Empathy and attitudes to animals

By N. Taylor, T. Signal. 2005

351 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract There is increasing support for the idea that human attitudes to animals may be indicative of human–human empathy. This has implications for the treatment of empathy deficits and related anti-social behaviors. The purpose of the present study was to explicitly investigate links between human–human empathy and attitudes to animals. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Animal Attitude Scale (AAS) were administered to 194 undergraduate Sociology and Psychology students. A significant correlation between empathy levels, gender, companion animal ownership and attitudes to animals was found. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Genetics, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/16519d1229ca225ecb348d77170011d72ec06c08

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Genetics

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

The mind behind anthropomorphic thinking: attribution of mental states to other species (2015, background): “…correlated with attitudes against the use of animals in research and in testing of nonmedical products (Furnham, McManus, & Scott, 2003), with attitudes towards animal welfare (Taylor & Signal, 2005) and with beliefs in animal mind and empathy towards animals (Apostol, Rebega, & Miclea, 2013).”
Justifying Attitudes toward Animal Use: A Qualitative Study of People's Views and Beliefs (2008, background): “…of animals can inform social scientists about the society in which we live, since how we view and treat animals can reflect individual differences, group norms, and cultural values, and can also reflect how we view and treat our fellow human beings (Ascione 1992; Taylor and Signal 2005).”
An investigation of human-animal interactions and empathy as related to pet preference, ownership, attachment, and attitudes in children (2006, background): “As such, a number of researchers have sought to examine the positive connection between empathy and pets (Melson 1991; Poresky 1996; Vizek Vidovi ́c, Vlahovi ́c ̆Steti ́c and Bratko 1999; Daly and Morton 2003; Taylor and Signal 2005).”
Attitude to Animals and Empathy: Comparing Animal Protection and General Community Samples (2007, methodology): “As has been highlighted in previous studies (e.g., Matthews and Herzog 1997; Taylor and Signal 2005), a consistent gender difference in both the AAS and the IRI sub-scale scores was found.”
Brief Measures of the Animal Attitude Scale (2015, methodology): “For example, the AAS has been used to study attitudes of German children toward animals (Binngießer, Wilhelm and Randler 2013), the impact of witnessing killing of animals (Daley and Morton 2008), the relationship between empathy and attitudes toward the use of animals (Taylor and Signal 2005; Daly ”
The Relationship between Empathy, Perception of Pain and Attitudes toward Pets among Norwegian Dog Owners (2010, background): “, Daly and Morton 2003; Taylor, Williams and Gray 2004), gender is found to be one of the more stable factors influencing attitudes, empathy, and pain rating (Mathews and Herzog 1997; Paul 2000; Robinson and Wise 2003; Taylor and Signal 2005; Herzog 2007).”
Changes in Dispositional Empathy in American College Students Over Time: A Meta-Analysis (2011, background): “For example, Taylor and Signal (2005) found that higher EC scores are strongly correlated with more positive views about animals as well as self-reported vegetarian practices.”
Using the theory of planned behavior to identify key beliefs underlying pro-environmental behavior in high-school students: Implications for educational interventions (2015, background): “Others researchers have found that empathic concern correlates with pro-environmental attitudes, including attitudes towards animal welfare (Schultz, 2000; Taylor & Signal, 2005).”
Gender Differences in Human–Animal Interactions: A Review (2007, background): “…question adults – USA 807 0.39 Pifer 1996 three item animal research survey adolescents – USA 1850 0.25 Robertson et al. 2004 survey – animal welfare students – Canada 134 0.77 Signal and Taylor in press AAS adults – Australia 550 0.65 Taylor and Signal 2005 AAS students – Australia 171…”