STUDY: MAN MORE EMPATHETIC TOWARD MAN'S BEST FRIEND THAN HUMANS
Nov 02, 2017
By Bob Komsic
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Seems we have more empathy when it comes to our four-legged friends than our two-legged ones.
(dogtime.com)
Researchers wanted to know if people were more emotionally upset over reports of humans or dogs suffering abuse.
Study participants were given fictitious news reports about an unprovoked attack with a baseball bat.
Different versions of the report had the victim as either a one-year-old child, a 30-year-old man, a puppy or an adult dog.
More than 250 students were then asked questions to indicate their degree of empathy for each victim
Researchers found they were ”significantly less distressed when adult humans were victimized, in comparison with human babies, puppies and adult dogs.”
They discovered participants ”did not view their dogs as animals, but rather as ‘fur babies’, or family members alongside human children.”
The study by Northeastern University in Boston is published in the Society & Animals journal.