Men won’t go vegan because it’s not seen as masculine: Study

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Men are less likely than women to become vegan because the diet is not seen as manly – but a lot depends on how it’s marketed.

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A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Communication found that while women are more likely to give up meat in their everyday diets, men are not.

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Researchers out of Germany asked 539 people to rate vegan meals and veganism and if the dishes were more suitable for men or women.

Only descriptions, no photos, of the four vegan dishes – salad, spaghetti carbonara, goulash and a burger – were provided and they were all described as being more suitable for a woman’s palate than a man’s.

A score of four meant the meal was not particularly suitable for either sex.

A higher score meant it was more suitable for men and a score below four meant it was more suitable for women.

When a burger was described to half the volunteers using neutral words, the average rating was 3.68.

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However, once the researchers added descriptors to each dish for half of the participants, that mindset went out the window.

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All of a sudden, the “beast burger” and “hearty goulash” were considered more masculine than the “wow-factor burger” and “gourmet goulash,” and the rating rose to 3.98 – meaning it was seen as a meal equally suitable for both men and women.

Also, throw man-friendly descriptions like “smoky,” “greasy,” and “juicy” along with “massive portion” and “biggest appetite” and those same foods are now manly enough for men to consume.

Marketers of vegan foods may want to keep the descriptions neutral, like “creamy” and “delicious,” the researchers stated.

Nevertheless, even with less feminine ways to describe the food, the participants still rated the meals slightly more suitable for women than men.

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Men were also no more likely to say they would like to eat a vegan meal, be willing to try one or thought it would taste good.

“Men might be less inclined to consume vegan food due to the need to appear masculine,” Alma Scholz, lead author of the study from the University of Wurzburg, said.

“Perhaps if we used even more masculine language to describe this food, we could make men more willing to eat it.”

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