Psychological And Socio-demographic Predictors Of Attitudes Toward Animals
The study’s authors administered a number of psychological scales—including the Attitudes to Animals Scale, Empathy to Animals Scale, and Belief in Animal Mind Questionnaire—in an effort to uncover what sociodemographic and psychological variables impact attitudes towards animals. The findings indicate that participants’ anthropomorphic beliefs, companion animal guardianship, gender, and ability to empathize with animals are significant predictors of attitudes towards animals. The authors indicate that important factors to consider in designing animal advocacy initiatives include individuals’ capacity to empathize with animals and their tendency to anthropomorphize certain animals.
[Abstract excerpted from original source.]
“The study investigates the individual differences in attitudes to animals, in the attempt at finding a wider predictive model that includes both sociodemographic and psychological variables. The adapted Romanian versions of the Attitudes to Animals Scale (AAS), Empathy to Animals Scale (ETA) and Belief in Animal Mind Questionnaire (BAM) were administered to 2683 participants in an online survey. Significant correlations between anthropomorphic beliefs, animal directed empathy and attitudes to animals were observed. Gender, owning a companion animal, anthropomorphic beliefs, cognitive and affective dimensions of empathy to animals were significant predictors of attitudes to animals. These findings are discussed.”