Are cats moral or amoral? Can a toad be sad? Take part in an academic survey which considers people’s attitudes towards animals.
Dr Emile van der Zee and Prof Todd Hogue from the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln have developed a questionnaire that measures people’s views on whether animals can think, have emotions, or feel pain.
Our attitudes towards animals are an important predictor for our thinking about animal welfare (do pigs need to roam freely when farmed?), how we interact with them (why do we pet cats but rarely snakes?), and what effects animals have on us (e.g., petting a dog slows your heart rate, and increases your levels of oxytocin, making you feel good).
There is an opportunity for you to participate in this research.
The attitudes towards animals questionnaire is available online. Apart from asking your opinion about the characteristics of certain animals, the research is aimed at finding out how these opinions arise. Do we have our opinions because of our age, our gender, our religion, etc.?
Please click on the following link http://bit.ly/animal-feelings if you are interested in participating. Whether you like animals or do not like them, your opinion is important to the study.