Iryna Zelinska & Joanna Roszak
鈥淵ou Are What You Eat鈥� Identity, Self-Actualization, and Self-Esteem in Vegetarians and Omnivores
Contact at: izelinska@st.swps.edu.pl
This presentation is based on the experimental exploration of whether adherence to a broadly-understood plant-based diet vs. omnivore and/or meat-based diet may relate to a sense of identity, self-esteem, or self-actualization of its followers. Research indicates that followers of plant-based diets may indeed value their diets as a crucial part of their social identity, as such being an important aspect of their well-being, compared to omnivores (Nezlek et al., 2020, Rosenfeld & Burrow, 2017). The current study (N = 72) was an experiment, with a set of non-manipulated variables. The manipulated variable was the salience of social identity in connection with the dietary choice (vs. baseline condition with no reminder of the importance of a given diet). The main DVs were self-actualization (Crandall & Jones, 1991), self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965), distance from the outgroup (Mather et al., 2017), and identification with the ingroup (Postmes, Haslam, & Jans, 2013). The majority of participants were comprised of people who follow carnivorous/omnivorous diets consuming meat/fish on a daily basis (N=51), with 21 vegetarians and vegans. Preliminary results indicate that self-actualization and distance from the outgroup were higher for a group of vegetarians and vegans. However, self-esteem for vegetarians and vegans was lower than for carnivorous groups. Identification with the ingroup was higher with vegetarians and vegans, as opposed to carnivores.
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