Social media is relevant to vegetarian lifestyle, a new study shows.

6 April 2022, by CSS

Photo: Farhad Ibrahimzade on Unsplash

CSS members Prof. Dr. Stefanie Kley, Prof. Dr. Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw and Alicia Dunker have published a paper in Environmental Communication on their study on whether consuming and sharing information on food on social media is associated with following a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Abstract: Traditionally, dietary choices are formed through socialization, social norms and the social environment, while news media seemed to have little impact on people’s diets. This article explores whether today’s news media consumption and in particular consuming and sharing information about food on social media are associated with following a vegetarian or vegan diet. The data come from a tailor-made survey carried out in Hamburg, Germany, in 2018 (N = 1,214). Making use of probit regression with multiple equations, we analyse the associations between vegetarianism and individual news consumption, having vegetarians in the social environment, and communicating about food, controlling for individual and family characteristics. We find that both regular news consumption via social media and having vegetarian friends or family members is associated with pursuing a vegetarian diet. Moreover, news consumption via social media comes with increased communication about food, suggesting high relevance of social media for pursuing a vegetarian diet.

You can read the complete study in the journal Environmental Communication here [open access].

Kley, Stefanie; Kleinen von Königslow, Katharina; Dunker, Alicia (2022): Media Diets of Vegetarians. How News Consumption, Social Media Use and Communicating with One’s Social Environment are Associated with a Vegetarian Diet. Environmental Communication, Published online: 01 April 2022, https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2022.2051575.