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Human Helping of Animals: What Motivates It?
Contributor(s):: Lauren E. Highfill, Mark H. Davis
While considerable research has been carried out to understand helping offered to other humans, relatively little research has focused specifically on the motivations underlying helping for animals. It is possible that the social psychological helping literature may help shed light on the...
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The Relationship Between Humane Interactions with Animals, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior among Children
Contributor(s):: Matthew Wice, Namrata Goyal, Nicole Forsyth, Karly Noel, Emanuele Castano
We investigated the relationship between empathy, prosocial behavior, and frequency of humane interactions with animals among 3rd grade children (n = 158). We measured the frequency of humane interactions with animals via the Children's Treatment of Animals Questionnaire (Thompson &...
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Revisiting a Link: Animal Abuse, Bullying, and Empathy in Australian Youth
| Contributor(s):: Denise Parkes, Tania Signal
Experience of deliberate animal harm has been found to be a risk factor for school-based violence and later criminality. However, much of the extant research is based on retrospective or caregiver reports with few studies surveying youth directly. The aim of the current study was to address...
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Online support networks: the kindness of pet-loving strangers
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Factors that Influence Farmers' Views on Farm Animal Welfare: A Semi-Systematic Review and Thematic Analysis
| Contributor(s):: Balzani, A., Hanlon, A.
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An Investigation of Pre-Service Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Animals and Empathy Toward Humans: Implications for Humane Education Development
| Contributor(s):: Fung, Suk Chun, Zhou, Sili
In the last 20 years, humane education (HE) has undergone a paradigm shift from a simple animal welfare education model to a teacher-led positive education approach that cultivates kindness, love, and empathy in children and youth. While teachers’ humane attitudes are considered a prerequisite...
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Demographics Regarding Belief in Non-Human Animal Sentience and Emotional Empathy with Animals: A Pilot Study among Attendees of an Animal Welfare Symposium
| Contributor(s):: Amelia Cornish, Bethany Wilson, David Raubenheimer, Paul McGreevy
Attitudes to animals are linked to beliefs about their ability to experience pain and suffering, their cognition, and their sentience. Education and awareness-raising play a pivotal role in increasing society’s consideration of non-human animal welfare. The current pilot study explores...
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Empathy in dogs: With a little help from a friend – a mixed blessing
| Contributor(s):: Sabrina Karl, Ludwig Huber
Kujala (2017) presents an extensive overview of existing research on canine emotions in comparison to those of other non-human animals and humans. This commentary provides some additional research results on the intensively debated field of empathy in dogs. We focus on recent advances in...
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Emotions and Ethical Decision-Making in Animal Ethics Committees
| Contributor(s):: Elisabeth Tjärnström, Elin M. Weber, Jan Hultgren, Helena Röcklinsberg
Ethical evaluation of projects involving animal testing is mandatory within the EU and other countries. However, the evaluation process has been subject to criticism, e.g., that the committees are not balanced or democratic enough and that the utilitarian weighting of harm and benefit that is...
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Being Nice Is Not Enough-Exploring Relationship-Centered Veterinary Care With Structural Equation Modeling. A Quantitative Study on German Pet Owners' Perception
| Contributor(s):: Alina Maureen Küper, Roswitha Merle
During the last years, the philosophy of relationship-centered care gained increasing attention in veterinary medicine. Relationship-centered care is based on a joint venture between pet owner and veterinarians and therefore offers the opportunity to satisfy the pet owners’ need for...
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Dog Ownership and Training Reduces Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms and Increases Self-Compassion Among Veterans: Results of a Longitudinal Control Study
| Contributor(s):: Bergen-Cico, D., Smith, Y., Wolford, K., Gooley, C., Hannon, K., Woodruff, R., Spicer, M., Gump, B.
Objectives: The aims of this study were to measure the potential impact of a therapeutic dog ownership and training program for Veterans with symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Design: The study used a quasi-experimental design with two cohorts of Veterans-a dog owner-trainer intervention and a...
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Children’s Welfare Knowledge of and Empathy with Farm Animals: A Qualitative Study
| Contributor(s):: Burich, Lisbeth, Williams, Joanne M.
Public concern for farm animal welfare is increasing in the UK, as is evidenced by recent legislation. Calls have been made to enhance awareness of food, farming, and farm animal welfare among school children, yet educators have very little research available to aid meaningful design of farm...
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Cruelty to Animals in Turkish Children: Connections with Aggression and Empathy
| Contributor(s):: Akdemir, Seda, Gölge, Zeynep Belma
This study explored the relationship between cruelty to animals, aggression, and empathy in primary school children. The relationship between pet ownership, love for animals in the family, and engaging in cruelty to animals was also investigated. The sample consisted of 1,248 students (633 girls,...
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Human-Directed Empathy and Attitudes Toward Animal Use: A Survey of Spanish Veterinary Students
| Contributor(s):: Menor-Campos, David J., Knight, Sarah, Sánchez-Muñoz, Carolina, López-Rodríguez, Rocío
Veterinary practitioners are thought of as guardians of animal health and wellbeing, and are considered important in the development of policies on animals. Measuring veterinary students’ attitudes toward animals and animal use is needed when assessing the effectiveness of education programs...
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Effects of a Dog-training Intervention on At-risk Youth
| Contributor(s):: Lahav, Shlomit, Sarid, Orly, Kantor, Halit
In the past few decades, interventions that involve animals have gained support among therapists, as they encourage verbal and non-verbal expressions of emotions. Our aim was to examine the impact of a dog-training intervention on the empathic skills of at-risk youth, compared with an...
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Empathy-Related Ratings to Still Images of Human and Nonhuman Animal Groups in Negative Contexts Graded for Phylogenetic Similarity
| Contributor(s):: Ingham, H. Rae Westbury, Neumann, David L., Waters, Allison M.
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...
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Measuring empathic responses in animals
| Contributor(s):: Edgar, J. L., Nicol, C. J., Clark, C. C. A., Paul, E. S.
Domestic animals may be frequently exposed to situations in which they witness the distress or pain of conspecifics and the extent to which they are affected by this will depend on their capacity for empathy. Empathy encompasses two partially distinct sets of processes concerned with the...
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An evolutionary point of view of animal ethics
| Contributor(s):: Criscuolo, François, Sueur, Cédric
The observation that animals may respond to the emotional states of conspecific or even heterospecific individuals is not new. After more than one century, the need to define what exactly non-human animals are able to feel and—from this starting point—rethink the legal status and place of animals...
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Using Reentry Simulations to Promote Changes in Attitude toward Offenders: Experiential Learning to Promote Successful Reentry
| Contributor(s):: Moak, Stacy C., Walker, Jeffery T., Earwood, Martha, Towery, Gabby
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The communicative role of companion pets in patient-centered critical care
| Contributor(s):: Yamasaki, J.
