Diet Predicts Mind and Moral Concern Towards a Broad Range of Animal Categories
A compelling body of research demonstrates that diet (e.g. vegetarianism) plays an important role in the moral concern people grant to animals. However, this research has focused mostly on ‘food’ animals, leaving us with limited understanding of the scope of this effect. We investigated how vegans/v...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5964/phair.14597 |
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| author | Elise Hankins Rob Jenkins Ellen Bousfield Matti Wilks |
| author_facet | Elise Hankins Rob Jenkins Ellen Bousfield Matti Wilks |
| author_sort | Elise Hankins |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A compelling body of research demonstrates that diet (e.g. vegetarianism) plays an important role in the moral concern people grant to animals. However, this research has focused mostly on ‘food’ animals, leaving us with limited understanding of the scope of this effect. We investigated how vegans/vegetarians (veg*ns) and omnivores attribute mind (Study 1) and moral standing (Study 2) across a wide range of animal categories. In Study 1, veg*ns perceived greater mental capacities for most animal categories. Both veg*ns and omnivores gave some categories lesser ratings than others (e.g. evolutionarily distant vs. close to humans), suggesting that veg*ns and omnivores follow similar patterns of mind perception. In Study 2, however, veg*ns both attributed animals greater moral standing overall and gave similar ratings across categories (e.g. toward ‘liked’ animals such as rabbits and ‘disliked’ animals such as rats), whereas omnivores drew sharper distinctions between categories. These studies demonstrate that meat avoidance is a meaningful factor not only in the perceptions of animals that people eat, but also other animals. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9d4202fb8d44482b8460d0ad86cc9d55 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2750-6649 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations |
| spelling | doaj-art-9d4202fb8d44482b8460d0ad86cc9d552025-08-20T02:15:52ZengPsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for PsychologyPsychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations2750-66492024-12-01310.5964/phair.14597phair.14597Diet Predicts Mind and Moral Concern Towards a Broad Range of Animal CategoriesElise Hankins0https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7669-8025Rob Jenkins1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4793-0435Ellen Bousfield2Matti Wilks3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3814-3763Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United KingdomDepartment of Psychology, University of York, York, United KingdomDepartment of Psychology, University of York, York, United KingdomDepartment of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United KingdomA compelling body of research demonstrates that diet (e.g. vegetarianism) plays an important role in the moral concern people grant to animals. However, this research has focused mostly on ‘food’ animals, leaving us with limited understanding of the scope of this effect. We investigated how vegans/vegetarians (veg*ns) and omnivores attribute mind (Study 1) and moral standing (Study 2) across a wide range of animal categories. In Study 1, veg*ns perceived greater mental capacities for most animal categories. Both veg*ns and omnivores gave some categories lesser ratings than others (e.g. evolutionarily distant vs. close to humans), suggesting that veg*ns and omnivores follow similar patterns of mind perception. In Study 2, however, veg*ns both attributed animals greater moral standing overall and gave similar ratings across categories (e.g. toward ‘liked’ animals such as rabbits and ‘disliked’ animals such as rats), whereas omnivores drew sharper distinctions between categories. These studies demonstrate that meat avoidance is a meaningful factor not only in the perceptions of animals that people eat, but also other animals.https://doi.org/10.5964/phair.14597mind attributionmoral standingspeciesismvegetariansvegansdiet |
| spellingShingle | Elise Hankins Rob Jenkins Ellen Bousfield Matti Wilks Diet Predicts Mind and Moral Concern Towards a Broad Range of Animal Categories Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations mind attribution moral standing speciesism vegetarians vegans diet |
| title | Diet Predicts Mind and Moral Concern Towards a Broad Range of Animal Categories |
| title_full | Diet Predicts Mind and Moral Concern Towards a Broad Range of Animal Categories |
| title_fullStr | Diet Predicts Mind and Moral Concern Towards a Broad Range of Animal Categories |
| title_full_unstemmed | Diet Predicts Mind and Moral Concern Towards a Broad Range of Animal Categories |
| title_short | Diet Predicts Mind and Moral Concern Towards a Broad Range of Animal Categories |
| title_sort | diet predicts mind and moral concern towards a broad range of animal categories |
| topic | mind attribution moral standing speciesism vegetarians vegans diet |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5964/phair.14597 |
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