Another shower thought—I’ve been vegetarian for 7 years and vegan for 6.5.
I find it very surprising and interesting how little it has nudged anyone in my friends / family circle to reduce their consumption of meat.
I would go as far as to say it has made literally no difference!
Keep in mind I’m surrounded by extremely compassionate and mostly left leaning people.
I also have relatively wide networks and I normally talk about animal welfare in a non annoying way.
You’d have thought in that time one person would have been nudged—nope!
My intention going vegan wasn’t as some social statement, but if you’d asked me 7 years later would there have been some social effect, I would have guessed yes.
So your surprise/expectation seems reasonable! Of course, I don’t know whether it’s actually surprising, since presumably whether anyone actually converts depends on lots of other features of a given social network (do your networks contain a lot of people who were already vegetarian/vegan?).
Thanks for sharing that data David, I appreciate that :)
Do you think it can answer the question; If you’re the first in your family to switch to veganism/vegetarianism, how likely is it that another family member will follow suit within X years?
(Also, no, there aren’t any vegetarians or vegans among my friends or family).
FWIW I’d probably count myself as having ~ 30 close friends and family.
This also seems like good research for the GWWC pledge.
Do you think it can answer the question; If you’re the first in your family to switch to veganism/vegetarianism, how likely is it that another family member will follow suit within X years?
I’m afraid that. I think we’d need to know more about the respondents’ families and the order in which they adopted veganism/vegetarianism to assess that. I agree that it sounds like an interesting research question!
Have you tried cooking your best vegan recipes for others? In my experience sometimes people ask for the recipe and make it for themselves later, especially health-conscious people. For instance, I really like this vegan pumpkin pie that’s super easy to make: https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/easy-vegan-pumpkin-pie/
Thanks for the comment Sean. Because of me they’ve had to (seemingly gladly) eaten vegan-only meals dozens of times. My mum has even made me vegan dishes to take home on dozens of occasions. They almost all acknowledge the horror of factory farming. Veganism is just firmly bucketed a “yanni thing”.
I think that most beings[1] who I’ve become very close with (I estimate this reference class is ≤10) have gone vegan in a way that feels like it was because of our discussions, though it’s possible they would have eventually otherwise, or that our discussions were just the last straw.
In retrospect, I wonder if I had first emanated a framing of taking morality seriously (such that “X is bad” → “I will {not do X} or try to stop X”). I think I also tended to become that close with beings who do already, and who are more intelligent/willing to reflect than what seems normal.
Another shower thought—I’ve been vegetarian for 7 years and vegan for 6.5.
I find it very surprising and interesting how little it has nudged anyone in my friends / family circle to reduce their consumption of meat.
I would go as far as to say it has made literally no difference!
Keep in mind I’m surrounded by extremely compassionate and mostly left leaning people.
I also have relatively wide networks and I normally talk about animal welfare in a non annoying way.
You’d have thought in that time one person would have been nudged—nope!
My intention going vegan wasn’t as some social statement, but if you’d asked me 7 years later would there have been some social effect, I would have guessed yes.
Im surprised!
When we asked current vegetarians/vegans what influenced them to adopt their diet, personal conversations (primarily with friends/family) were among the top influences.
So your surprise/expectation seems reasonable! Of course, I don’t know whether it’s actually surprising, since presumably whether anyone actually converts depends on lots of other features of a given social network (do your networks contain a lot of people who were already vegetarian/vegan?).
Thanks for sharing that data David, I appreciate that :)
Do you think it can answer the question; If you’re the first in your family to switch to veganism/vegetarianism, how likely is it that another family member will follow suit within X years?
(Also, no, there aren’t any vegetarians or vegans among my friends or family).
FWIW I’d probably count myself as having ~ 30 close friends and family.
This also seems like good research for the GWWC pledge.
Thanks!
I’m afraid that. I think we’d need to know more about the respondents’ families and the order in which they adopted veganism/vegetarianism to assess that. I agree that it sounds like an interesting research question!
Maybe one day 😊
Have you tried cooking your best vegan recipes for others? In my experience sometimes people ask for the recipe and make it for themselves later, especially health-conscious people. For instance, I really like this vegan pumpkin pie that’s super easy to make: https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/easy-vegan-pumpkin-pie/
Thanks for the comment Sean. Because of me they’ve had to (seemingly gladly) eaten vegan-only meals dozens of times. My mum has even made me vegan dishes to take home on dozens of occasions. They almost all acknowledge the horror of factory farming. Veganism is just firmly bucketed a “yanni thing”.
That is interesting.
I think that most beings[1] who I’ve become very close with (I estimate this reference class is ≤10) have gone vegan in a way that feels like it was because of our discussions, though it’s possible they would have eventually otherwise, or that our discussions were just the last straw.
In retrospect, I wonder if I had first emanated a framing of taking morality seriously (such that “X is bad” → “I will {not do X} or try to stop X”). I think I also tended to become that close with beings who do already, and who are more intelligent/willing to reflect than what seems normal.
(I write ‘being’ because some are otherkin)