Differing Empathy In Vegetarians, Vegans, And Omnivores
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FROM Celine Icard-Stoll, Faunalytics.org
February 2019

Does the decision to follow a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle affect our cognitive processing of empathy? A study of neural research says maybe so.

Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

For many, the choice to follow a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle is an easy one to make; it’s a decision grounded in ethics and values. Opting not to consume animal products means not participating in an industry that frequently exploits and abuses animals. Accordingly, for many animal advocates, living these lifestyles is compulsory in order to maintain consistent ethics, ethics that are built upon great feelings of empathy towards animals.

This may be a “common sense” conclusion for many animal advocates.

 However, what about empathy towards fellow humans? Could enacting lifestyles that demonstrate greater empathy towards animals also affect how we empathize with other people?

A group of European researchers set out to answer this question by mapping our neural responses to human and animal suffering. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers exposed 20 omnivores, 19 vegetarians, and 21 vegans to images of humans and animals suffering and recorded their brains’ responses.

For the entire study, go to Differing Empathy In Vegetarians, Vegans, And Omnivores

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