We all learn how to behave and interact in society by watching other people. Our brains are wired to use this learning to imitate what others are doing. These are major contributors to harmful and unnecessary behaviors that humans do en masse—such as consumption of animal products.
Observational learning
Observational learning is just what it sounds like: learning by watching others’ behaviors. We start this as young children but continue it throughout our adult lives. This is how we adopt social and cultural norms and learn to interact with one another.
This method of learning is sometimes conscious, but usually unconscious. You may sometimes catch yourself unintentionally copying others’ behaviors and language. This imitation is actually happening all of the time, far more often than we’re aware of.
Much of our observational learning happens during childhood. As a child, I learned that we keep our hands to ourselves, we eat pasta with utensils but french fries with our hands, we wash our clothes when they get dirty, and we eat and wear some—but not all—animals. I learned that dogs belong in the house with us, deer belong in the wild, and cows belong on our plates and in our clothes.
This observational learning continues over the course of our lives, which means we’re constantly watching others and analyzing and adopting their behaviors—and others are doing the same for us and our behaviors.
Research consistently shows that other people observe our behaviors more than we think. When we make small decisions that mean little to us, other people are paying attention. This means that when you go to that local burger joint with your friends and order the plant-based burger instead of one made from cows, people notice—and not just to judge and make fun of you. They’re often thinking about what led you to order the plant-based burger, about how it tastes and whether they should maybe do the same thing.
However, the bandwagon effect often stops people from copying any behaviors that aren’t mainstream.
The bandwagon effect
We consume animal products largely because this behavior is socially normal. Everybody else does it, so why wouldn’t we? Some of us are aware of the horrors of the meat, dairy, and egg industries, but we continue to eat and use animal products with the justification that everyone around us is doing it. Our minds tell us this is a strong and reasonable justification. This way of thinking is an example of a cognitive bias known as the bandwagon effect.
The bandwagon effect is often problematic because when everybody is copying the behaviors of those around them, it becomes very difficult for society to change. Those who defy social norms are seen as outcasts or extremists. A major reason why our brains do this is because of observational learning—we learn by watching others, so when we see a behavior being shared by most of the people around us, we think we need to copy that behavior in order to fit in and be accepted. Acting outside of the norm often doesn’t seem like a real, feasible option.
To give an example of the bandwagon effect that you may relate to, I grew up in an area where virtually everyone shares the same political ideology. As is very common, I was raised by people who also shared those ideas, so of course, I believed they were “right,” not stopping to consider that politics are subjective. After all, the beliefs of my parents and those around me were all I’d ever known, and I had heard all of their justifications and their takes on opposing viewpoints. I learned to make the same excuses and justifications that the people in my town did, even though I didn’t completely understand what I was saying or why. I thought I believed the things I said, but the reality was that I was merely spouting what I had been told to believe throughout my entire life.
When I eventually moved away to a place where a very different ideology was shared, at first I thought everyone there was stupid or delusional. When they disagreed with “my” political views, I couldn’t understand why they believed what they did—but I didn’t ask, because I thought I knew their reasons already. I genuinely believed that they were intellectually inferior and were therefore unable to see that I was right and they were wrong.
However, after being in this new city for some time, I couldn’t help becoming immersed in its culture. Over time, I began to truly listen and open my mind to my new peers’ perspectives. I started to question what I had been raised to believe, and these new ideas that I had originally believed to be silly and unfounded began to make logical sense. Now, my political views are radically different from what they were when I was a teenager. I often understand views on both sides of the political spectrum, even the ones I disagree with, and I am able to develop my own opinions about new subjects.
What happened here is that the bandwagon effect was broken when I moved to a new area. I could no longer copy those around me without thinking about it because I had been around two drastically different groups of people for a long enough time that I was eventually able to see through my cognitive bias.
How it relates to veganism
Consuming animal products is similar to being raised under a particular political ideology: most of us grow up believing what we’re told to believe because it’s all we know. However, this behavior and belief system is much more difficult to challenge than a political ideogoly because most of us are unlikely to grow up and move to an area where veganism is the norm. Instead, we continue to consume animal products throughout our adult lives, and we call people who don’t consume animal products “radicals”— usually not in a good way.
Why it all matters
Because the people who raised us were also victims of the bandwagon effect, most of us have been raised to consume animal products and make fun of those who don’t.
As children, we learn through observing others that consuming animal products is normal, necessary, and morally justifiable. As we get older and interact with other animal product consumers throughout our lives, these beliefs are reinforced via the bandwagon effect.
By the time we are exposed to the horrors of the meat, dairy, egg, and other animal product industries, our beliefs about behaviors regarding animal product consumption are often already so deeply ingrained that they are unlikely to be swayed.
This is why it’s so important to pay attention to our cognitive biases and open our minds to new perspectives and opinions. Our brains lie to us, but we can catch this if we’re diligent and aware.
Closing notes
Vegans: My hope is that you will keep this information in mind when engaging in activism. Cognitive biases are real and very strong, and we must encourage people to reflect on the morality and logical backing of their beliefs by asking them prompting questions. Because most people have been consuming animal products since they were young children, this usually isn’t going to be a quick or easy process. I like to approach activism with the goal to “plant seeds,” so to speak, rather than to convince any individual to immediately go vegan. If we can get people to just start to question what they’ve always been told to be true, we’ve done our job; the rest is up to them. We can also use this knowledge to improve our awareness of our own cognitive biases in other areas outside of the vegan movement.
Non-vegans: If you’ve made it this far into this post, you may have already begun to identify the effects of observational learning and the bandwagon effect on your own behaviors, particularly animal product consumption. Changing our behaviors can be very difficult when they’re based on ideas we’ve been taught from a very young age, but it’s important to be aware of our own cognitive biases so that we can make decisions that are logically sound and align with our moral values. And if you’re not vegan because you think going vegan won’t make a difference, I hope this post has helped you realize that individual vegans actually do make a huge and important difference in widespread societal beliefs and behaviors by inhibiting the bandwagon effect and influencing others’ observational learning in regards to consumption of animal products.
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