Rosenfeld and Tomiyama 2019

Rosenfeld, D. L., & Tomiyama, A. J. (2019). When vegetarians eat meat: Why vegetarians violate their diets and how they feel about doing so. Appetite, 143, 104417.

243 participants
124 reported eating meat since going veggie/vegan, equally high among veggies and vegans,
108 provided qualitative data.
35% said they ate meat to make a social situation go smoothly, half of those said they did not want to be rude or burdensome.
10% said they were pressured
8% said they craved meat
6% because they wanted to see what a meat dish tasted like.
6% reported a perceived lack of protein.
6% reported wanting to eat meat for a new experience while travelling.
6% ate meat to avoid food waste.
1-3 % reported less common reasons such as being poor, hungry, nostalgic, lacking meat alternatives or drunk.
- Esquire magazine reported that 37% of british veggies have eaten meat while drunk
Of the 87 who provided a context in which they ate meat: 54% said they ate meat with family or at a special occasion. 6% reported thanksgiving being the incident. 15% said with friends, 14% with one's romantic partner 7% with coworkers and 6% while travelling.
10% reported unknowingly eating meat.
Of the 59% who mentioned how they felt when eating meat, 54% reacted negatively, 22% positively, 12% mixed and 12% neutrally.
- Of those that felt bad they often felt guilty or sick (emotionally and physically). Feeling angry or sad was less common.
- Of the 13 that reported positive feelings, 5 reported the good taste, 3 reported the sense of nourishment, 8 actively said they didn't feel bad, which indicates they know they should feel bad.
- 7 particiapants reported mixed, i.e. both positive and negative feelings. This was usually a combo of good taste and feeling satiated, but also feeling sick, weak-willed and guilty.
- 4% rationalised their decision by saying they would not eat meat in the future, 4 hid behind the normality, naturalness or necessity of eating meat, 3 fell back on health issues. 2 highlighted how they only ate tiny amounts.
Worringly, 13 participants reported occasionally or regularly eating meat. Overall
A few issues with this study: the 16 who did not provide data may be illuminating: they may have forgotten or be too embarrassed to say. Also, participants may have only reported the ones that made them feel bad because we readily recall emotional events.