There is a Many factors This pushes people towards conservation, from the interest of preserving species for their contributions to human health to a tendency to protect them for their control of pollutants, parasites or overcrowded prey. But one of the most powerful forces that leads people to support conservation is anthropomorphism – the tendency to see animals as similar to humans.
According to a new study in iscience,, Several social factors are linked to our tendency to anthropomorphize other species, including our social integration, our education and our experience with animals, to name only a few. These factors, according to the authors of the study, have potentially important effects on our desire to support animal conservation, at least on the basis of the similarity of an animal with ourselves.
“Anthropomorphism considerably influences press release. “Species that seem more human or have human behavior generally tend to receive more attention, financing and public support.”
Find out more: Did we care more about the conservation of aesthetic species?
Social isolation and anthropomorphism
Although anthropomorphism is common and closely associated with conservation, there are differences in all our trends to see animals as similar to humans.
To determine whether the social factors shape these differences, the authors of the study interviewed more than 740 participants of five countries around the world, notably Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Malaysia and Spain, by asking them questions about their social features and their perceptions of similarities between animals and humans.
The authors of the study found that people more isolated socially were more likely to see animals as physically similar to humans and to attribute animals cognition and human conscience. They also found that more attached people, or more dependent on the others, were more likely to anthropomorphize other species.
“People who feel alone or who are not well connected to others often try to meet their need for social connection by seeing human qualities in animals,” AMICI said in the press release. “For example, there is literature showing that individuals who are chronically alone are more likely to treat their pets as if they had human thoughts and feelings.”
Find out more: We do not give the ugly animals the love they need – leading to conservation problems
The impact of education and experience
Curiously, the survey also revealed that people with less education were more likely to attribute human features to animals, as well as people with more experience with animals – this last result contesting some of the traditional theories of anthropomorphism.
According to these theories, the tendency to anthropomorphy is linked to a lack of education or experience with animals. Although those who do not have relevant education or experience have hypotheses on other species, assuming that they are similar to humans in the absence of real knowledge, those who have relevant education or experience appreciate the real features of other species and are therefore less likely to associate them with human characteristics.
While the results of the study authors certainly confirm part of these anthropomorphism theories, they complicate the other, adding support to An alternative explanation These “urban” experiences with animals are associated with a higher trend to see similarities between animals and humans rather than weaker.
Indeed, it is possible that the participants in the study having more experience with animals are more likely to assign them human traits because they had interacted with them in urban areas – by the property of pets, recreational activities and consumption of the media – rather than in rural people, and therefore had experiences which favored a perception of similarity rather than an increased appreciation of real animals in nature.
In the end, the authors emphasize that anthropomorphism can have an impact on conservation both positively and negatively, because it can sometimes cause incorrect hypotheses on the characteristics of animals. They add that this can also lead to a preference to animals more easily anthropomorphized, or to creatures considered to be more “aesthetic” or “charismatic”.
“I think anthropomorphized species can be an effective approach, but it should be used with caution,” AMICI added in the press release. “Whatever the approach that the conservative differences adopt, I believe that it is essential to remain aware of the many cognitive and emotional biases that shape human perceptions of nature and other animals.”
Sources of articles
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com Use studies evaluated by high -quality peers and sources for our articles, and our publishers examine scientific precision and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Sam Walters is a journalist covering archeology, paleontology, ecology and the evolution of Discover, as well as an assortment of other subjects. Before joining the Discover team as a deputy editor in 2022, Sam studied journalism at the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
