Harvard Graduate School of Education: Why Do Young Children Choose to Become Vegetarians?

[Guest guest]

Harvard Graduate School of Education:

 

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news_events/features/2006/08/08_hussar.html

 

Why Do Young Children Choose to Become Vegetarians?

 

by Jill Anderson

 

August 8, 2006

 

Alejandra Tumble, 10, doesn't eat meat and really

doesn't like ham. But, her reasons for not eating

meat might surprise you. Alejandra talks at

length about her choice not to eat meat, and how

strange it seems to her that a pig can be

processed into a thin slice of pink meat. She

thinks it's wrong-not for everyone, but at least

for her.

 

HGSE Doctoral Student Karen Hussar's research

examines children aged 6-10 who have become

vegetarians. As with Alejandra, for most children

Hussar studied, the decision has more to do with

morals than with personal choice. This is

contrary to the theories of famed psychologists

Lawrence Kohlberg and Jean Piaget-both pioneers

in moral development-that children aren't capable

of making independent moral decisions at this age.

 

" It's exciting to see how relatively autonomous

and independently-minded these children are, "

says Thomas Professor Paul Harris, who advised

Hussar throughout the research. " This means that

children are being influenced by other children

and going against the tide in their own homes,

which are meat-eating homes. We don't know much

about how children make moral decisions at such a

young age. I think this is a good pioneering

effort. "

 

Hussar, who began her study on vegetarians on

the recommendation of Harris, says that

vegetarian children are the perfect subjects for

research about moral development.

 

" When you talk to kids about bullying or

teasing, they all know the right answers and can

say it's wrong, " Hussar says. " However, the nice

thing about this population [vegetarian] of

children is they don't have the prescribed

answers in their heads. So, you feel you're

getting real responses about morality. "

 

Hussar's research looked at a total of 45

children-some vegetarians from meat-eating homes,

some vegetarians from vegetarian homes, and some

nonvegetarians-and inquired about their decisions

to eat or not to eat meat through role play. In

order to gauge how these children made their

decisions, Hussar set up methods of questioning

that provided four different stories for the

children including moral, personal, meat-eating,

and social. Then, Hussar compared the responses

to determine how their judgments differed.

Through these interviews, she discovered that

many children made the choice based on moral

reasons. " Their responses were more about how

animals are their friends, " Hussar explains.

" They could've used personal reasons like, 'I

feel healthier,' or taste reasons like, 'Bad for

my taste buds-it's really chewy.' "

 

In one of Hussar's first studies, the

vegetarians came from meat-eating homes and had

made this decision entirely separate from their

families. The research revealed that

[nonvegetarian] children judged those who made a

decision to refrain from eating meat for moral

reasons more harshly than those who made personal

decisions.

 

Even more interesting for Hussar was the

discovery that all of the vegetarian children

disclosed moral reasons to not eat meat, such as

" I don't like the idea of killing animals, " or " I

love animals and I didn't want to eat themŠI just

wanted to be nice. " The nonvegetarian children

[in the study] didn't acknowledge morals at all.

 

More surprising was that the vegetarian children

didn't judge those who chose to eat meat as being

bad. " For those that come from families where

they're the only non-meat eater it may be hard

for them to be judgmental of the people they live

with because they're their role models, " Hussar

says. In fact, the vegetarian children looked

more harshly upon those children who had once

committed to not eating meat for moral reasons

and then broke that commitment.

 

Hussar admits that everything isn't so cut and

dry. Many nonvegetarian children can recognize

the moral value of not eating meat, yet do not

make the choice to become vegetarian. She's eager

to do more research to find out why certain

children stop eating meat while others do not.

" [Non-vegetarians] don't look and think this

[choice] is so unusual, " Hussar says. " I think

[their choice to continue eating meat] has to do

in part with majority. I don't think it's a case

of they don't recognize moral value, but it isn't

enough to turn them into vegetarians. "

 

As Hussar works on completing her dissertation

this year, she plans to continue researching

vegetarian children and moral decisions. In the

upcoming year, she will work with Harris in

studying children who become vegetarians through

the influence of their friends, as well as the

moral choices that lead to vegetarianism.

 

 

--

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