Man's best friends: attitudes towards the use of different kinds of animal depend on belief in different species' mental capacities and purpose of use

Abstract

The animal purpose questionnaire (APQ) is a new instrument to measure human attitudes to animal use systematically across both species and purpose of use. This offers a more fine-grained approach to our understanding of how the belief in a specific animal's mental capacities relates to (dis-)agreement with their use for different human purposes. In the present study, 317 participants completed an online survey containing the APQ and the belief in animal mind (BAM) scale in a species-specific format, to test the prediction that levels of (dis-)agreement with animal use should mirror participants' judgements of animal sentience. The results obtained with the APQ confirmed that attitudes to animal use differed significantly across both purpose and species. Key findings included a relatively greater concern for dolphins and dogs over chimpanzees (suggesting that phylogenetic position is not the only determinant of attitudes to animal use). Across the purposes examined, respondents were largely negative about animal usage, with the exception that there was less disagreement if this was for medical research. Participants were also asked to provide demographic details such as gender and dietary preference. Regression analyses revealed high predictive power for species-specific BAM across five different kinds of animal use. General BAM scores, non-meat-eating and being female accounted for 31.5% of the total variability in APQ scores. The results indicate that BAM is a strong predictor of self-reported attitudes for using particular animals. However, the results showed some exceptions in the case of culturally typical ‘produce’ animals.

A structured literature review of the meat paradox

“…This finding occurs due to self-relevance (whether or how much someone uses an animal for person al benefit), whereby people are motivated to view self-relevant animals (animals they consume) negatively to alleviate discomfort ('motivated cognition'). As further evidence of disregarding, greater belief in animal mind (BAM) of pigs, chickens and fish does not inform decreased support for their use, despite greater BAM of other (non-'food') animals informing reduced support for these animals' usage (Higgs et al, 2020). How ever, disregarding and denial can co-occur, as denial of BAM for some 'food' animals was also evidenced (Higgs et al, 2020), demonstrating how direct strategies can occur simultaneously.…”

“…As further evidence of disregarding, greater belief in animal mind (BAM) of pigs, chickens and fish does not inform decreased support for their use, despite greater BAM of other (non-'food') animals informing reduced support for these animals' usage (Higgs et al, 2020). How ever, disregarding and denial can co-occur, as denial of BAM for some 'food' animals was also evidenced (Higgs et al, 2020), demonstrating how direct strategies can occur simultaneously.…”

How Multi-Sensory Animal Embodiment in Virtual Reality Influences Environmental Threat Processing and Conservation Behaviors

“…Second, NPT is itself a di cult and cognitively taxing exercise 24 , especially when targets are non-human animals [25][26][27] . As extant literature suggests, basic emotions seen in animals do not map onto human categories 28,29 , a belief also held by laypeople for many species 30,31 . If empathy is aided when a person feels they belong to the same category (e.g., species) as the victim 32 , the genetic differences between man and beast limit the ability to infer an animal's mental and emotional state, impeding NPT, empathy, and relatedness 33 .…”

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Link between Modernization, Anthropomorphism and Attitude to Wildlife

“…In other countries, the link between anthropomorphism, mutualism and/or better attitude toward animals is also relatively well established (see [27]). Anthropomorphism, for instance, predicted students' intentions to become vegetarian and vegan in Spain [28], worse attitudes toward meat consumption in the USA [29], and a better attitude toward several species in the UK [30]. Anthropomorphism also correlated to mutualism and positive attitudes toward animals in Romania [31], and to positive attitudes toward nature in Singapore [32,33] and Hong Kong [34].…”