The promotion of masculine foods might encourage more guys to adopt a vegan diet

Researchers have shown that marketing might alter men’s perceptions of plant-based diets and encourage them to consume more of it. Eating more plant-based meals is beneficial for the environment and human health, according to studies. However, there are substantial obstacles to cutting down on meat intake due to cultural norms, particularly for males, who are underrepresented among vegans and vegetarians.

According to a team from the Universities of Wurzburg and Bamberg in Germany, consuming meat is linked to masculinity, and plant-based diets are stereotyped as being more suited for women than for men. The research demonstrated that while dietary tastes cannot be altered, you can affect how people see plant-based cuisine as “feminine.”

The research’s primary author, Alma Scholz, said that men could be less likely to eat vegan meals because they feel pressure to conform to gender norms. Frontiers in Communication released the findings. But if vegan cuisine is presented in a manly manner, men may be less likely to object and more inclined to eat it.

The researchers used the internet to find volunteers for the study and gave them descriptions of a variety of cuisines. Words that were either customarily connected to the meal or to items that were considered “masculine” were used in these descriptions. Participants were asked by the researchers to rank the foods according to how suitable they were for men and women.

The male participants’ affiliation with various masculine constructs and the opinions of all participants toward veganism were also assessed by the researchers. They inquired about the participants’ usual meat consumption as well as the factors that went into their dietary decisions.

The group discovered that women were more likely than men to be vegans and that they also gave veganism a higher rating. Ethical and health-related justifications were the most often stated reasons for becoming vegan, and the more justifications one offered for cutting down on meat, the more likely they were to do so. Positive attitudes of meatless foods were more prevalent among those who knew vegans.

The modified descriptions of the foods did not influence men’s liking for vegan food, but they did modify how the dishes were perceived—they were seen as less feminine and more neutral.

When it came to rating food, men who associated less with conventional masculinity were more influenced by macho marketing; nonetheless, the scientists discovered that this was the majority of their male sample; findings may alter if the sample were more varied.

However, the scientists claimed that a brief intervention would not be sufficient to alter the menu. “Long-term interventions may have the potential of even stronger shifts, resulting in an improvement in men’s liking of vegan dishes, and are thus worth further exploration,” Scholz said, even if this shift was not entirely successful.