FWIW, the rate was ~50% for vegans who were motivated by animal protection, and ~70% for vegetarians (including vegans) who were motivated by animal protection, based on table 17 on p.18 here.
For vegans who were motivated by animal protection, here’s the recidivism rate calculation:
0.27×129/(0.62×53+0.27×127)≈0.52≈50%
The recidivism rate was about 84% of vegetarians motivated by health, who made up more than half, and 86.6% for vegetarians not motivated by animal protection. Actually, only 27% of former vegetarians and 27% of former vegans were motivated by animal protection, even though those motivated by animal protection make up 70% and 62% of current vegetarians and current vegans, respectively. Also see Tables 9 and 10.
I don’t think it’s surprising that people who go veg*n other than for animals go back to eating meat. It could be evidence of some cost, but it could also mainly be evidence that most people who go veg*n do so for reasons they eventually no longer found compelling, so even small costs would have been enough to bring them back to eating meat.
They also go over difficulties people had with their diets in that study, too, though.
I wonder how much we can trust people’s given reasons for having been veg? For example, say people sometimes go veg both for health reasons and because they also care about animals. I could imagine something where if you asked them while they were still veg they would say “mostly because I care about animals” but then if you ask them after you get more “I was doing it for health reasons” because talking about how you used to do it for the animals makes you sound selfish?
I think the Faunalytics studies discuss this. I think why people were vegetarian/vegan in the first place is a big factor, since the recidivism rate for vegans motivated by animal protection was only about 50%. See my other comment.
> a lot of the long-term vegans that I know
It sounds like you may have a sampling bias, where you’re missing out on all the people who disliked being vegan enough to stop?
https://faunalytics.org/a-summary-of-faunalytics-study-of-current-and-former-vegetarians-and-vegans/ has “84% of vegetarians/vegans abandon their diet” which matches my experience and I think is an indication that it’s pretty far from costless?
FWIW, the rate was ~50% for vegans who were motivated by animal protection, and ~70% for vegetarians (including vegans) who were motivated by animal protection, based on table 17 on p.18 here.
For vegans who were motivated by animal protection, here’s the recidivism rate calculation:
The recidivism rate was about 84% of vegetarians motivated by health, who made up more than half, and 86.6% for vegetarians not motivated by animal protection. Actually, only 27% of former vegetarians and 27% of former vegans were motivated by animal protection, even though those motivated by animal protection make up 70% and 62% of current vegetarians and current vegans, respectively. Also see Tables 9 and 10.
I don’t think it’s surprising that people who go veg*n other than for animals go back to eating meat. It could be evidence of some cost, but it could also mainly be evidence that most people who go veg*n do so for reasons they eventually no longer found compelling, so even small costs would have been enough to bring them back to eating meat.
They also go over difficulties people had with their diets in that study, too, though.
I wonder how much we can trust people’s given reasons for having been veg? For example, say people sometimes go veg both for health reasons and because they also care about animals. I could imagine something where if you asked them while they were still veg they would say “mostly because I care about animals” but then if you ask them after you get more “I was doing it for health reasons” because talking about how you used to do it for the animals makes you sound selfish?
Do you have thoughts on what would account for the variance in degree of dislike of the diet, then?
I think the Faunalytics studies discuss this. I think why people were vegetarian/vegan in the first place is a big factor, since the recidivism rate for vegans motivated by animal protection was only about 50%. See my other comment.
This is a great research question IMO