Join us at the Vegan and Animal Rights Conference (VARC), 20-22 March 2026 in Manchester (UK)!
Next week, the Vegan and Animal Rights Conference (VARC) returns to Manchester, bringing together advocates, change-makers, and movement leaders from across the animal advocacy community. The conference offers a valuable opportunity to align strategies, collaborate across organisations, and strengthen the collective impact of the animal rights movement.
As part of the programme, the PHAIR Society stream will feature two sessions highlighting cutting-edge psychological research highly relevant to vegan and animal advocacy.
Breaking Through the Backlash: Bias, Politics, and Effective Advocacy
Speakers: Sam Vellana (University of Edinburgh), Kristof Dhont (University of Kent), and Chris Bryant (Bryant Research
Chair: Maria Ioannidou (University of Kent)
Why does animal advocacy sometimes spark resistance, backlash, or outright hostility? This session explores the psychological and social barriers that can limit the impact of animal rights efforts, including anti-vegan bias, political identity, and cultural resistance. Drawing on insights from behavioural science, the speakers discuss why people push back against vegan and animal advocacy and what evidence-based approaches can help advocates navigate these challenges and become more effective.
How Children Learn to Love Some Animals and Eat Others
Speakers: Luke McGuire (University of Exeter) and Jared Piazza (Lancaster University)
Chair: Kristof Dhont (University of Kent)
Children often express deep care for animals, yet somehow grow up to accept their exploitation as normal. What changes along the way? Drawing on psychological science, this session explores how children’s moral views of animals develop and shift over time, and the factors that shape who is seen as worthy of care and who is not. The speakers highlight what this developmental shift means for understanding speciesism and why understanding these shifts may be crucial for effective animal advocacy.
Together, these sessions highlight how psychological and behavioural science can help us better understand social barriers to change and inform more effective strategies for advancing animal rights.
Register for VARC and view the full programme here: https://www.varconference.com/
If you’re attending VARC, we hope you’ll join the PHAIR sessions and connect with fellow researchers and advocates. We look forward to seeing many of you in Manchester next week.
Faunalytics is excited to host their fourth annual remote symposium, Fauna Connections, for animal advocates on September 18, 2025 (tentatively 12pm-5:30pm EDT).
They invite academics and scientists from the social and behavioral sciences, or related disciplines, to submit a presentation abstract focusing on a synthesis of research. They are particularly interested in comprehensive talks, such as expert overviews (think of it as a mini-lecture you can give to advocates), that provide a deeper understanding of topics relevant to animal advocacy.
For more information and submission guidlines: https://faunalytics.org/fauna-connections. Applications for presentations are due by June 20th.
If you are interested, please apply! And please share this opportunity with anyone you believe would be interested in presenting at this symposium. Thank you so much!
Watch Online: Moral exemplars or preachy do-gooders?
Matthew Ruby gave the second talk of 2022 in the PHAIR Society Speakers series:
“Moral exemplars or preachy do-gooders? Perceptions of vegans and vegetarians across cultures”
You can now watch the talk online.
Watch Online: Why can’t we be vegan?
Cara MacInnis gave the first talk of 2022 in the PHAIR Society Speakers series:
“Why can’t we be vegan? Barriers to veganism and vegetarianism”
You can now watch the talk online.
Online: From meat to beets
Catarina Possidónio gave the last talk of 2021 in the PHAIR Society Speakers series on “From Meat to Beets: Exploring Pathways to More Plant-forward Diets“. You can now watch the talk online.
You can all access all eight PHAIR talks of 2021 on our website: https://phairsociety.org/speaker-series/ We would like to thank all speakers for their fantastic talks and all attendees for the interesting questions and inspiring discussions!
Online: The psychology of meat avoiders
Daniel Rosenfeld gave the October talk in the PHAIR Society Speakers series on “The psychology of meat avoiders”. You can now watch the talk online.
Unfortunately, the first seconds of the talk were not recorded due to a technical glitch, but 99% of the talk is still there!
Online: Speciesism in everyday language
Stefan Leach gave the September talk in the PHAIR Society Speakers series on “Speciesism in Everyday Language”. You can watch the talk online:
Abstract
Speciesism, like other forms of prejudice, is thought to be underpinned by biased patterns of language use. Thus far, however, psychological science has largely focused on how speciesism is reflected in individuals’ thoughts as opposed to wider collective systems of meaning such as language. We present a large-scale quantitative test of speciesism by applying machine-learning methods (word embeddings) to billions of English words derived from conversation, film, books, and the internet. We found evidence of anthropocentric speciesism: words denoting concern (vs. indifference) and value (vs. valuelessness) were more closely associated with words denoting humans compared to most other animals. We also found evidence of companion animal speciesism: the same words were more closely associated with words denoting companion animals compared to other animals. The work paints a picture of speciesism as a pervasive collective truth that is evident in a naturally occurring expression of human psychology–everyday language
We have more talks coming up:
- Daniel Rosenfeld – October 28. The Psychology of Meat-Avoiders
- Catarina Possidónio – November 25. From Meat to Beets: Exploring Pathways to More Plant-forward Diets
PHAIR Society 