Do people love dogs more than humans? Well, if you have one, it’s easy to understand why people love dogs so much. A study suggests that people care more about dogs than they do humans. The study was conducted by Jack Levine, Arnold Arluke, and Leslie Irvine. They wanted to understand why it is that some people care more about dogs than they do humans.
As such, they examined whether people are more emotionally disturbed by animal suffering or abuse, as opposed to human suffering or abuse. What do you think? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section.
The Experiment
Just so you know, no animals were hurt in carrying out this study. The participants were 256 Northeastern University undergraduates. They were exposed to fictitious news reports of animal and human abuse and were asked to indicate their degree of empathy for the victim. Victims ranged from children to human adults versus puppies to adult dogs.
Do People Love Dogs More Than Humans?
Participants who read the stories related to children, puppies, and adult dogs, exhibited more anguish and compassion than those who read the stories related to adults.
Findings indicate that age rather than species has an impact. Participants displayed more empathy for victims who were children, puppies and fully grown dogs. Not so much for the adult human victims.
Age made a difference when it came to human victims, but not in the case of dog victims. It was also found that female victims were more emphatic towards all the victims than their male counterparts.
The study suggests that people are more disturbed by dog suffering, regardless of the age of the dog, as opposed to human suffering.
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Why?
The researchers believe that this may be the case, because humans feel that animals are helpless when it comes to abuse, no matter the age of the animal. Children are also seen as helpless, but adults on the other hand are seen as having the ability to defend themselves.
When you think about it this way, it makes sense that people would be more empathetic to the suffering of children and dogs. What do you think?
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