Proceedings of The 8th International Conference on New Findings in Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2022
DOI:
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Assessment of human’s relationships with other animal species
Pablo Páramo
ABSTRACT:
Despite the extensive development of works that explore the capacities of other animal species, their importance for the physical and emotional health of humans, ethical considerations, industrial production, and their use as subjects for biomedical and psychological research, there are few works that have been carried out to study the assessments that laypeople currently make about these kinds of social practices. The presentation will show the results of a descriptive study that explores the assessment by 255 people of different genders, age groups, and the condition of owning a pet or not, on some social practices that make use of non-human animals. The inquiry was made through an interview based on the participant´s conceptualization on the free sorting of 18 cards and 18 images that contain social practices involving animals, and whether the condition of having a pet or not influenced their conceptualizations. Within these cards and images we cover topics such as the production of farm animals, biomedical and psychological research, the use of animals as pets, in movies, zoos, etc. A multidimensional scaling analysis (MSA), indicates that people are worried about the conditions in which animals are used. The results are discussed based on the importance that laypeople give to the ethics of animal uses, the role of having a pet or not, and the gender and age groups of participants, showing that young people and women are more sensitive to the welfare of animals. Using images induces more moral conceptualizations than cards.
keywords: animal assessment, animal legislation, animal welfare, ethics, MSA