| Sumario: | Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the proportion of non-vegetarians with similar beliefs as vegetarians, and to examine their personal characteristics.Design: Mail survey on meat and vegetarianism beliefs, personal values and information sources.Subjects and setting: One thousand people were randomly selected from the South Australian population via the telephone directory. Approximately 600 questionnaires were obtained (71% of those able to be contacted participated). An additional non-random survey of 106 vegetarians and semi-vegetarians was conducted, totalling 707 participants.Main outcome measures: (1) Identification of the proportion of non-vegetarian respondents with similar beliefs as vegetarians (`cognitive vegetarians'); (2) Examination of their personal characteristics and a comparison with vegetarians and the remaining non-vegetarians (e.g. meat consumption, interest in vegetarianism, personal values, use of and trust in information sources).Statistical analyses: Categorical principal components analysis was performed and a plot of object points labelled by dietary group identified cognitive vegetarians. The characteristics of cognitive vegetarians, vegetarians and the remaining non-vegetarians were examined using cross-tabulation analyses.Results: We found that 15% of non-vegetarians shared similar beliefs about meat and vegetarianism as vegetarians. Cognitive vegetarians formed a distinct group, e.g. they were less likely than the remaining nonvegetarians to eat red meat as frequently or identify as Anglo-Australian, but were more likely to be female and interested in vegetarianism.Conclusion: A significant proportion of the population may be susceptible to the promotion of vegetarianism and, hence, plant-based diets. This has implications for health professionals and promoters of plant-based and vegetarian diets.
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