background
The way we use animals for human consumption, medicines, and entertainment cause problems for the 1) environment (e.g., climate change, pollution; e.g., Reich 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), 3) food and water scarcity (e.g., Reich et al., 2013) and 4) animal welfare (e.g., Bègue, 2020; Sollund, 2011). Animals are being captivated, neglected, exploited, abused, and murdered and are mainly regarded as products or methods in the animal consumption, experimental testing, and entertainment industry (Bègue, 2020; Sollund, 2011). This hurtful behavior is related to speciesism, which refers to considering and/or treating members of species as less important than members of other species (e.g., Horta, 2010). The speciesist belief that humans are more valuable than nonhuman animals is widely spread (Caviola et al., 2018). This research investigates whether inaccurate ideas people may have about the abilities of animals play a role in speciesist attitudes and behaviours.
Common misconceptions are 1) that animals do not have much cognitive abilities, 2) that animals cannot be moral agents, and 3) that animals are not able to experience emotions and pain (Caviola et al., 2018). As believing in these misconceptions leads one to consider animals as cognitively, morally, and emotionally less than humans, these may contribute to people’s overall speciesist belief that humans are more valuable than animals. In this research it will be investigated whether a scientific, but practical intervention focusing on alleviating these misconceptions by informing people about the cognitive, emotional, and moral abilities of animals reduces speciesist attitudes and the negative consequences for the environment, our health, and the animals.
type of research
Experiment
You will test whether an intervention to reduce (the consequences of) speciesism successfully changes people’s attitudes and behaviours, as compared with a control condition.
information
If you are interested in this thesis please contact Steven Watson in the first instance (s.j.watson@utwente.nl)
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
De Waal, F. B. M., & Andrews, K. (2022). The question of animal emotions. Science, 375 (6587), DOI: 10.1126/science.abo2378
Rothgerber, H., & Rosenfeld, D. L (2021). Meat‐related cognitive dissonance: The social psychology of eating animals. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 15, DOI: 10.1111/spc3.12592