DescriPtion
The way we use animals for human consumption, medicines, and entertainment causes problems for 1) the environment (e.g., climate change, pollution; e.g., Reisch et al., 2013; Springmann et al., 2016), 2) our personal and global health (e.g., zoonoses; e.g., Santo et al., 2020; Stel et al., 2022), and 3) animal welfare (e.g., Bègue, 2020; Sollund, 2011). In fact, a reduction of animals held for human aims is acknowledged as crucial for reaching climate targets, dealing with health issues, and reducing animal suffering (for an overview see Kwansy et al., 2022). Therefore, it is important to focus on changing the way we regard animals to instigate a sustainable behavior change.
How we regard and treat animals is related to ‘speciesism’, which is morally considering and/or treating members of species as less important than members of other species (e.g., Horta, 2010). Speciesism is, among others, demonstrated in the widely spread belief that humans are more valuable than members of other species (e.g., Caviola et al., 2018; Wilks et al., 2020). As a result, animals are being exploited and abused for human aims, leading to environmental, health, and animal welfare concerns (e.g., Bègue, 2020; Sollund, 2011). Speciesism is driven by similar psychological mechanisms as prejudices towards human outgroups: people’s desire for achieving and maintaining group dominance, termed social dominance orientation (SDO; Dhont et al., 2016) or ecological dominance orientation (EDO; Uenal et al., 2022). Research indeed showed people scoring higher on SDO have more positive attitudes towards using animals for consumption and other personal aims (clothing, cosmetics, medicine; Dhont & Hodson, 2014; Hyers, 2006).
This research investigates whether an intervention to reduce people’s need for dominance successfully changes people’s speciesist attitudes and behaviours.
Type of research
Experiment
You will test whether an intervention to reduce people’s need for dominance will affect people’s speciesist attitudes and behaviours, as compared with a control condition.
Literature
Caviola, L., Everett, J. A. C., & Faber, N. S. (2018). The Moral Standing of Animals: Towards a Psychology of Speciesism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000182
Dhont, K., Hodson, G., & Leite, A. C. (2016). Common ideological roots of speciesism and generalized ethnic prejudice: The social dominance human–animal relations model (SD-HARM). European Journal of Personality, 30, 507–522. Doi:10.1002/per.2069
Information
This project is open to 1 student.
Are you interested in this topic for your thesis? Please contact the theme coordinator Lynn Weiher: l.weiher@utwente.nl