Vegetarians are more power-hungry than meat eaters, research suggests

Meat-eaters were found to place more value on benevolence and tradition

Vegetarians are more likely to seek power and prize achievements over their meat-eating counterparts, new research has suggested.

A study which assessed the values of more than 3,500 adults in Poland and the United States found that the 800 participants who were vegetarian were most likely to align themselves with values that improved their social status.

Those included higher levels of personal ambition and a keener appetite for “novelty and challenge in life”.

Meanwhile, meat-eaters were found to align themselves closer to values of tradition, such as respecting established norms, and conformity, meaning a desire not to upset others and to comply with socially accepted conventions.

They also placed more emphasis on benevolence, such as kindness towards friends and family, and security.

Those who are vegetarian are likely to be more independent-thinking (Getty Images)

Professor John Nezlek of SWPS University in Warsaw, who led the research, told The Times said: “There’s this long association between meat and masculinity. It’s far more common for women to adopt vegetarianism than men, and there are three main reasons that people become vegetarians: health, the environment and animal welfare ethics.

“When you pile all of that together, you might start to think that vegetarians would be more benevolent, a little less assertive, generally more ‘huggy’ people — but I found the complete opposite.”

Participants in both Poland and the US were handed brief sketches of fictional individuals accompanied by descriptions, such as: “Being very successful is important to him. He likes to impress other people.”

They were then asked to rank how much they related to the character from a scale of one to six.

The report found that those who follow a vegetarian diet were likely to be independent thinkers who are not afraid to “march to the beat of a different drum”, given that they are a minority in many countries.

“In the face of such beliefs and in the face of the experiences of rejection and criticism that may accompany the expression of such beliefs vegetarians need to be committed and hold their beliefs strongly,” the report found.

It concluded: “The present results suggest that although vegetarians may be more sensitive to the pain and suffering of animals and may be more aware of threats to the environment than non-vegetarians, this sensitivity and awareness do not reflect the basic human value of benevolence.

“Moreover, the present results suggest that vegetarians hold values consistent with being members of a social minority who are willing to stand by their principles. Although the present studies leave important questions unanswered, they suggests a path forward.”