The Psychology of Bad Faith: Understanding Non-Vegan Resistance

By Clare Mann, Vegan Psychologist

When someone tells you they’re gluten-free, you don’t get angry. When a friend mentions they’ve stopped drinking alcohol, you don’t feel personally attacked. But tell someone you’re vegan, and watch what happens.

The reaction is often swift and disproportionate. Defensiveness. Justifications you didn’t ask for. Sometimes outright hostility. And here’s what I’ve learned after over 5,000 hours of working 1:1 with vegans around the world: when a reaction is out of proportion to a threat, something else is going on.

That “something else” is what the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre called bad faith.

What Is Bad Faith?

Bad faith isn’t the same as cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the the discomfort we feel when our thoughts, feelings and actions are out of alignment. For example, mental discomfort of misalignment saying, “I love animals” and “I think it’s wrong to harm animals” and yet “I eat them!” It’s an internal tension people often aren’t fully aware of.

Bad faith goes deeper. It’s knowing something—really knowing it—and actively denying it’s happening. It’s not ignorance. It’s not confusion. It’s a deliberate mental gymnastics routine that requires constant energy to maintain.

In my work, I see the impact of this every day. Vegans come to me exhausted, not just from witnessing animal suffering, but from the relentless experience of watching people perform these mental gymnastics right in front of them. They see the truth. They know others see it too. But the denial continues.

The Three Myths That Sustain the Non-Vegan Status Quo

Through my work, I’ve identified a number of myths or unquestioned assumptions people cling to maintain the disconnect around animal exploitation. John Sanbonmatsu in The Omnivore’s Deception, highlights three key reasons why people don’t change (or as I say, “They haven’t change YET”). They are broadly covered under these headings:

1. Human Supremacy
The belief that humans are fundamentally superior, and animals exist for our use. This myth allows people to acknowledge animal suffering while simultaneously justifying it. “Yes, but we’re at the top of the food chain” is bad faith in action—accepting the reality of suffering while denying its moral weight.

2. The Humane Myth
The “we can have our cake and eat it” defense. People convince themselves that kind treatment somehow justifies killing. I hear this constantly: “I only buy free-range,” “I get my meat from a local farm where they’re treated well,” “They had a good life.”

This is bad faith because deep down, they know. They know that “humane slaughter” is a contradiction. They know the animal doesn’t want to die. But the myth provides just enough cover to continue.

3. Bad Faith
This is the most exhausting form of existential denial. People are presented with clear evidence—footage, data, logical arguments—and they simply refuse to accept it. Not because they don’t understand it, but because accepting it would require them to change.

What Bad Faith Looks Like in Real Conversations

Let me share what this sounds like in practice.

Scenario 1: The Deflection
You mention you’re vegan. Immediately: “But what about plants? They feel pain too, you know.”

This isn’t a genuine question about plant sentience. It’s bad faith. They know the difference between a cow and a carrot. But the deflection allows them to avoid the real conversation about animal suffering.

Scenario 2: The Personal Attack
“You vegans are so judgmental. You think you’re better than everyone else.”

You didn’t say anything judgmental. You simply existed as a vegan. But your presence alone—your choice not to participate in animal exploitation—holds up a mirror. The disproportionate reaction reveals their unconscious guilt.

Scenario 3: The Impossible Standard
“Well, you can’t be perfect. Your phone probably has animal products in it. You’re still causing harm.”

This is bad faith masquerading as logic. They’re not genuinely concerned about your phone. They’re creating an impossible standard so they can dismiss your entire position without examining their own choices.

Why This Matters for Your Advocacy

Understanding bad faith changes everything about how you communicate.

First, you stop taking it personally. That defensive reaction isn’t really about you. It’s about the gap between what they know and what they’re willing to admit. Your presence simply makes that gap visible.

Second, you recognize that shame and blame don’t work. When you shame someone, you give them an escape route. They can shoot the messenger instead of feeling the disconnect between their values and their actions. “See? Vegans are aggressive. That’s why I don’t listen to them.”

Third, you learn to redirect. When someone wants to debate whether eating meat is natural or necessary, you’re moving away from the only thing that matters: the suffering and incarceration of animals. When we focus on food choices, we depersonalize animals into body parts and commodities.

The skill is learning to meet people where they are—even if they bring up issues around food, climate, or lifestyle—and then gently redirect to what veganism actually is: a philosophy of loving kindness toward all sentient beings.

The Way Forward

You can’t force someone out of bad faith. That’s not your job. But you can stop giving them escape routes. You can communicate in a way that doesn’t trigger their defense mechanisms while still holding up the mirror with clarity and compassion.

This is the work I do with vegans experiencing vystopia—the anguish of being vegan in a non-vegan world. Because understanding the psychology of resistance is just the beginning. Learning how to navigate it with skill and confidence is what transforms your advocacy from exhausting to effective.

The burden of knowing is real. But it doesn’t have to leave you isolated and despairing. When you understand what’s really happening in these conversations, you can become the calm, confident, influential communicator the animals need.

If you’re ready to transform how you communicate about veganism—moving from frustration to influence, from isolation to alignment—let’s talk. Book a free conversation and get clarity on your next step: https://veganpsychologist.com/conversation

Ref: SANBONMATSU, J. (2025) The Omnivore’s Deception: What We Get Wrong About Meat, Animals and Ourselves. New York University Press