Abstract Research on the relationship between vegetarianism and subjective well-being (SWB) has produced inconsistent results, which may partly be due to small sample sizes and divergent operationalizations of well-being. For these reasons, the present study aimed to thoroughly examine this association in two large representative samples from Germany (Study 1: N = 12,905, including 665 vegetarians) and Australia (Study 2: N = 15,532, including 383 vegetarians) using a consensual conceptualization of SWB (composed of an affective component, i.e., positive and negative affect, and a cognitive component, i.e., life satisfaction). Results of t-tests showed that vegetarians reported slightly higher scores in negative affect (Study 1 and 2), but also slightly higher levels of satisfaction with health (Study 1 and 2) and life satisfaction (Study 1) compared to meat eaters. No differences emerged regarding positive affect in either study. These differences between vegetarians and meat-eaters in some components of SWB, although significant due to the large sample sizes, are small at best (d around 0.15). Because sex, age, and education were associated with diet type and SWB, analyses controlling for socio-demographic variables were also conducted. In these ANCOVAS, the effect of diet emerged only for one out of the five formerly significant comparisons (negative affect in Study 1, d = 0.09) while the differences between vegetarians and meat eaters in both satisfaction with health and life, as well as the effect on negative affect in Study 2, all became non-significant (d around 0.05). Taken together, the very small effects found in the t-tests for some components of SWB seem to be due to socio-demographic variables, meaning that the true effects of diet on SWB are non-existent or negligible.

中文翻译：

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素食者感觉不好吗？在两个代表性样本中检查素食与主观幸福感之间的关联

摘要 素食主义与主观幸福感（SWB）之间关系的研究产生了不一致的结果，部分原因可能是样本量小和幸福感的不同操作。出于这些原因，本研究旨在使用共识概念化方法，在来自德国（研究 1：N = 12,905，包括 665 名素食者）和澳大利亚（研究 2：N = 15,532，包括 383 名素食者）的两个大型代表性样本中彻底检查这种关联SWB（由情感成分，即积极和消极影响，和认知成分，即生活满意度组成）。t 检验的结果表明，素食者的负面情绪得分略高（研究 1 和 2），但与肉食者相比，对健康（研究 1 和 2）和生活满意度（研究 1）的满意度也略高。在任何一项研究中都没有出现关于积极影响的差异。在主观幸福感的某些组成部分，素食者和肉食者之间的这些差异虽然由于样本量大而显着，但最多也很小（d 约为 0.15）。由于性别、年龄和教育程度与饮食类型和 SWB 相关，因此还进行了控制社会人口变量的分析。在这些 ANCOVAS 中，饮食的影响仅出现在五个以前显着的比较中的一个（研究 1 中的负面影响，d = 0.09），而素食者和肉食者在健康和生活满意度方面的差异，以及在研究 2 中对负面影响的影响都变得不显着（d 约为 0.05）。