There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
This qualitative study explored the motivations of vegetarians by means of online
ethnographic research with participants in an international message board. The researcher
participated in discussions on the board, gathered responses to questions from 33
participants, and conducted follow-up e-mail interviews with 18 of these participants.
Respondents were predominantly from the US, Canada and the UK. Seventy per cent were
females, and ages ranged from 14 to 53, with a median of 26 years. Data were analysed
using a thematic approach. While this research found that health and the ethical treatment
of animals were the main motivators for participants' vegetarianism, participants
reported a range of commitments to environmental concerns, although in only one case
was environmentalism a primary motivator for becoming a vegetarian. The data indicate
that vegetarians may follow a trajectory, in which initial motivations are augmented
over time by other reasons for sustaining or further restricting their diet.