Vegetarians Crave Power And Success More Than Meat Eaters Do, Study Finds

WARSAW, Poland — A surprising new study is turning our most basic assumptions about people who choose plant-based diets upside down. It turns out that vegetarians might actually be more power-hungry, achievement-oriented, and individualistic than their meat-eating counterparts.

Society typically pegs vegetarians as compassionate souls who prioritize kindness, community harmony, and caring for others. But the study of people in the U.S. and Poland, published in PLOS ONE, shows that vegetarians scored lower on values like benevolence (caring for close friends and family), security (wanting stability and safety), and conformity (following social norms) compared to meat-eaters. The differences for conformity and tradition weren’t statistically significant in the U.S. sample but were significant in Poland. Instead, vegetarians scored higher on values tied to personal power, achievement, and stimulation.

“These results suggest that following a vegetarian diet represents a manifestation of values that emphasize independence and individuality, a possibility that is somewhat at odds with how vegetarianism is often discussed,” wrote study author John Nezlek, a professor at SWPS University in Poland.

Rather than being the selfless do-gooders of popular imagination, vegetarians appear to be independent thinkers who aren’t afraid to buck social trends, even if it means prioritizing personal goals over group harmony.

Breaking Stereotypes About Plant-Based Dieters

The research examined over 3,700 adults across three separate studies, one in the United States and two in Poland. The U.S. study included 514 vegetarians and 540 non-vegetarians. The Polish studies included 636 participants (about 47% vegetarians) and 2,102 participants (3.4% vegetarians), respectively.

Participants answered questions about their basic human values using a well-established psychological framework that measures ten core values driving human behavior, from caring about all people and nature to wanting control and dominance over others.

While results were largely consistent across the three studies for most values, the researchers did find some cultural differences. For example, vegetarians consistently showed less importance for what psychologists call “conservation” values. These are values focused on maintaining traditions, following social expectations, and preserving group stability, though, as noted, differences in tradition and conformity did not reach significance in the U.S. sample.

“The reason for these differences is not clear,” writes Nezlek. “The U.S. can (broadly) be described as an Anglo-Saxon culture, whereas Poland can be described as Western Slavic. The two countries also have different modern histories in terms of political systems. Nevertheless, it is not immediately obvious how such differences would be manifested in differences between vegetarians and non-vegetarians in terms of the importance of self-direction values and universalism values.”

Why Vegetarians Value Power, Success, and Stimulation

Perhaps most surprising was vegetarians’ relationship with power and achievement. Across all studies, vegetarians rated these values as more important than meat-eaters did. In Schwartz’s psychological model, power means seeking “control or dominance over people and resources,” while achievement involves “personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards.”

Some past research has found that women are more likely to be vegetarian than men, and that traditional gender stereotypes portray women as more nurturing. But this study suggests vegetarians may actually be, in the researcher’s words, “more masculinized than meat-eaters” in how they endorse values typically associated with traditional masculine traits like power and success.

Vegetarians were also significantly less concerned with conformity, the value that involves restraining actions that might upset others or violate social norms. Given that vegetarianism remains a minority lifestyle choice in most Western countries, this pattern makes sense.

“Vegetarians are a minority in many countries, including the countries in which the present studies were conducted, and their identification as member of this minority is an act of choice,” Nezlek explained. “People choose to eat meat or not.”

That choice often comes with social costs. Research has documented something called “vegetarian threat,” a phenomenon where some meat-eaters view vegetarians as challenging their way of life. Vegetarians frequently face criticism and social pressure, which may require psychological toughness and commitment to personal principles over social harmony.

Another consistent finding was that vegetarians placed less importance on tradition, such as respect for customs and ideas provided by culture or religion. Traditional diets in most Western cultures center around meat consumption, so choosing vegetarianism inherently involves rejecting cultural food traditions.

Vegetarian Values Vary by Country, Study Shows

Not all values showed the same pattern across countries. Self-direction, the value for independent thought and action, showed opposite trends. American vegetarians rated self-direction as less important than meat-eaters, while Polish vegetarians showed the reverse pattern.

“Determining the extent to which differences between the values of vegetarians and non-vegetarians vary as a function of culture will require research specifically designed to do this,” Nezlek concludes.

These findings challenge the idea that vegetarianism is always driven by general compassion or a strong community mindset. Vegetarians may care deeply about animal welfare and the environment, but this caring appears to stem more from independent thinking and a willingness to stand apart from the crowd.