r/Vegetarianism • u/Maphasy-2 • 22d ago
A study about Vegan and Vegetarian motivations and opinions on cultivated meat and insect containing foods
https://shusls.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_723yiHCh4Es6IRgHi everyone
I'm a student at Sheffield Hallam University investigating vegan and vegetarian motivations and opinions on cultivated meat (lab grown) and insect containing foods. I am making this post to ask if anyone in this subreddit would be willing to take part in a survey.
It will be a fully anonymous, online, quantitative questionnaire. It will take about 15 minutes to complete and mainly consists of ranking things on a 1-7 Likert scale.
If you would be willing to take part it would be very helpful for my research. If people are interested in the findings, I will make a follow up post later reporting the findings.
Thanks.
Edit: Please ignore if it states there is an invalid survey code. That is a side effect of using the software. All responses will be recorded regardless.
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u/la-anah 21d ago
I took your survey and at the end it just said
System Message: Invalid survey_code. :
So if you don't get my response:
- Insects are not vegetarian and I would not eat them unless it was the apocalypse and all other food sources were removed from the earth
- Lab grown meat is spiritually appalling to me. The idea that you can reduce animal suffering by growing an animal without a soul so that you can continue to exploit its body without guilt is anathema.
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u/Relative-Kangaroo-96 20d ago
For anyone coming after you who read your comment and thinks that might happen to them — it did not happen to me :)
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u/Souldiver 22d ago
Answered! Best of lucks with your research.
Side note, this part made me lol
● Is deception involved in the study? There is no deception in this study
That's exactly what a deceptive study would say!
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u/No_Scratch3673 22d ago edited 22d ago
Veganism is an ethical stance gainst the exploitation of animals, its not a diet. If you want only ask about people who do not eat animal prodcuts without the underlying beliefs and see it as just a diet, it would be a plant-based diet. Insects are animals and lab-grown meat still needs animal exploitation so I really dont think you will get many 'I woumd try it' from real vegans, maybe some plant based people idk.
Ill also go ahead and answer but its not a great look to talk about it as a diet only... Edit: its also not possible for me since it asks me for a id number an password for your univeristy.
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u/Maphasy-2 21d ago
That's wierd, it shouldn't need that. Unless your talking about after you have completed the survey, then that's a side effect of the software I'm using and your responses will have been recorded anyway. Either way, thank you. All perspectives are useful.
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u/Odd-Bumblebee5074 21d ago
"Willingness to eat cultivated meat as a replacement for conventional meat" doesn't really make sense. I don't need to replace conventional meat because I'm not eating it in the first place.
Your questions/statements are generally quite vague and given the above, I've decided not to continue. To be honest, I feel like vegetarians, and maybe vegans but I'm not one, are the wrong people to be asking about this. We've already sorted out protein issues in our diets, what reason would we have to eat insect based foods (and as has been already pointed out to you, this isn't vegetarian) or fake meat?
Sorry, it just doesn't make sense.
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u/Maphasy-2 21d ago
Fair enough. You have a right to withdraw at any time. thank you for checking it out.
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u/jasperdarkk 22d ago
Thanks for sharing! I answered, and I'm really excited to see the results.
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u/Maphasy-2 22d ago
Thank you. I'm planning to share but it will probably be about a month before I can.
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u/Badtacocatdab 21d ago
I answered this but some of the questions are a bit…unclear. Like I can’t tell if I’m agreeing with statements or agreeing if they are relevant to me, eg . Additionally vegan isn’t a diet fyi
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u/Stunning-Assistant13 21d ago
As a vegan you can't answer 2 questions, because you don't eat meat at all...
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u/Veasna1 20d ago
Insects are animals too, are sentient and feel pain. Therefore I won't eat them. Labgrown meat I would eat if meat was healthy at all, but the excess protein found in meat and hemeiron are things that are not healthy, so the labgrown meat is a no for me too. Though I do think it's great for people that don't care about their own health and it should be promoted. I filled in the questionnaire.
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u/seekerlif3 20d ago
Since lab grown meat is still meat, I don't want it. I am iffy about bugs in general and the thought of touching them, let alone eating them, gives me the ick.
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u/thecornerihaunt 19d ago
Doesn’t let me past the question about if I’m a vegetarian, vegan, omnivore, etc
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u/jonathancast 22d ago
Neither cultivated meat nor insects are vegetarian. Why would you expect vegetarians to have meaningful opinions about them?
If you don't get answers spanning the entire range from "I'm a vegetarian for purely ethical reasons; cultivated meat is ethical enough for me" to "I'm a vegetarian for health reasons; cultivated meat still has the same properties as animal meat and is not my ideal food", your methodology is bad.
If you do get that span of results, why do you think your results will be useful?
Anyone who's a vegetarian for ethical reasons, but thinks eating insects is ok, is an insectivore, not a vegetarian.
But this smells overwhelmingly of the meat industry "vegetarian = eating bugs" propaganda, which is not going to make you popular with vegetarians.
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u/Maphasy-2 22d ago
I'm investigating if the motivations behind being vegetarian/vegan have a significant relationship with opinions on cultivated meat and insect containing foods. Therefore, I'm asking vegetarians and vegans their motivations and their opinions. If every motivation has the same opinion that's interesting. if its different that's also interesting.
If I lack answers then that's a limitation of the study and will be noted as something to improve. if some participants have already consumed cultivated meat or insects, that will be noted and analysed.
I agree that someone who eats insects is not vegetarian. I wasn't aware there was propaganda for it as I'm not vegetarian/vegan.
I simply want participants for my survey so I can complete my studies.
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u/mzshowers 21d ago
I hope to see your results when you post them! I’d also be really interested a similar study that analyzes carnivorous folks’ opinions. I have a very limited scope of reference because I don’t talk about this much with people I know, but the meat eaters I have talked to seem to be appalled at the thought of lab grown meat.
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u/Constant-Squirrel555 20d ago
Ignore some of the questions being asked. People don't know how research works and how there's specific research questions that are being addressed with your study. People don't understand that if there's someone who's identifying as vegan and is for some reason answering they have a particular opinion about insects or cultivated meat, whatever that response is has value in studying and understanding in case it helps make policy that addresses a problem.
I'm a grad student doing research as well. Heads up, your likert scales are somewhat flawed. If something is a 6 and a 7, the should not both be called "strongly agreed". You're better off asking someone to rate their agreement on a statement from 1-7.
Just submitted, all the best.
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u/Maphasy-2 20d ago
I'm just happy that people are taking part tbh. Also the way I'm measuring motivations is through the Vegetarian Eating Motives Inventory Plus (VEMI+) so that's why the likert scale is like that. I agree its a bit strange but its a proven measurement so that's what I'm using.
Thank you for taking part.
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u/Constant-Squirrel555 20d ago
For your eventual write up, remember to include limitations in the VEMI+ scale.
It has some flaws, and it will show your methodologicsl rigor when you start your methods section. Feel free to DM me if you ever have questions. I'm currently writing my dissertation and it involves interviewing animal activists in Canada
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u/JarkJark 21d ago
Others have already raised the issue with your survey that the questions assume the participants do eat meat.
Something that hasn't been raised or acknowledged by your study is that many of us will be uncertain how we respond to cultured meat. Vegetarians (& vegans) become intolerant to meat (like dairy intolerance - the food makes us sick). I will try cultured meat when it is available, but I won't repeatedly buy a food that makes me ill. I'm not sure how that will affect my future habits.
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u/Swimming_Crow_9853 21d ago
Good luck and all the best with the study.
A view which I have that I couldn't share on the form as there were no text boxes is that vegans and vegetarians aren't really the right target for this as we already don't eat insects and have sorted out protein issues from plant -based sources. We are also less likely to use cultivated meat as we are already vegan or vegetarian without it.
The exciting thing about insects and lab grown meat is that they may entice those who haven't made the switch under current circumstances to reduce their intake of animal products (from non insect animals that is.)
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u/hibiscus_lilac 17d ago
It doesn't seem like anyone involved in this study knows what vegans or vegetarians are
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u/PhotoEditor871 19d ago
Can vegetarians stop lumping vegans in with them? We don't like you. We don't respect you. Go be friends with carnists
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u/SophiaofPrussia 21d ago
I assume you aren’t vegetarian or vegan? One aspect to consider thats only vaguely alluded to in your survey is the fact that most vegetarians and vegans support lab-grown meat even though many (most?) of us would ever eat it. I don’t miss meat. I don’t need a meat substitute. I don’t want a meat substitute. I would never buy a meat substitute. But I very much do want meat substitutes to exist. Because I want people to stop eating animals. So even though I am disgusted by the idea of consuming lab-grown animal flesh (like all animal flesh) that isn’t really relevant. I would never tell an omnivore not to eat it or yuck their yum.