- Click here for explanation of classification scheme.

To identify the pattern of progressive meat avoidance by looking at the consumption patterns of different kinds of meat, and to identify the reasons behind avoiding meats.

• Undergraduates at the University of Birmingham who selected a vegetarian dish at a university dining hall
• Females (for the interview section of the study).

None reported.

Recruitment

A meat-avoidance questionnaire was administered to undergraduates (18 to 23 years old; 68% in their first year) who chose a vegetarian dish in a Hall of Residence dining hall or restaurants at the University of Birmingham in October 1993.

Design

Initial survey with a follow-up interview with a subsample (all female) of the initial survey group.

Statistical Analysis

Frequencies and percentages, using a chi-square statistic to test for group differences. Significance set at P<0.05.

Timing of Measurements

October, 1993.

Dependent Variables

• Pattern of meat consumption and avoidance:
  • Flesh eaters
  • Partial meat and fish avoiders
  • Eaters of fish only
  • Vegetarians (no flesh foods)
• Reasons for choosing the particular vegetarian dish at the time of the survey.

Independent Variables

• Reasons for choosing to avoid meats
• Patterns of eating at home.

Control Variables

Sex.

• Initial N: Initial number of surveys handed out was not reported. 240 questionnaires were returned.
• Attrition (final N): 158 surveys were usable (33 males and 125 females)
• For the interview phase of the study: 41 (all female), 33 from the survey and eight volunteers
• Age: 18 to 23 years
• Location: United Kingdom.

• The proportion of women who professed to make vegetarian choices at university was significantly greater than the proportion reporting vegetarianism at home (P<0·0005)
• Men differed from the women in reporting vegetarian choices at university in fewer numbers than reported at home, overall (P<0·0005)
• Persons who avoided red meat (P<0·0005) or white meat (P<0·0005) were more likely to avoid fish than people who ate these other meats (no difference among sexes).

Graduation from Carnivore to Vegetarian

• Both men and women reported choices before university that lay close to a gradated scale from eating both “red” meats (beef and lamb) and “white” meats (chicken and turkey) through avoiding those “red” meats but still eating fowl to avoiding both these categories of meat (P<0.0005 for both sexes and overall). Some men who ate red meat avoided poultry (NS). The same pattern held for “graduating” away from pork to foul and then to vegetarianism for both men and women (P<0.0005 for both sexes).
• In this study, pork appeared to function as an alternative to beef and lamb, and fish was not used as the “last meat” before graduating to vegetarianism.
• In this sample, women appeared to eat more in accord with the gradation towards vegetarianism than men.
• Fish was chosen by similar minorities among eaters and avoiders of beef and lamb and of poultry. This provides evidence that fish is not always the last flesh food consumed just before moving to full vegetarianism (consumption of fish is generally low among British young people).

Reasons for Vegetarianism and Dish Choice

Partial meat avoiders and vegetarians were asked to give reasons for their choices. The following table provides the percent who provided the different types of answers.

Reason	Partial Meat Avoiders		Vegetarian
	First Choice	Other Choice	First Choice	Other Choice
Ethical	32	18	54	38
Dislike	11	25	15	46
Disgust	18	29	8	38
Health	14	32	0	0
Social influences	11	7	8	8
Other	14	21	15	8

• Ethical principles and dislike of meat were mentioned first slightly more often by vegetarians than by partial meat avoiders (difference not significant)
• Partial meat avoiders gave a wider range of reasons than vegetarians, though the difference was not statistically significant
• When asked about the dish they had just chosen, sensory aspects were mentioned most often and it appears that food choice had more to do with what happened to be available
• The change toward vegetarianism at the university may reflect more direct contact with food, where the students are exposed to body parts, blood, eyes, etc. Such experiences are likely to arouse feelings of repugnance at eating an animal that has been raised and killed to feed them.
• Fully vegetarian students interviewed were concerned mainly with ethical issues widely discussed in the media, although “dislike” of meat was also given as a major reason for avoiding it
• Partial meat avoiders may have offered a wider range of reasons because of a need to justify their equivocal position on the issues of meat-eating and vegetarianism.

More women than men had avoided meat and other flesh foods, with the exception of fish. Consistently with the distinction between “red” and “white” meats, chicken and turkey were the least often avoided flesh foods among men and women. The only clear gradation from flesh-eating to vegetarianism was eating poultry and either beef and lamb or pork, eating only poultry and eating neither; fish was not on this scale, contrary to previous assumptions.

Reasons for avoiding meat were diverse, but always included at least two of the following: Ethics of raising and killing animals, concern for health, sensory factors, disgust and influence of friends.

Government:

PRAXIS XXI, JNICT, Portugal and Programmas CIENCIA 2

The study was small and unsystematic.