Empathy-Related Ratings to Still Images of Human and Nonhuman Animal Groups in Negative Contexts Graded for Phylogenetic Similarity

ABSTRACT

Research using film stimuli has shown that the strength of empathy-related responses toward nonhuman animals is related to the amount of phylogenetic similarity of the animals to humans. The present study aimed to develop and validate a new set of still images depicting humans and nonhuman animals (primates, quadruped mammals, birds, reptiles) in negative circumstances to provide greater control over variable image quality and contextual features found to be present in film stimuli. Following development of the stimulus set, participants (40 males, 46 females) with a mean age of 23.35 years made subjective ratings of empathy and other reactions to the images. The hypothesized effect of higher ratings of empathy for nonhuman animals that were more closely related to humans was supported. The same effect of phylogenetic similarity was also observed for ratings of arousal, dominance, interest, and pleasantness elicited by the images. Moreover, a clear effect of trait empathy emerged, consistent with the prediction that higher empathy ratings would be elicited from those higher in trait empathy. Familiarity, as assessed by level of involvement with the presence and care of animals, was also positively related to trait empathy. The findings validate a new methodology for the assessment of human empathy toward other humans and nonhuman species depicted in negative life situations. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that human empathy generalizes toward other species according to perceived phylogenetic similarity.     

Animal Suffering: Representations and the Act of Looking

Animal advocacy uses images of nonhuman suffering as a form of normative rhetoric and a method of persuasion. Although much attention has been given to various facets of the depiction of human suffering, images of animal suffering have, to a large extent, escaped closer scrutiny. This paper seeks to remedy the situation by investigating four issues—the risk of aesthetics, the risk of perpetuating moral wrongs, the problem of privacy, and compassion fatigue—as they relate to images of farmed animal suffering. The paper will argue that images of nonhuman suffering are in danger of being interpreted as a form of visual intrigue, and that they invite seldom-asked questions concerning the justification of the act of looking, together with the privacy of nonhuman animals. Moreover, it will be maintained that compassion fatigue commonly affects how these images are perceived. Making use of the views of Susan Sontag, J. M. Coetzee, and Stanley Cohen (among others), it will be argued that, in order to escape the problematic connotations and consequences of the aforementioned issues, a normative dimension pointing toward action must be explicated.     

Sentimentality and the Enemies of Animal Protection

ABSTRACT

Ethical arguments promoting a higher moral status for nonhuman animals have developed a pace since the 1960s. These developments, however, have not been matched by a radical transformation in the way we treat nonhuman animals. In the 1990s, an alternative discourse emerged—the morality of care. Sympathy, empathy, compassion and pity form a family of sentiments that constitute the caring ethic. Sentimentality, the term associated with sentiment, is invariably invoked in our relationships to nonhuman animals. Although carrying positive connotations in the eighteenth century, sentimentality has since become a word of contempt and has been used to discredit our natural sympathy for nonhumans and to disparage animal protection reforms, both past and present. Here I argue for the rehabilitation of the term sentimentality and support Rorty's view that we need to create a moral sentimental education if we are to improve the world, and in particular the world as experienced by nonhuman animals. I believe that this educational enterprise should be directed at the pet-owning group, who are generally speaking already committed animal-lovers and who could be powerful agents for change in securing more justice for nonhuman animals.     

Basic math in monkeys and college students

Adult humans possess a sophisticated repertoire of mathematical faculties. Many of these capacities are rooted in symbolic language and are therefore unlikely to be shared with nonhuman animals. However, a subset of these skills is shared with other animals, and this set is considered a cognitive vestige of our common evolutionary history. Current evidence indicates that humans and nonhuman animals share a core set of abilities for representing and comparing approximate numerosities nonverbally; however, it remains unclear whether nonhuman animals can perform approximate mental arithmetic. Here we show that monkeys can mentally add the numerical values of two sets of objects and choose a visual array that roughly corresponds to the arithmetic sum of these two sets. Furthermore, monkeys' performance during these calculations adheres to the same pattern as humans tested on the same nonverbal addition task. Our data demonstrate that nonverbal arithmetic is not unique to humans but is instead part of an evolutionarily primitive system for mathematical thinking shared by monkeys.     

Basic Math in Monkeys and College Students

Adult humans possess a sophisticated repertoire of mathematical faculties. Many of these capacities are rooted in symbolic language and are therefore unlikely to be shared with nonhuman animals. However, a subset of these skills is shared with other animals, and this set is considered a cognitive vestige of our common evolutionary history. Current evidence indicates that humans and nonhuman animals share a core set of abilities for representing and comparing approximate numerosities nonverbally; however, it remains unclear whether nonhuman animals can perform approximate mental arithmetic. Here we show that monkeys can mentally add the numerical values of two sets of objects and choose a visual array that roughly corresponds to the arithmetic sum of these two sets. Furthermore, monkeys' performance during these calculations adheres to the same pattern as humans tested on the same nonverbal addition task. Our data demonstrate that nonverbal arithmetic is not unique to humans but is instead part of an evolutionarily primitive system for mathematical thinking shared by monkeys.     

Perception of a Common Fate in Human—Animal Relations and its Relevance to our Concern for Animals

ABSTRACT

Considering violence against animals and violence against people as one and the same problem presupposes a comprehensive concept of violence, a concept of suffering uniting humans and animals, and a specific relationship to nature and life. The thesis of this paper is that the greater concern for animals that has developed in western societies, particularly in the last few decades, is fundamentally related to the perception of a common fate that humans and animals share, especially in the face of the threat of an ecological or nuclear catastrophe and the awareness of the competitiveness in human relationships that now prevails the world over. Two literary works and a social psychology study are referred to in order to illustrate this thesis. The perception of a common fate is considered an integral part of identification with others, either humans or animals, of empathy with them, and of an attitude of respect toward nature in general.     

Genetically modified laboratory animals--what welfare problems do they face?

In this article, we respond to public concern expressed about the welfare of genetically modified (GM) nonhuman animals. As a contribution to the debate on this subject, we attempt in this article to determine in what situations the practice of genetic modification in rodents may generate significant welfare problems. After a brief discussion of the principles of animal welfare, we focus on the problem of animal suffering and review some types of gene modifications likely to cause predictable welfare problems. In this article, we also consider suffering that may be involved in the process of generating GM animals. Finally, we discuss the role of GM animals in attempts to reduce, replace, and refine the use of animals in research.     

The Scalpel and the Butterfly: The Conflict between Animal Research and Animal Protection Deborah Rudacille

ABSTRACT

Although there is a substantial body of research on inter-human empathy and inter-animal empathy, there is a dearth of research comparing humans' empathic reactions to humans and animals. To address this issue, three experiments were conducted in which participants read a scenario about a human or animal abuse victim in need of medical attention, and indicated the degree of empathy they had on an emotional response scale. In Experiment 1, women had significantly more empathy for animals than for humans, whereas men tended to express more empathy for humans than for animals. In Experiment 2, adult women expressed the same degree of empathy for a child as for a puppy. Similarly, in Experiment 3, adult men and women expressed the same degree of empathy for a baby as for a puppy. Overall, results indicated that people feel at least as much empathy for animals as for humans. We suggest that an animal target elicits a great deal of empathy partly because it is perceived as not being responsible for having caused the need situation. Future research will show whether empathy for animals translates to prosocial behavior toward them as well.     

Justice, HMOs, and the invisible rationing of health care resources

Fleck divides his paper on health care rationing into three parts. In the first part, he presents and critically assesses the moral problems posed by invisible rationing mechanisms. He claims that such mechanisms, by being localized, privitized, and unofficial, violate Rawls's publicity condition that is an essential part of our concept of justice. In the second part, he analyzes and criticizes the role that prospective payment mechanisms such as health maintenance organizations (HMOs), diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), and Great Britain's National Health Service play as invisible rationing mechanisms. He suggests that if HMOs could be structured so as to satisfy the publicity condition, a national system of HMOs could achieve cost containment objectives. In the third part of his paper, Fleck describes such a system of HMOs in detail, and assesses it from the perspective of justice.     

The Use of Positive Reinforcement Training Techniques to Enhance the Care,Management, and Welfare of Primates in the Laboratory

Handled frequently and subjected to a wide range of medical procedures that may be particularly invasive, nonhuman animals in a laboratory setting have unique needs. To produce the most reliable research results and to protect and enhance the well-being of the animals, it is desirable to perform these procedures with as little stress for the animals as possible. Positive reinforcement training can use targeted activities and procedures to achieve the voluntary cooperation of nonhuman primates. The benefits of such work include diminished stress on the animals, enhanced flexibility and reliability in data collection, and a reduction in the use of anesthesia. Training also provides the means to mitigate social problems, aid in introductions, reduce abnormal behavior, enhance enrichment programs, and increase the safety of attending personnel. This article describes the application of operant conditioning techniques to animal management.     

The use of positive reinforcement training techniques to enhance the care, management, and welfare of primates in the laboratory

Handled frequently and subjected to a wide range of medical procedures that may be particularly invasive, nonhuman animals in a laboratory setting have unique needs. To produce the most reliable research results and to protect and enhance the well-being of the animals, it is desirable to perform these procedures with as little stress for the animals as possible. Positive reinforcement training can use targeted activities and procedures to achieve the voluntary cooperation of nonhuman primates. The benefits of such work include diminished stress on the animals, enhanced flexibility and reliability in data collection, and a reduction in the use of anesthesia. Training also provides the means to mitigate social problems, aid in introductions, reduce abnormal behavior, enhance enrichment programs, and increase the safety of attending personnel. This article describes the application of operant conditioning techniques to animal management.     

Human–Dolphin Interactions: Relationships,Connections, and the Reinforcement of an Ongoing Nature Relationship

Although interactions between humans and wild animals have been explored in the literature, the mechanism for how such experiences influence wellbeing is an area needing further examination. This research used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the narratives of wellbeing from eight semi-structured interviews with people who had experienced intense close encounters with dolphins. Despite idiographic differences between narratives, a common theme of Relationships and Connectedness between participants and nonhuman animals emerged. The expression of this indicates that human–dolphin experiences fulfill aspects of the human need for connection and relationships and that the experiences promote wellbeing and environmental behaviors. This is contextualized within an ongoing nature relationship and the importance of a lifelong connection with wildlife, to ensure that humans see themselves as part of the natural world. Such a dynamic is discussed within the frame of the biophilia hypothesis and the importance of human contact with nature to ensure wellbeing. The narratives reported here describe strong emotional connections, transmitted through both tangible and perceived contact with dolphins, which translate into positive senses of emotion and wellbeing. The connections described are powerful: perceptions of communion and mutual exchange become articulated through rhetoric of friendship and kinship. Importantly, it appears that dolphin encounters are signifiers of wider relationships, both with nature and people. In this case, participants are reinforcing established habits of nature connectedness, habits reflecting a lifelong involvement with nonhuman animals. How connection with wild animals as a part of nature can promote wellbeing and in turn encourage environmental behavior is discussed in the context of the contemporary need for human responsibility to ensure the protection of nature and the survival of nonhuman animal species and habitats.     

Complex systems, evolution, and animal models

In this paper, we respond to arguments made concerning our position regarding animal models (Shelley, 2010) by briefly examining the fact that animals (human and nonhuman) are complex systems that have different evolutionary trajectories. This historical fact has implications for using animals as predictive models for human response to drugs and disease.     

I feel how you feel but not always: the empathic brain and its modulation

The ability to share the other's feelings, known as empathy, has recently become the focus of social neuroscience studies. We review converging evidence that empathy with, for example, the pain of another person, activates part of the neural pain network of the empathizer, without first hand pain stimulation to the empathizer's body. The amplitude of empathic brain responses is modulated by the intensity of the displayed emotion, the appraisal of the situation, characteristics of the suffering person such as perceived fairness, and features of the empathizer such as gender or previous experience with pain-inflicting situations. Future studies in the field should address inter-individual differences in empathy, development and plasticity of the empathic brain over the life span, and the link between empathy, compassionate motivation, and prosocial behavior.     

“Animals Like Us”: Identifying with Nonhuman Animals and Support for Nonhuman Animal Rights

While anthropomorphizing nonhuman animals has been shown to increase identification with them and, by extension, concern for their wellbeing, little research has directly tested whether identifying with nonhuman animals is similarly associated with concern for their wellbeing. We tested hypotheses related to this premise across three cross-sectional studies. In study 1 (n = 224), we tested the hypothesis that therians—a group of people who self-identify with nonhuman animals, show greater concern for nonhuman animal rights than non-therian furries—people with a fan-like interest in media featuring anthropomorphized animal characters. In study 2 (n = 206), we further tested this hypothesis using implicit and explicit measures of identification with nonhuman animals to predict behavioral intentions to support nonhuman animal rights. In study 3 (n = 182), we tested the generalizability of our findings in a sample of undergraduate students. Taken together, the studies show that explicit, but not implicit, identification with nonhuman animals predicts greater support for their rights. The implications of these findings for research on anthropomorphism and animal rights activism are discussed, as well as the limitations of these findings and possible avenues for future research.     

Global Harmonization of Pain and Distress Classification Systems: Current Analysis and Opportunity for Change

When humans suffer pain or distress, they are generally able to describe their experience to others, including doctors. Medical professionals are also able to convey the likelihood of pain and distress to humans who are voluntarily participating in clinical research trials. The same is not true for nonhuman animals. Due in great part to ethical considerations of nonhuman animals used in scientific research, many countries have developed regulations or guidelines that outline the need for the minimization or alleviation of pain and distress in laboratory animals. However, when it comes to specific regulations or guidelines issued by a country on the classification of pain and distress in research, clear and vast differences appear. This article includes a discussion of the current pain and distress classifications (or lack thereof) in 25 countries, noting similarities and differences, and examines both the barriers to, and recent trends toward, global harmonization of pain and distress classification systems for animals used in research worldwide.     

Morality, adapted

Over the last few decades, scientists have been busy debunking the myth that nonhuman animals relate to each other in a primarily competitive, aggressive way. What they have found is that many species of animal, including many of those most closely related to humans, display a remarkable range of cooperative, "prosocial" behavior. In fact, it appears that some animal societies adhere to a moral code. What is preventing us, then, from saying that the members of these societies are moral beings? Nothing important, according to a recent book. Probing further into this question, I suggest that in fact quite a lot is at risk in making this move. To integrate nonhuman animals fully into the moral domain, we may have to adapt our conception of morality in some very troublesome ways.     

Abstracts

ABSTRACT

The normal development of empathy has been proposed to be imperative to the healthy emotional and social functioning of youths. In contrast, compromised levels of empathy have been linked to an increased propensity to engage in antisocial behaviors, including animal cruelty. Previous findings have revealed parent attachment to be intrinsically linked to the development of empathy. This association has been shown to play a role in predicting the expression of various outcome behaviors, including both those which are prosocial in nature, and those which are antisocial, and potentially aggressive. This study examines these associations in a sample of 281 12- to 18-year-old students. The aims included the investigation of the direct predictive roles played by attachment and empathy for prosocial and antisocial behaviors directed at both humans and animals. We also investigated the mediating role played by empathy in these relationships. Attachment and empathy significantly predicted prosocial and antisocial behaviors, both individually, and in combination. Furthermore, empathy was found to serve a mediating role in the associations between attachment and: human-directed prosocial behavior, the humane treatment of animals, and animal cruelty. These findings expand upon existing literature by demonstrating that it is, at least partially, through empathy that attachment to parents predicts prosocial and antisocial behaviors during adolescence. This is in contrast to the direction of relationships implied by some previous findings and proposals, which have suggested that treating animals humanely fosters the normal development of empathy, for example. Notwithstanding the promising findings revealed by the current study, we recommend that replicating this research using a larger sample will assist in addressing the limited generalizability identified in the current study. It is further proposed that the use of a lie scale could limit the influence of social desirability responding. Future research is also needed to determine the direction of the demonstrated relationships.     

Empathy and Belief in the Mental Experience of Animals

ABSTRACT

Aspects of empathy are examined, including the relationship between empathy and perceived similarity or identification. Cognitive judgments of similarity appear to predispose us to the experience of empathy. An important aspect of similarity where animals are concerned is their perceived mental endowment (Fenton & Hills 1988). Therefore, a positive relationship was hypothesized between empathy for animals and “belief in animal mind” (i.e., beliefs about the extent to which animals have awareness, thoughts, and feelings). In a sample comprising three groups (animal rights supporters, farmers, and urban public) the expected relationship was found, r(153) = .47, p < .001; however, it was not consistent across the subject groups. Analysis suggested that the relationship between perceived similarity and empathy is mediated by conflicting instrumental motivations. Implications of the results for humane and environmental education are discussed.     

The importance of nonhuman primate research in the battle against AIDS: A historical perspective

Retroviruses have been the common foe in two recent “wars,” first against cancer, then against AIDS. Although neither war is close to over, some battles have been won, thanks in part to research using nonhuman primates. As useful as these animals were in studying retroviruses and cancer, their contribution to AIDS research is already far greater. This paper will briefly review the major contribution of nonhuman primates and their retroviruses to research on cancer and AIDS.