Can masculine marketing convince more men to eat vegan?

Consuming extra plant-based meals is best for our well being and higher for the planet. However cultural preferences are vital limitations to lowering meat consumption—particularly for males, who’re underrepresented amongst vegans and vegetarians. Research have discovered that consuming meat is related to masculinity, and that gender stereotypes label plant-based diets as appropriate for ladies however not males. So is it doable to vary the notion of plant-based meals with advertising, and persuade males to eat extra of it?

“Males could be much less inclined to eat vegan meals as a result of have to carry out gender,” stated Alma Scholz, lead creator of a brand new examine printed in Frontiers in Communication. “Nevertheless, with vegan meals being framed in a masculine approach, males may really feel much less resistance and turn into extra prone to eat it.”

The foundation of the issue

Whereas surveys have proven that smaller portion sizes and more healthy meals that comprise extra greens are sometimes thought-about extra appropriate for ladies, heartier meals with extra meat are equally related to males. Consuming meat is culturally related to power and masculinity, and meat-free meals are sometimes thought-about much less appropriate for males. Girls additionally usually categorical extra concern for animal welfare, a typical motive for selecting a vegan diet.

Whereas this can be altering—a current survey discovered that vegetarianism was not thought-about unsuitable for males, though veganism nonetheless was—males are usually far more involved about making client selections that reinforce their gender identity than girls are, so males’s meat consumption stays a lot greater. Altering a product’s presentation can have an effect on whether or not it is thought-about extra masculine or female, however this usually impacts girls lower than males.

“Since gender stereotypes additionally embody meals selections, males are extra inclined to eat in a gendered strategy to steer social notion. In any other case, they could be thought-about much less masculine,” defined Scholz, who carried out the analysis on the College of Würzburg and is now finding out at Stockholm College.

Advertising the menu

Scholz and her colleague Dr. Jan Lenhart, on the College of Bamberg, sought to analyze whether or not it was doable to vary males’s minds about vegan meals by altering their advertising, and whether or not males with extra conventional views of masculinity could be simpler to affect with masculine advertising. They recruited members on-line and offered them with descriptions of a number of dishes.

These descriptions contained phrases that have been both conventionally related to the dish or which have been usually related to ‘masculine’ meals. The researchers requested members to charge the dishes and their suitability for women and men.

The researchers additionally measured male members’ identification with totally different types of masculinity, in addition to all members’ attitudes in direction of veganism. They requested members to report the quantity of meat they usually ate and their causes for selecting their food regimen.

Seeds of change

Scholz and Lenhart discovered that girls of their pattern have been extra prone to be vegan, and that they rated veganism greater than males did. The commonest causes cited for selecting veganism have been moral and well being causes, and the extra causes somebody gave for lowering their meat consumption, the extra they have been prone to cut back it. Members who knew vegans have been extra prone to have a optimistic angle in direction of meat-free dishes.

Males’s choice for vegan dishes did not change with the altered descriptions of the dishes, however the altered description did change the notion of the dishes: they have been thought-about much less female and extra impartial. Males who recognized much less with conventional masculinity have been extra affected by masculine advertising once they rated dishes, however the scientists discovered that this was most of their male pattern: a extra various pattern may present totally different outcomes.

However a short-term intervention, stated the scientists, isn’t sufficient to vary what’s on the menu.

“With a brief intervention, the notion concerning gender suitability of vegan meals was shifted away from femininity and nearer towards a impartial place,” stated Scholz. “Even when this shift didn’t go all the best way, long-term interventions might need the potential of even stronger shifts, leading to an enchancment in males’s liking of vegan dishes, and are thus value additional exploration.”