Attitudes Toward Animals: Origins and Diversity

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Abstract
It would be difficult to overestimate the significance of animals in the social and psychological life of our species. Images of animals are everywhere: in our language, religions, dreams, television programs, and folklore. The feelings that we exhibit toward our fellow creatures are intense, complex, and paradoxical. Responses to animals range from the disgust we feel when confronted with a bloated tick to the reverence for animals as deities in so-called primitive cultures; from the love of a child for a pet bunny to the paralyzing fear of phobic experiences when confronted by a harmless spider.In recent years there has been increasing interest in human-animal relationships by investigators from a variety of disciplines. We will not attempt a synthesis of the growing literature on attitudes toward animals, but will follow a different course. For the past decade we have been exploring the diversity and origins of human-animal relationships, and our research has taken us into some rather odd place...

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