Why do people go vegan: for ethics, health, or the planet?

What makes a person do anything? It’s a question that has plagued philosophers for centuries. Why get out of bed in the morning? 🥱 Why wear trousers? Why decide, one ordinary Tuesday, to stop eating cheese forever, a decision that will make you a permanent inconvenience at every future dinner party? As an investigator of human behavior, I find the question of motivation endlessly fascinating.

It's a beautiful Saturday evening here in Konala, Helsinki, a time for quiet reflection as the long summer day finally begins to fade. So, I’m reflecting on the "why." Specifically, I'm investigating the origin story of the modern vegan. What is the powerful, motivating force that convinces a person to voluntarily give up bacon? It’s a choice so alien to so many that it’s often treated with suspicion and mockery. But my research has revealed that it’s rarely a whim. The decision is almost always rooted in one of three profound, and often overlapping, convictions: a passion for animal ethics, a quest for personal health, or a desperate desire to help the environment.

These are the three great pillars of the vegan temple, the holy trinity of plant-based belief. Today, we're going to investigate each one, to understand the powerful "why" behind one of the fastest-growing movements on Earth. So, why do people go vegan?

The Character Creation Screen: Choosing Your "Why" 🧙‍♂️

Before I dive into the deep end of each motivation, I think it's helpful to have a framework. I've found that choosing your primary motivation for going vegan is a bit like choosing your character class at the start of a massive role-playing game like Skyrim. You have three main starting paths:

1. The Paladin (The Ethical Vegan): Your quest is one of justice and compassion. Your moral compass is your primary weapon. You are driven by a sacred duty to protect the innocent (in this case, the animals). Your gameplay will involve making a lot of morally consistent, if sometimes difficult, choices. 🛡️

2. The Alchemist (The Health Vegan): Your quest is one of optimization and longevity. You see the body as a complex system to be mastered. Your primary skills are nutrition and biology. You spend your time studying ingredients and brewing powerful potions (or kale smoothies) to enhance your own vitality. 🧪

3. The Druid (The Environmental Vegan): Your quest is to protect the natural world. Your power is drawn from your connection to the Earth. You are driven by a deep understanding of ecosystems and a desire to live in harmony with the planet, fighting against the forces of destruction. 🌳

   
   

All three paths can lead you to the same destination: a plate full of plants, but the journey, the dialogue options, and the personal motivations are completely different. And as my investigation revealed, many players end up multi-classing over time.

The Path of the Paladin: The Ethical Argument

This is the original, foundational motivation for the entire vegan movement. The ethical argument is not about health, and it's not about the environment; it is about justice for animals. For the Paladin, this is a clear-cut case of right and wrong. My investigation into this philosophy revealed that it’s built on a few core, challenging ideas.

The Philosophy: Sentience and Speciesism

At the heart of ethical veganism is the concept of sentience: the ability to feel, to experience pleasure and pain, joy and fear. The ethical vegan argues that if a being is sentient, it has an interest in its own life and in avoiding suffering. They then pose a difficult question: what is the morally relevant difference between a human and, say, a pig, that justifies us treating the pig in a way we would never treat the human?

The argument is that there isn't one. The ethical vegan posits that favoring the interests of humans simply because we are human is a form of prejudice called speciesism, a term that they place alongside other irrational prejudices like racism or sexism. They argue that a being's capacity to suffer is the only thing that should matter when we make moral decisions about them.

The Reality: Bearing Witness

This philosophical stance is then combined with a stark look at the reality of modern animal agriculture. The Paladin's motivation is fueled by bearing witness to the suffering inherent in our industrial food system. I'm not going to be graphic here, but my research involved understanding the standard, legal practices that ethical vegans object to. We're talking about extreme confinement in crates and cages, painful mutilations performed without anesthetic (like dehorning cattle or beak trimming chickens), and the industrial scale of the slaughterhouse. The modern chicken, for example, has been selectively bred to grow so enormous, so quickly, that its own legs often cannot support its body, leading to a short life of chronic pain.

For the ethical vegan, this isn't an abstract problem. It's a tangible, daily atrocity. They believe that by purchasing meat, dairy, and eggs, a consumer is directly paying for these practices to continue. Their refusal to participate is not just a dietary choice; it is a moral boycott. This is why their commitment extends beyond food to clothing (no leather or wool), entertainment (no zoos or animal circuses), and products (no animal testing). It is a complete and total withdrawal of support from all systems of animal exploitation.

The Path of the Alchemist: The Health Argument

The second major path into veganism is a more self-interested one, and in recent years, it has become an incredibly powerful driver. This is the path of the Alchemist, the person who comes to veganism in a quest for optimal health and longevity. Their motivation is not philosophy; it's biology. 🧬

The Science: A Fountain of Youth?

The Alchemist is motivated by the vast and growing body of scientific evidence linking whole-food, plant-based diets to a dramatically lower risk of most of our major chronic diseases. In my own investigations, I have covered these topics in detail, and the evidence is compelling.

• Heart Disease: Diets rich in whole plants have been shown to lower cholesterol, reduce blood pressure, and even reverse the progression of coronary artery disease.

• Type 2 Diabetes: A whole-food, plant-based diet is one of the most effective tools for preventing and even reversing Type 2 diabetes by improving insulin sensitivity.

• Cancer Risk: The World Health Organization classifies processed meat as a primary cause of cancer. A diet rich in fiber and phytonutrients from plants is strongly associated with a lower risk of several major cancers.

The Alchemist is often drawn in by the work of influential plant-based doctors like Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, or Dr. Neal Barnard, or by watching powerful documentaries that present a strong, science-backed case for the health benefits.

The Mindset: Control and Optimization

The psychology of the Alchemist is fascinating. They are often driven by a desire to take control of their own health, to optimize their body like a high-performance machine. They are interested in biomarkers, blood tests, and the measurable effects of their diet. They see food as information, as code that can be used to program their biology for the best possible outcome. For them, giving up a steak isn't an act of compassionate sacrifice; it's a logical decision to remove a suboptimal, inflammatory fuel source from the machine. This is the world of the Whole-Food, Plant-Based diet, which often goes even further than veganism by eliminating processed oils, sugars, and refined flours.

The Path of the Druid: The Environmental Argument 🌳

The third path is perhaps the most modern, and in an age of climate anxiety, it is growing at an exponential rate. The Druid comes to veganism not to save themselves or the animals, but to save the world itself. Their motivation is the protection of the environment.

The Data: A Planetary Crisis

The Druid is motivated by the staggering, almost unbelievable data on the environmental impact of animal agriculture.

• Climate Change: The livestock sector is one of the largest sources of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire global transportation sector combined. Methane from cattle is a particularly potent driver of short-term warming.

• Deforestation: Animal agriculture is the number one cause of deforestation globally, especially in the Amazon rainforest, which is being cleared for cattle grazing and to grow animal feed.

• Water Use: The water footprint of animal products is colossal. It takes over 15,000 liters of water to produce a single kilogram of beef.

• Biodiversity Loss: The conversion of natural habitats into agricultural land for livestock is the single biggest driver of wildlife extinction and biodiversity loss on the planet.

The Mindset: An Act of Hope

The psychology of the Druid is rooted in a desire to combat a feeling of helplessness. The climate crisis can feel like a vast, unstoppable force that is far beyond our individual control. Choosing a vegan diet, in this context, becomes a powerful and deeply personal act of defiance and hope. It is the single biggest thing an individual can do to reduce their personal environmental footprint. It’s a tangible, daily action that allows a person to align their plate with their values and to feel like they are part of the solution, not just part of the problem. 💚

Questions from the Internet: "What is the number one reason people go vegan?"

This is a fascinating question, and my research shows that the answer has changed over time. Historically, the vegan movement was almost exclusively driven by ethics. The arguments of Donald Watson and the early Vegan Society were entirely focused on animal rights. However, in the last decade or two, health and the environment have become incredibly powerful gateways. Many surveys now suggest that health is the number one initial motivator for people who are "plant-curious." But what is even more interesting is how these motivations interact.

Questions from the Internet: "Is one reason 'better' than another? Do the different types of vegans fight?"

Oh, do they ever! This is where my investigation into the online communities became very illuminating. There is a significant and often very loud debate within the vegan community between the "ethical purists" and the more pragmatic members. The purist argument is that if your motivation isn't ethics, if you're not in it "for the animals" then you are not a "true" vegan. You are just on a "plant-based diet." They argue that a health motivation is selfish and unreliable, because if a new diet came along that was proven to be healthier, that person would switch. The ethical stance, they argue, is an unbreakable moral baseline. This can lead to a lot of infighting and gatekeeping. It's a classic case of what psychologists call "in-group policing."

Internal Link Break!

The ethical path is arguably the deepest and most demanding of the three pillars. To fully understand the complex philosophical concepts that drive this powerful motivation, you absolutely must read my full report: [What Is Ethical Veganism?]

The Conclusion: Three Paths, One Plate

So, after this deep dive into the psychology and philosophy of the movement, why do people go vegan?

My investigation concludes that there is no single answer. People arrive at a plant-based plate from a multitude of different paths. Some are led by their heart, moved by a profound compassion for animals. Some are led by their head, convinced by the overwhelming scientific evidence for the health benefits. And a growing number are led by a sense of fear and hope for the future of our planet.

What I find most fascinating is that while these three paths: the Paladin, the Alchemist, and the Druid start in very different places, they often converge. The health-seeker starts to learn about the environmental impact of their old diet. The environmentalist watches a documentary and develops a new compassion for the animals. The ethical vegan discovers the unexpected joy of lower cholesterol.

In the end, it seems the "why" might not matter as much as the "what." Whether you're doing it to save a chicken, to save your arteries, or to save the Amazon, you all end up in the same place: staring at a can of chickpeas, wondering what to make for dinner. And that, I suppose, is a pretty powerful form of unity. ✨

Sources

• The Vegan Society. Why Go Vegan?. https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/why-go-vegan

• Faunalytics. Motivations for Reducing Meat Consumption. https://faunalytics.org/motivations-for-reducing-meat-consumption/

• The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Position Paper on Vegetarian Diets. (Discusses health motivations).

• Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), 987-992. (The key study for the environmental motivation).

• Singer, P. (1975). Animal Liberation. HarperCollins. (The foundational text for the ethical motivation).

• Tuso, P. J., Ismail, M. H., Ha, B. P., & Bartolotto, C. (2013). Nutritional update for physicians: plant-based diets. The Permanente journal, 17(2), 61–66. (A review of the health benefits).

• Ruby, M. B. (2012). Vegetarianism. A blossoming field of study. Appetite, 58(1), 141-150. (A psychological overview of motivations).