The Relationship between Thing-Person Orientation and the Perception of Animals

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A tendency for people to perceive animals as being either thinglike or personlike is identified as a theme in the literature. It was hypothesized that this is related to an individual's differential orientation toward persons (P) and things (T), per Little's (1968, 1972, 1976) “specialization” theory. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses on data from 101 subjects revealed that females, generalists (high T and P), and person specialists (high P, low T) were more oriented toward animals than were males, non-specialists (low T and P), and thing specialists (high T, low P). More personalistic perceptions of animals were associated with females, individuals highly oriented toward animals, and individuals with an interest in people. Younger, female person specialists tended to favor different animals from those favored by younger, male thing specialists. The implications of these results for understanding animal-related conflicts, for policymakers, and for education initiatives are discussed.

This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit: