Animalizing women and feminizing men: The psychological intersections of human supremacism, sexism, and anti-veganism

Ecofeminist scholars have proposed that oppressive attitudes towards women and animals are interrelated. This thesis uses quantitative methods to test predictions derived from ecofeminist theory that have thus far received little empirical attention in psychology. The first empirical chapter of this thesis, Chapter 2, investigates the associations between human supremacy beliefs over animals and nature, dehumanization of women, and ambivalent sexism. Across five studies (total N = 2,409), human supremacy beliefs were associated with hostile and benevolent sexism. Dehumanization of women was primarily associated with hostile sexism, whereas views of women as connected to nature were primarily associated with benevolent sexism. The results further demonstrated that Social Dominance Orientation as an underlying ideological factor partly explained the association between human supremacy beliefs and sexism and between dehumanization and hostile sexism, whereas benevolent beliefs about nature partly explained the association between women's connection to nature and benevolent sexism. The second empirical chapter, Chapter 3, focuses on the role of masculinity perceptions and gender role beliefs in the evaluation of plant-based meat alternatives. Across two experiments (total N = 484), images of identical meat dishes were evaluated more negatively when labelled as plant-based meat as opposed to regular meat, and this was partly explained by the lower perceived masculinity of plant-based meat dishes. The association between perceived masculinity and evaluations was stronger for participants higher (vs. lower) in traditional gender role beliefs. The third empirical chapter, Chapter 4, turns the focus onto the role of masculinity perceptions and gender role beliefs in bias towards vegetarian and vegan men. One correlational study and two experiments (total N = 1258) confirmed that bias towards vegetarian and vegan men is partly explained by their lower perceived masculinity, and that this link is stronger for those higher (vs. lower) in traditional gender role beliefs. Taken together, the findings of this thesis demonstrate that 1) beliefs about nature and animals, and about women in relation to nature and animals, are associated with gender-based prejudice and 2) beliefs about gender roles and perceptions of masculinity are associated with anti-vegan biases towards both plant-based meat alternatives and vegan men. Thus, this thesis adds to the growing body of literature showing that human intergroup and human-animal relations are meaningfully interconnected and can inform and expand each other.