There is a Many factors It directs people towards conservation, from interest in preserving species for their contribution to human health, to the tendency to protect them for control of contaminants, pests, or overcrowded prey. But one of the most powerful forces that people support conservation is the personification. It is a tendency to view animals as human-like.
According to a new study of Iscience, Several social factors are linked to our tendency to personify other species, such as our social integration, education, and experience with animals. They say these factors have a potentially important effect on their willingness to support animal conservation, at least based on the animal’s similarity to their own self.
“Anthropomorphism has a major impact on conservation efforts,” says Federica Amich, a research author and researcher at the University of Leipzig, Germany. press release. “Species that appear more human-like or exhibit human-like behavior usually tend to receive more attention, funding and public support.”
read more: Do you care more about the conservation of aesthetic species?
Social isolation and personification
Although anthropomorphism is common and closely related to conservation, there are differences in all the tendencies to consider animals as human-like.
To determine whether social factors shape these differences, the study authors investigated over 740 participants from five countries around the world, including Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Malaysia and Spain, asking about their social traits and perceptions of animal and human similarity.
The study authors found that more socially isolated people view animals as physically similar to humans and are more likely to assign animals to human cognition and consciousness. They also found that people who are more allocentric or rely on others are more likely to personify other species.
“People who feel lonely or are not very connected to others try to meet the need for social connection by seeing the human-like qualities of animals,” Amichi said in the release. “For example, there is literature that shows that chronically lonely people are more likely to treat their pets as if they had human thoughts and feelings.”
read more: We don’t give ugly animals the love they need – lead to conservation concerns
The impact of education and experience
Interestingly, the research revealed that less educated people are more likely to assign human traits to animals, as well as people with animal experience.
According to these theories, the tendency to personify is linked to a lack of education and experience in animals. People with no related education or experience will assume that they resemble humans in the absence of actual knowledge, but people with related education or experience will appreciate the true traits of other species, which makes them less likely to mistakenly associate them with human traits.
The research author’s results certainly confirm some of the theory of personification, but complicate the other and add support Another explanation “city” experiences with animals are associated with a higher tendency rather than lower animal-human similarity.
In fact, research participants with more animal experience may have been more likely to assign human traits because they interacted in urban environments rather than rural areas, as they interacted in rural areas through rural ownership, recreational activities, and media consumption, and therefore had experiences that promoted recognition of similarity over seeing wild animal traits.
Finally, the authors highlight that anthropomorphism can affect conservation both positively and negatively, as it can cause false assumptions about animal characteristics. They also added that it could lead to preferences for anthropomorphized animals and creatures considered more easily “aesthetic” or “charismatic.”
“I think anthropomorphic species will be an effective approach, but they should be used with caution,” Amici added in the release. “I think it’s essential that any approach for environmentalists continue to recognize the many cognitive and emotional biases that shape human perceptions of nature and other animals.”
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Sam Walters is a journalist covering evolution for archaeology, paleontology, ecology and discovery, and has an assortment of other topics. Before joining the Discover team as an assistant editor in 2022, Sam studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
