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Who Already Supports Animal Freedom (Animal Think Tank)

This report contains a "Study summary" which is reproduced below.

Study summary

The intention of this research was to identify the reasons and motivations behind both active and passive supporters' actions for animal causes. It aimed to explore their understanding of the issues and solutions, providing insight into people's mental models of cause and effect. It sought to determine if there are any particularly influential or prevalent segments within our supporter base. This survey forms part of a larger project which aims to explore their values, inspirations and hopes, as well as their aspirational identities, and how all of these can be communicated in a way that galvanises more of our base and persuades more of the public to support animal causes.

Aims

  1. Investigate the motivations and reasons behind active and passive supporters of animal causes.
  2. Identify any particularly influential segments within the supporter base.
  3. Analyse their values, inspirations, and aspirations of the base.
  4. Our analysis primarily focused on UK demographics, but we also have the data available for the US and Canada.

Profile of supporters

  1. Predominantly female, white, aged 25-54.
  2. Involved in activism for 6 to over 20 years.
  3. Vegan or vegetarian dietary preferences.
  4. Motivated mainly by empathy and ethics, the sample were mostly initially inspired by relationships with animals.
  5. Primary concerns: cosmetic testing, hunting for sport, farming for food and clothes, and human research.
  6. Highly value changing public opinion, cultural and institutional changes. Individual change (like diet alteration) is less emphasised.
  7. Prefer online and daily actions over direct actions.
  8. Strong self-identification with caring about animals and being vegan.

Demographic disparities

  1. White individuals were over-represented (92%) compared to the UK 2021 census (82%).
  2. Non-white ethnicities under-represented: 7.58% vs. 18% in the census.
  3. Higher female representation: 74.73% vs. 51% in the census.

Strategic approaches for building the active base

  1. We estimated the maximum potential mobilisation for various issues.
    a. Direct action: 0.5 million
    b. Charity, and volunteer actions: 0.75-1.4M (issue dependent).
    c. Online action: 1-1.8M (issue dependent)
  2. These data can inform two potential strategies for activating the passive base:
    a. Leverage Existing Demographics: Focus on the predominant demographic, mainly white females, for quick expansion of the base.
    b. Diverse Expansion: Conduct further research into reasons for under-representation of men and non-white ethnicities.