People are increasingly adopting plant-based diets, but this coincides with increased bias/violence against vegetarians and vegans. What does this tell us about human psychology?
These are generalities, sure, but they are common enough to explain pretty much any response to “why do people hate other people doing things differently”.
People don’t like it when other people do things differently.
They really hate it when the people doing something differently present it as better than what they are doing in some way.
They hate the idea of something being forced upon them even more, even when the thing is presented as a reason to change voluntarily with no indication of it being forced.
People really hate being told something they have done their entire life is wrong.
Vegans strike a nerve with all four of these things at the same time. Another topic that gets a similar response is pointing out that spanking children is a net negative and parents should choose other approaches instead. I would expect very similar outcomes of research on that topic, including who reacts violently.
To add to this, there is an implication that not only have they been doing the wrong thing, it makes them bad people for doing it. People will attack others in order to defend the idea they have of themselves.
Yeah, I had someone threaten to beat my ass when they were telling a ‘funny’ story about how they were spanked until bruised and then told the thing they did was wrong by responding with “Was the spanking step necessary, since they explained what you did wrong?” Literally those exact words, which led to them going into a rant about how nobody wants them to spank their kids anymore.
I must not have been the first person who didn’t find their child abuse story funny.
These are generalities, sure, but they are common enough to explain pretty much any response to “why do people hate other people doing things differently”.
People don’t like it when other people do things differently.
They really hate it when the people doing something differently present it as better than what they are doing in some way.
They hate the idea of something being forced upon them even more, even when the thing is presented as a reason to change voluntarily with no indication of it being forced.
People really hate being told something they have done their entire life is wrong.
Vegans strike a nerve with all four of these things at the same time. Another topic that gets a similar response is pointing out that spanking children is a net negative and parents should choose other approaches instead. I would expect very similar outcomes of research on that topic, including who reacts violently.
To add to this, there is an implication that not only have they been doing the wrong thing, it makes them bad people for doing it. People will attack others in order to defend the idea they have of themselves.
Yeah, I had someone threaten to beat my ass when they were telling a ‘funny’ story about how they were spanked until bruised and then told the thing they did was wrong by responding with “Was the spanking step necessary, since they explained what you did wrong?” Literally those exact words, which led to them going into a rant about how nobody wants them to spank their kids anymore.
I must not have been the first person who didn’t find their child abuse story funny.