al, 2016 ; Paxman, 2016 ; Rosenfeld and Tomiyama, 2019 ).…”

“…These two defenses resemble a tendency of people to selectively seek and process information that confirms one’s identity or position (i.e., confirmation bias), while being disproportionally more critical of refuting information (i.e., disconfirmation bias; Taber and Lodge, 2012 ). At the same time, it is important to note that defensive and stigmatizing attitudes are dynamic and may vary considerable across individuals, cultures and contexts ( Paxman, 2016 ; MacInnis and Hodson, 2017 ). Individual variation and the versatility of the human mind (e.g., identities, language) through time should prevent us from essentializing identity categories.…”

Relative Variability of Inbred Lines and F1 Hybrids in Lycopersicum Esculentum

“…The evidence from studies on tomato (POWERS 1942), on Galeopsis (HAGBERG 1952), and on Nicotiana species (JINKS and MATHER 1955;PAXMAN 1956;SMITH and DALY 1959), all show that the variability of F, hybrids in the inbreeding species studied fall within the range of the inbred parents. The most serious challenge to this conclusion is found in the extensive study of mutants in barley (ROBERTSON and AUSTIN 1935) and in their further analysis and interpretation by GUSTAFSSON (1946).…”