Exploring Perceptions of Veganism
Conference Year
January 2019
Abstract
Currently in popular culture, there is a clear focus on health and how better health can be achieved through a particular eating style. The aim of this project is to focus on perceptions of those following vegan diets, or more specifically, the vegan lifestyle. Considering previously researched health benefits associated with veganism, one would assume a greater proportion of the population would strive to be vegan. This study explores this discrepancy to determine how the public perceives veganism and how this compares to its presence on social media. The first part of this project involves a survey through Amazon Mechanical Turk which provides a baseline as to what the perception of veganism is in the public. This survey is used to compare the portrayal of veganism on different social media platforms. The topic of veganism is studied on both Instagram and Twitter in different ways. Instagram posts associated with the “vegan” hashtag are categorized according to content to determine whether Instagram is an accurate representation of what people actually think regarding veganism. To assess content on Twitter, code built using Matlab evaluates tweets mentioning “vegan” by providing happiness ratings determined by the words used in the post. Ultimately, this determines whether veganism is portrayed in a more positive light on Twitter compared to other posts on Instagram, as well as how this compares to public opinion.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Lizzy Pope
Secondary Mentor Name
Christopher Danforth, Peters Dodds, Elizabeth Pinel
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
Second Student College
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Program/Major
Mathematics
Second Program/Major
Nutrition and Food Sciences
Primary Research Category
Food & Environment Studies
Secondary Research Category
Health Sciences
Tertiary Research Category
Engineering & Physical Sciences
Exploring Perceptions of Veganism
Currently in popular culture, there is a clear focus on health and how better health can be achieved through a particular eating style. The aim of this project is to focus on perceptions of those following vegan diets, or more specifically, the vegan lifestyle. Considering previously researched health benefits associated with veganism, one would assume a greater proportion of the population would strive to be vegan. This study explores this discrepancy to determine how the public perceives veganism and how this compares to its presence on social media. The first part of this project involves a survey through Amazon Mechanical Turk which provides a baseline as to what the perception of veganism is in the public. This survey is used to compare the portrayal of veganism on different social media platforms. The topic of veganism is studied on both Instagram and Twitter in different ways. Instagram posts associated with the “vegan” hashtag are categorized according to content to determine whether Instagram is an accurate representation of what people actually think regarding veganism. To assess content on Twitter, code built using Matlab evaluates tweets mentioning “vegan” by providing happiness ratings determined by the words used in the post. Ultimately, this determines whether veganism is portrayed in a more positive light on Twitter compared to other posts on Instagram, as well as how this compares to public opinion.