Appeal to Vanity, Not Heart! How to Revolutionize the Animal Rights Movement

 

The animal rights movement has been led by many heroic, heart-centered individuals who have sacrificed much of what they have to help the helpless and give voice to the voiceless. I have watched over the years as these individuals gave impassioned pleas to save the whales, save the salmon, end the torture and destruction of animals in slaughterhouses, etc., and for me, that has been motivation to go vegan. I, too, am a heart-centered individual. However, The cold reality is most Americans are not. They might tell you they are, and they might wear t-shirts suggesting as much, but Americans are primarily not motivated by empathy. I think it’s time for the animal rights movement to recognize that people are more motivated by social status and vanity.

The Heart-Centered Approach Hasn’t Worked

I think Anonymous for the Voiceless in Portland is an excellent organization. It is a powerful visual to have people dressed in black with masks on holding up a screen showing the horrors of animal abuse. The idea is that by holding these demonstrations in public places, people will stop and watch the videos, and care about the animals. But the hard, cold reality is that Anonymous for the Voiceless and all the other animal rights organizations across this country have only managed to convince .5% of the total population to become vegetarian or vegan. Compare that to Canada, where as much as 10% of the population is vegetarian or vegan. In Japan, the rate is 1.5 percent. In Korea, the rate is 2.5 percent. Even the UK has doubled the number of vegetarians or vegans to 1%.

I contend that this heart-centered approach to animal rights is not working in this country. I don’t believe the right approach is appealing to people to save the animals.
We need to change the messaging from saving the animals to improving ourselves. We need to show people that not eating meat will benefit them in many ways.

The Benefits of Going Vegan

Imagine for a second that instead of showing videos of animals being tortured, we showed videos that compared the faces of vegans to the faces of meat eaters. The truth is that meat contains over 200 horrible chemicals linked to cancer and other terrible health conditions. They are also linked to premature skin aging. The fact is that vegans have much nicer skin that some say even glows!

Research has shown that vegan athletes are also significantly more capable. A recent report I read showed that vegans experienced 30% better muscle growth and recovery from athletic stress compared to non-vegan athletes. So, we could also show videos of vegan athletes from around the country beating those who eat meat. We can show how lean and muscular their bodies are. We could demonstrate how their blood pressure and metabolism are improved, and they’re likely to secure a spot on the professional sports team over a meat-eating athlete.

Besides nicer skin and better athleticism, vegans also enjoy more energy and more sex drive, and we live longer.

Vanity-Based Campaigns

We need to create a campaign based on those facts.
Want a better sex life? Go vegan!
Want to make it into the NFL? Go vegan!
Want to have the face of a 20-year-old? Go vegan!
Appeal to their vanity and not their heart, and I think we will see change.

The Inside-Out Approach

The other aspect of the animal rights movement I want to comment on is the outside-in approach we seem to be taking. The current strategy is to hold demonstrations and convince others to change. That immediately makes us the outsiders in any given situation. We are the outsiders at Pioneer Square trying to get the attention of the concertgoers. We are the outsiders of the daily commute, holding signs for the commuters to save the whales. We are the outsiders posting signs in our neighborhoods to save the salmon.

Combining that with the fact that most of us are already social outcasts, I don’t believe this is the most effective approach. Let’s be honest with ourselves; many of us are GLBTQ+ or tattooed or wear our hair differently, etc. You know what I mean. The mainstream doesn’t care about social outcasts. Not unless they have to, like some major disaster forces them to change. Hell, most Americans struggled to listen to SCIENTISTS during a PANDEMIC! Outside of a major disaster, a bunch of social outcasts trying to convince the mainstream to change their behavior is a nearly impossible task. That’s why we have been so incredibly unsuccessful.

Humans are Tribal: We Must Influence their Leaders

As a psychologist, I know that humans are inherently tribal. Everybody belongs to different tribes. Their tribe at work. Their sports team that they follow. Their school. Their church. Each of those places has its own culture and group identity. There are also leaders within each of these tribes that the others follow. In the high school, it’s the stars on the football team. At church, it’s the pastor. Online, it’s social media influencers within the groups. Those leaders are the ones that set the path for the rest of the group to follow. In my opinion, the only way to get America’s tribes to change is to influence their leaders and to effect change from within. This is an inside-out approach.

For example, if you want high school students to become vegan, I would target the high school football team quarterback and convince him that being vegan will give him the best shot at getting into the NFL. He’ll tell his buddies on the football team. Those buddies will tell their girlfriends and friends. Soon, you’ll see a movement within the high school to go vegan.

At the church, you target the pastors and other church leaders. Online, you convinced the influencers within any given group to adopt a vegan lifestyle. We outcasts operate behind the scenes because if the tribe gets suspicious that outsiders are compromising their leaders, the change won’t happen.

The bottom line is that we can save the animals better from an inside-out approach versus an outside-in approach. We can target the leaders of America’s tribes and appeal to their vanity.

Vanity is Reality

Sadly, our country is not led by its heart. But getting upset about it isn’t going to make it any better. We must work within the psychology of the people we want to change. The end goal is to get people to stop eating meat. Lowering the demand for meat will destroy the meat processing infrastructure that is so devastating to animals. I would love to live in a country where this was accomplished by heart, but if we can accomplish it by appealing to vanity, the result is still the same. The animals get saved.