Empathy and attitudes to animals

Abstract

There is increasing support for the idea that human attitudes to animals may be indicative of human–human empathy. This has implications for the treatment of empathy deficits and related anti-social behaviors. The purpose of the present study was to explicitly investigate links between human–human empathy and attitudes to animals. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Animal Attitude Scale (AAS) were administered to 194 undergraduate Sociology and Psychology students. A significant correlation between empathy levels, gender, companion animal ownership and attitudes to animals was found. Implications of these findings are discussed.