How Consumers Respond To Animal Rights Campaigns
Consumers are largely isolated from the moral implications of their choices by numerous mechanisms that allow them to dissociate their use of animals from the suffering of animals. The literature review portion of this thesis examines the psychological and cultural constructs that present unique challenges to animal rights as a social movement. From that contextual backdrop, this thesis then evaluates consumer response to three major campaigns conducted by HSUS and PETA between 1980 and the present. The campaigns are vegetarianism and factory farming, the anti-fur movement, and the campaign against cosmetics testing on animals. While consumer response has been mixed, there are other outcomes from those campaigns that signal broader cultural changes. [Excepted from report]
Americans are somewhat ambiguous with respect to animals; membership in and the influence of the animal rights movement is growing, and sympathies toward animals are becoming more consistent over time. However, consumption and negative behavior related to animals continues to out-pace increases in awareness and improvements in attitudes.
Small victories for animals have been won in various industries and legislative campaigns and these are likely to remain a focus for the movement. Changing individual behavior remains a key challenge. The literature review portion of this thesis illustrates how the perceived human-animal dualism has presented a significant barrier to the advancement of animal rights.
The psychological and social mechanisms that allow consumers to remain isolated from the ethical consequences of their choices include a social structure that provides physical and psychological distance between production and consumption. Consumers therefore remain unaware of how the industry works and there is a general lack of scholarly insight into the psycho-social intricacies of how people think about animals.
The animal protection movement has changed the collective consciousness about animals and it is important for the movement to capitalize on this and to remind the public that there are “emerging sensibilities with regard to our moral obligation to our fellow creatures.”