为什么选择素食的女性多于男性？

Why Do More Women Than Men Choose to Become Vegetarians?

为什么选择素食的女性多于男性？

Has the increase in vegetarianism been entirely driven by women?

素食主义的增加是否完全是由女性推动的？

Updated November 26, 2024 

更新时间：2024 年 11 月 26 日

 Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer Ph.D.

由 Monica Vilhauer 博士审阅

• Over the last 30 years, the prevalence of vegetarianism among Americans has jumped six-fold. 

• Researchers examined sex differences in the diets of 15,000 college students between 2008 and 2023. 

• The large increase in vegetarianism in this group was entirely due to shifts away from meat among women. 

• Male and female vegetarians differed in the reasons they stopped eating meat.

• 在过去的 30 年里，美国人的素食流行率跃升了六倍。

• 研究人员调查了2008 到 2023年间15,000 名大学生饮食中的性别差异。

• 这个群体中素食主义的大幅增加完全是由于女性不再吃肉。

• 男性和女性素食者停止吃肉的原因不同。
  
  

The Baltimore-based Vegetarian Resource Group has, for 30 years, periodically commissioned national polls on what Americans eat. In 1994, 1% of their respondents said they did not eat any kind of animal flesh. By 2022, the percentage of Americans who were vegetarian or vegan had jumped six-fold. A new study suggests that women have almost entirely driven the shift toward plant-based diets in the United States in recent years.

30 年来，总部位于巴尔的摩的素食资源小组 （Vegetarian Resource Group） 定期委托对美国人的饮食进行全国性民意调查。1994 年，1% 的受访者表示他们不吃任何种类的动物肉。到 2022 年，素食主义者或纯素食者的美国人比例跃升了六倍。一项新的研究表明，近年来，女性几乎完全推动了美国向植物性饮食的转变。

John Nezlek and Catherine Forsetell conducted the research, and their results were published in an article in the journal Sex Roles. Their paper described the results of two studies. The first study tracked gender differences in dietary shifts among 13,000 students at the College of William & Mary over 15 years. The second study focused on gender differences in the reasons their subjects had given up meat.

John Nezlek 和 Catherine Forsetell 进行了这项研究，他们的结果发表在《性别角色》杂志上的一篇文章中。他们的论文描述了两项研究的结果。第一项研究追踪了威廉玛丽学院13,000名学生在15年内饮食转变的性别差异。第二项研究侧重于受试者放弃肉类原因的性别差异。

Study 1: Gender Differences in Giving Up Meat?

研究 1：放弃肉类的性别差异？

The participants in the first study were students taking introductory psychology courses nearly every semester between the fall semester of 2008 and the spring semester of 2023. The subjects included 7,451 women, 5,256 men, and 121 students who chose not to identify their gender.

第一项研究的参与者是 2008 年秋季学期至 2023 年春季学期期间几乎每学期都参加心理学入门课程的学生。受试者包括 7,451 名女性、5,256 名男性和 121 名选择不透露性别的学生。

Not surprisingly, the percentage of students who were vegetarian or vegan nearly doubled between 2008 and 2023. This increase, however, was entirely attributable to women—the percentage of female students who identified as vegetarian or vegan jumped from 4.3% to 8%. In contrast, the percentage of men who stopped consuming meat dropped from 2.5% to 1.8%. This pattern of gender difference remained when pescatarians—"vegetarians" who consume fish—were included in the analyses. (See Do Fish Qualify As Meat?)

毫不奇怪，在 2008 年至 2023 年期间，素食或纯素食的学生比例几乎翻了一番。然而，这一增长完全归功于女性——认定为素食者或纯素食者的女学生比例从 4.3% 跃升至 8%。相比之下，停止食用肉类的男性百分比从 2.5% 下降到 1.8%。当鱼素者（吃鱼的“素食者”）被纳入分析时，这种性别差异模式仍然存在。（见 鱼有资格吃肉吗？

(One hundred twenty-one individuals, however, did not indicate their sex on the survey. For unclear reasons, they were twice as likely as women and four times as likely as men to be vegetarians or vegans.)

（然而，有 121 人在调查中没有表明他们的性别。由于不清楚的原因，他们成为素食者或纯素食者的可能性是女性的两倍，是男性的四倍。

Study 2: Do Men and Women Differ in Their Reasons for Going Vegetarian?

研究 2：男性和女性吃素的原因不同吗？

In the second study, 121 male and 239 female vegetarians were asked about the most important reason they had stopped eating meat—the options were “ethical reasons,” “environmental reasons,” or “health reasons.” Again, the researchers found substantial gender differences. The women were more likely than men to have become vegetarians primarily out of ethical concerns (46% versus 30%). The men in the study were twice as likely as women to give up meat primarily for environmental reasons (30% versus 15%). Forty percent of both men and women were mostly motivated by health concerns.

在第二项研究中，121 名男性和 239 名女性素食者被问及他们停止吃肉的最重要原因——选项是“道德原因”、“环境原因”或“健康原因”。研究人员再次发现了巨大的性别差异。女性比男性更有可能主要出于道德考虑而成为素食者（46% 对 30%）。研究中男性主要出于环境原因放弃肉类的可能性是女性的两倍（30% 对 15%）。40% 的男性和女性主要出于健康考虑。

Why Are Women More Likely Than Men to Give Up Meat?

为什么女性比男性更容易放弃肉类？

Why are there more women vegetarians than men vegetarians in the United States, and why does this gender difference seem to be growing? Nezlek and Forestall point out that women are more concerned about the welfare of animals than men. They are, for example, more likely to be involved in the animal rights movement and to be opposed to animal research. Women donate more money than men to humane organizations, and there are 10 times as many female than male researchers in the field of anthrozoology—the study of human-animal relationships. (See Women Dominate Research on The Human-Animal Bond.)

为什么美国的女性素食者多于男性素食者，为什么这种性别差异似乎越来越大？Nezlek 和 Forestall 指出，女性比男性更关心动物的福利。例如，他们更有可能参与动物权利运动并反对动物研究。女性向人道组织捐赠的资金比男性多，在人类动物学（研究人与动物关系）领域，女性研究人员的数量是男性的 10 倍。（参见女性主导人与动物纽带的研究。

Are these gender differences a matter of nature or nurture? The answer is both. On the nature side, gender differences in concern for animals seem to be culturally widespread, if not universal. In a 2021 cross-cultural study of university students, women in every one of 22 countries scored higher than men on scales measuring concern for other species. In a paper in Scientific Reports, Christopher Hopwood and his colleagues reported that men consumed more meat than women in 20 of 23 nations. (The exceptions were China, Indonesia, and India).

这些性别差异是天生的问题还是后天培养的问题？答案是两者都有。在自然方面，对动物的关注的性别差异似乎在文化上很普遍，如果不是普遍的。在 2021 年对大学生进行的一项跨文化研究中，22 个国家/地区中的每一个国家/地区的女性在衡量对其他物种的关注程度的量表上的得分都高于男性。在《科学报告》上的一篇论文中，克里斯托弗·霍普伍德 （Christopher Hopwood） 和他的同事报告说，在 23 个国家中，有 20 个国家的男性比女性消费更多的肉类。（中国、印度尼西亚和印度除外）。

Behavior genetic studies have also found that individual differences in the desire to eat meat reflect the complex dance between heredity and environment. A large study of twins in Finland found that genes explain about 50% of differences among women in preferences for meat compared to 25% of individual differences in men. And a study of Dutch twins reported that genetic influences explained 75% of the variation in decisions to become vegetarian.

行为遗传学研究还发现，吃望的个体差异反映了遗传和环境之间的复杂舞蹈。芬兰一项针对双胞胎的大型研究发现，基因解释了女性对肉类偏好的约 50% 的差异，而男性的个体差异为 25%。一项针对荷兰双胞胎的研究报告称，遗传影响解释了 75% 的素食决定差异。

Do Effective Anti-Meat Campaigns Differ for Women and Men?

女性和男性的有效反肉运动是否不同？

Nezlek and Forestell correctly point out that Americans are no longer joining the vegetarian movement en masse. Indeed, the percentage of vegetarians and vegans in the United States has hovered between 5% and 6% for two decades. Further, per capita consumption of meat in the US has gone substantially up since 1975 when Peter Singer published his groundbreaking book, Animal Liberation. The inability to wean Americans off meat is, arguably, the biggest failure of the animal protection movement.

Nezlek 和 Forestell 正确地指出，美国人不再集体加入素食运动。事实上，二十年来，美国素食者和纯素食者的比例一直徘徊在 5% 到 6% 之间。此外，自 1975 年 Peter Singer 出版他的开创性著作《动物解放》以来，美国的人均肉类消费量大幅上升。无法让美国人断奶可以说是动物保护运动的最大失败。

These results are based on the dietary decisions of college students, and the degree they can be generalized to larger adult populations is unclear. The implications of the research, however, are important. Nezlek and Forestell suggest that effective interventions aimed at reducing meat consumption might differ for men and women. Campaigns focusing on the environmental costs of carnivory may appeal more to men, while women could be more affected by ethically-oriented information. This is an interesting hypothesis, and it is easily testable.

这些结果基于大学生的饮食决定，它们是否可以推广到更大的成年人群的程度尚不清楚。然而，这项研究的意义很重要。Nezlek 和 Forestell 建议，旨在减少肉类消费的有效干预措施对男性和女性可能有所不同。关注食肉动物环境成本的运动可能更吸引男性，而女性可能更容易受到以道德为导向的信息的影响。这是一个有趣的假设，而且很容易检验。

As the saying goes, “More research is needed.”

俗话说，“需要更多的研究”。