Perceptions of Fair Treatment of Animals Moderate Attitudes toward Conservation Endorsement

Abstract

This study aims to understand how, if at all, moral beliefs or stances predict endorsement of conservation for threatened species. Especially, this study focuses on fairness as the most relevant moral belief system and explores how stances on fairness interact with animal familiarity and animal liking to predict conservation endorsement. The study includes respondents from 6 cultural groups: the Arabian Gulf, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, South East Asia as well as so-called WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) participants. Overall, the study found unique cultural patterns for fairness. Furthermore, the results point to interactions between fairness and animal familiarity, and between fairness and animal liking. Across all animals surveyed, while controlling for culture, low liking or low familiarity for an animal predicted increased endorsement for conservation for that animal if participants felt animals were treated unfairly. The results of this study suggest that focusing on the unfair treatment of animals generally may be a useful messaging tactic to promote positive attitudes toward animal conservation.