Attitudes Toward the Treatment of Animals: A Study of Christian Groups in Australia

Empathy and attitudes to animals

“…However, this is one of the few large-scale studies to specifically investi-gate animal attitudes within Australia, and particularly regional Australia (for exceptions see Bowd and Bowd 1989).…”

“…Factors known to affect attitudes towards animals include personality (Broida et al 1993;Mathews and Herzog 1997), gender and sex role orientation (Herzog, Betchart and Pittman 1991;Hills 1993), religious and/or political stance (Bowd and Bowd 1989;Kimball 1989), ethical ideology (Galvin and Herzog 1992), companion animal ownership (Paul and Serpell 1993), and other demographic variables such as age and race (Kellert 1988). For example, previous research has suggested that the presence of a companion animal during childhood may lead to an increased sensitivity to the feelings and attitudes of others (Serpell 1996).…”

Acknowledging the "Zoological Connection": A Sociological Analysis of Animal Cruelty

“…Christianity's anthropocentric view that humans are superior to animals and have dominion over them reinforces animals' status as less powerful beings, making it easier to exploit and harm them. A study of Christian groups in Australia found that members of more conservative denominations held less humane attitudes toward animals (Bowd & Bowd, 1989).…”

How Ethical Ideologies Relate to Public Attitudes toward Animals: The Dutch Case

“…Shimizu, & Pifer, 1994), age (Ascione, 1992;Kavanagh, Signal, & Taylor, 2013;Kellert, 1985), household income (Signal & Taylor, 2006), humane education (Ascione & Weber, 1996;Furnham, McManus, & Scott, 2003;Nicoll, Trifone, & Samuels, 2008), pet ownership (Driscoll, 1992;Martens, Enders-Slegers, & Walker, 2016;Serpell, 1996), religion (Bowd & Bowd, 1989;Driscoll, 1992;Gilhus, 2006), as well as geographic region (Phillips et al, 2012;Pifer et al, 1994). However, research into the correlation between public attitudes toward animals and ethical ideologies is still in its infancy and needs further investigation (Bègue & Laine, 2017).…”

“…Additionally, as Dutch people have a greater awareness of animal welfare than Chinese people, and this high awareness in the Netherlands could explain the strong link between ideologies and attitudes toward animals, we examined whether the correlation between ethical ideologies and attitudes toward animals differed between Dutch and Chinese people, by utilizing the same questionnaire that was used in China (Su & Martens, 2017). Religion (Bowd & Bowd, 1989;Driscoll, 1992;Gilhus, 2006), pet ownership (Costa, Guagliumi, Cannas, Minero, & Palestrini, 2014;Martens et al, 2016) and meat consumption (Kenyon & Barker, 1998;Loughnan, Haslam, & Bastian, 2010;Povey, Wellens, & Conner, 2001) have been demonstrated to be important factors in attitudes toward animals. In order to verify the reliability of these reports, we investigated whether such variables also relate to attitudes toward animals among Dutch people.…”